Got a hurdle in my road to awesomeness....fear of hurting oneself.

[Sacculina]

Just don't know what to do and am at a loss. I want to start weight training because when I was in high school, that was my FAVORITE activity. Whenever we would go into the weight lifting room, I was in hog heaven. Unfortunately, it's been well over ten years and my teachers never really showed us how to do anything. I've been staring at youtube video instructions and those that are posted here, but I simply am just a bit scared to try. Deadlifts and overhead presses....scare the utmost crap out of me. Oh yes, I'll admit it. I am a weakling. My status as "muscles" in my family has now been demoted to "sorry ass weakling" since I've graduated from college. Cruel, huh? It has also gone from chubby to having the doctor tell me that at the tender age of 25, I need to do something or I might not live to be 50. 'doh!

My question is: How do you start building yourself up to do overhead presses and deadlifts when you can barely hold on to the bar? I do military presses with a 7.5lb dumbbell with relative ease now. I am going to go up to 10lbs tonight. Should I continue with military presses and bench presses (with dumbbell) until I can use the bar?

I know that my squats need to be really focused on. I tend to favor my left knee due to an injury a LONG time ago. Doctor said that all I need to do is work it out. I was thinking about doing step-ups to help strengthen my legs, but would that be overkill? I would do lunges, but they make me limp the next day which probably means that my form sucks or I'm just that bad off.

Sorry for all the questions. I am currently building on my own routine since I am one of those professional students with no money to be able to purchase Steve's guides. My current routine is:

Warm up for 10 minutes

Body squats (going for 3 reps of 10 tonight...dun dun dun DUUUUN!)

Military presses

dumbbell bench press

very assisted pull ups (going to do inverted rows tonight instead)

Ball crunches (to appease my sister, but I abhor doing them)

Stretching

Eventually, I want to add overhead presses, deadlifts, push-ups, and intervals (on my off days). I just have to get over the hurdle of being terrified that I am going to hurt myself. I am going to try the inverted row tonight which will be the one thing that scares me as well. I want to be able to show my family that I am back in the game and can still kick some ass.

Not so secretly, I want to be like Spezzy. Her story has inspired me...now just to get on with it.

[andygates]

Welcome back to hog heaven.

You've done the hard bit, deciding to do it. And I think you're already there with your plans: dumbbell presses until you're moving as much as an unloaded bar, then upgrade; bodyweight squats until you've got the moves sorted, then stick an unloaded bar on your back (start with a light bar like a broomhandle if you have to get the flexibility in place). Don't worry too much about death by deadlifts: it's just picking stuff up off the floor, really. The Romanian deadlift (start at the top, lower and raise) is a handy alternative while you work on flexibility if that's a problem.

[Sacculina]

Awesome. I like knowing that I am on track. It's the perfectionist in me. I forgot about the Romanian deadlift. I need to look into that. Thanks!

[Guest Carjack]

Dumbbell training is effective no matter what anyone says.

Dumbbell presses and goblet squats until you feel comfortable under the bar.

[Sacculina]

Okay. I think I am going to stick with dumbbells and medicine balls until I can lift up the bar without fear. I'll look up the goblet squats. Sounds like something else I can add to my routine.

[WizardTrip]

andygates has some great advice. I'm a newbie with this stuff (less than 6 months), so follow more experienced people's overall advice, but for the dumbbell thing, I will 100% agree with carjack! I have been doing the below routine for ~3-4 months now and love it! (the link is not to lead away from NF, but I really do like it :-) :

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/dumbbell-only-home-or-gym-fullbody-workout.html

Honestly, I picked this routine because my condo's gym only has dumbbells and it may be until Feb until I can get into a "proper" gym for some barbell stuff. For the dumbbell step ups, I substitute goblet squats, and I now LOVE goblet squats!!

On the other stuff, do not be afraid! I am 6'3 and 250lbs and had forced myself to have no fear at starting at low weights. Yes, this was an ego breaking thing for me, but it was also the safe thing for me since I had NO idea what I could handle and couldn't. Start slow and low, and build up!

[js290]

My question is: How do you start building yourself up to do overhead presses and deadlifts when you can barely hold on to the bar? I do military presses with a 7.5lb dumbbell with relative ease now. I am going to go up to 10lbs tonight. Should I continue with military presses and bench presses (with dumbbell) until I can use the bar?

http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?page_id=301

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt7A23YnpA

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyF--C0r8PI

[oystergirl]

Saccy, fear of hurting oneself is something I live with every day because I had lyme disease and after you are treated it leaves you with arthritis and loose joints and if I do anything stressful I am set back months. That doesnt mean I cant kick a workout in the butt. I would suggest going onto the free resources page here and picking up the beginners workout and doing it faithfully for about 4 weeks. You might feel you are above these exercises in your fitness level but what is important is for you to build confidence and doing simple body weight exercises will do just that. I have been amazed at the results. Just doing these exercises 3 days a week and doing dance type intervals (50/10 x 12 on the timer and using simple dance moves like we used to do in aerobics) I have lost 5 pounds in a week and over 15.75 inches in my full body measurements. My daughter who is 15 and started has lost 25.25 inches! They work~

Best of luck in your journey and eventually you will be able to do all the exercises you want to do as long as you listen to your intuition and research as much as you can.

[Hermione Gainser]

You've already got some great advice here. Starting with body weight and dumbbells is a great way to get started (and effective). Before I started deadlifting with the olympic barbell I tried out the form with those set weight barbells they have in some gyms. If you have access to that go ahead and try that, too. They have them as light as 20 lbs.

If you're worried about form the videos above are great but you can also look into getting Starting Strength . It is a great instructional guide on lifts.

And for help with flexibility: www.mobilitywod.com Brilliant site.

[Guest Snake McClain]

i just have to say. the guy in that second video is a freaking MONSTER! they just punished that guy like he stole that coaches girlfriend.

[scott82962]

If you really get into this you're probably going to hurt yourself. On the other hand if you never started you would still probably have hurt yourself. The difference is now you'll recover faster and be motivated to work through an injury as opposed to be held hostage by it.

I hurt myself all the time! But I know the difference between the big hurts (only two in a lot of years of lifting) and the little hurts (more than two!). The little ones are addressed with ibuprofen or aleve; the big ones with rest and changing the plan. I've never quit because of an injury and you probably won't either. Lifting weights and being strong/getting stronger is who you are!

[Sacculina]

If you really get into this you're probably going to hurt yourself. On the other hand if you never started you would still probably have hurt yourself. The difference is now you'll recover faster and be motivated to work through an injury as opposed to be held hostage by it.

I hurt myself all the time! But I know the difference between the big hurts (only two in a lot of years of lifting) and the little hurts (more than two!). The little ones are addressed with ibuprofen or aleve; the big ones with rest and changing the plan. I've never quit because of an injury and you probably won't either. Lifting weights and being strong/getting stronger is who you are!

The little hurts aren't what scare me. I have a ridiculously high pain tolerance, so I can handle most of it. I am just afraid that I will really hurt myself since I didn't do something correctly and then end up hunched in pain for weeks or months. That's nothing that I want to experience.