Beginning to lift heavy for women

[sassy75]

Hey all!

I just joined the forum today and I'd love some suggestions! I've been using a cross trainer for the last 4-5 months as my main mode of exercise, with little bits of weight/resistance training thrown in, maybe once or twice a week. I've realised that I need to cut down on my 5-6 crazy cross trainer workouts per week as they were burning me out and do some real weight/resistance training. But the problem I had was I only have 2 x 4kg & 2 x 8kg dumbbells and they weren't enough for me, at all, so I've now ordered a bench (just a bench) with a 92kg barbell and dumbbell set which should arrive tomorrow. I have asked my hubby to get me The New Rules of Lifting for Women for my stocking which I'm sure will help me know where to go from here.....but anyone have any "..been there, tried it all, this is what works best for me.." tips?

I want to lose a lot of fat and build lean muscle, so would love some suggestions on a typical routine for this? Or, is this too big an ask????

[Hermione Gainser]

I tried NROLFW and didn't care for it. The first stage was great and I saw real progress but myself and my workout buddy both noticed a decline during the second. HOWEVER, I've heard a few people on here have success with it. If nothing else, it has some good information. I think you'll find it very helpful in starting out. I did, at least.

I'm now doing Strong Lifts 5x5 and enjoying it a lot.

Resistance training/weight lifting will definitely help you achieve your goals. Just be careful of your diet, too. That's a good 80% of the battle. I recall reading you're a vegetarian (different thread) who is interested in paleo. I hope you've come across nomeatathlete.com. Lots of good info.

Otherwise, learn the lifts. Watch videos. Ask questions. Assess your form. Tape yourself.

And get on with your bad self.

[This is Seth]

Welcome to the forums! You are certainly in some good company, as we have the most bad ass set of heavy lifting women ever formed. They're like the justice league, but with more spandex and bigger quads.

That being said, take a few minutes to poke through the battle logs of some of our female members. They're all rocking some pretty big numbers and usually describe the program that they're using.

[Hermione Gainser]

Welcome to the forums! You are certainly in some good company, as we have the most bad ass set of heavy lifting women ever formed. They're like the justice league, but with more spandex and bigger quads.

HAHAHAHAHAHA That is freaking awesome!

That being said, take a few minutes to poke through the battle logs of some of our female members. They're all rocking some pretty big numbers and usually describe the program that they're using.

And a good call. I've been known to creep battle logs.

[HeathBar]

Hi there, I'm new to this site too and I'm looking to do the same. I got my diet under control using MFP but I'm kinda "skinny fat" now and would really like to build some serious strength. There is so much information out there it's hard to know where to start. I've been doing p90x and insanity off and on for a long time but I'm kinda getting bored of it.

[sassy75]

I tried NROLFW and didn't care for it. The first stage was great and I saw real progress but myself and my workout buddy both noticed a decline during the second. HOWEVER, I've heard a few people on here have success with it. If nothing else, it has some good information. I think you'll find it very helpful in starting out. I did, at least.

I'm now doing Strong Lifts 5x5 and enjoying it a lot.

Resistance training/weight lifting will definitely help you achieve your goals. Just be careful of your diet, too. That's a good 80% of the battle. I recall reading you're a vegetarian (different thread) who is interested in paleo. I hope you've come across nomeatathlete.com. Lots of good info.

Otherwise, learn the lifts. Watch videos. Ask questions. Assess your form. Tape yourself.

And get on with your bad self.

Awesome, this is why I love these forums, I had never heard of nomeatathlete.com so I'm going to have a proper read of that tonight! That's interesting that you stopped finding NROLFW a bit non-essential after a while, probably you were learning more from experience and others once you had the basics down, I'll keep that in mind for when I get it! It will be a good base for me to start with. Thanks again for the info, very helpful!!!

[Guest Carjack]

Weight lifting is the same for both men and women, except you won't get huge.

Without a squat rack, you'll need to do deadlifts, cleans, power curls, overhead presses, rows, etc.

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Saxon/DPP/dppintro.htm

http://www.maxalding.co.uk/Great Strength/gs-intro.htm

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Hackenschmidt/wtl/The%20Way%20To%20Live/album/index.html

Once you get reasonably strong and flexible, you can try a Steinborn lift to ass-to-grass Olympic squat, or just graduate to using a squat cage.

[sassy75]

Welcome to the forums! You are certainly in some good company, as we have the most bad ass set of heavy lifting women ever formed. They're like the justice league, but with more spandex and bigger quads.

That being said, take a few minutes to poke through the battle logs of some of our female members. They're all rocking some pretty big numbers and usually describe the program that they're using.

Haha, fantastic.....just so we're clear, you wont see me in spandex...not yet anyway!! Give me a few months and who knows! I just noticed the battle logs section of the forum so will give that a trawl at some point! Appreciate you replying to me!

[sassy75]

Hi there, I'm new to this site too and I'm looking to do the same. I got my diet under control using MFP but I'm kinda "skinny fat" now and would really like to build some serious strength. There is so much information out there it's hard to know where to start. I've been doing p90x and insanity off and on for a long time but I'm kinda getting bored of it.

Hey there, we can be newbies together! I am still overweight and didn't want to get to the skinny fat stage so want to start shaping up properly now. You're right there is so much information out there it's nice to get some personal experiences rather than just reading something on google so this place will no doubt send us in the right direction! I'm on MFP too and love it for logging and other resources, it's helped me get my food in order!! Good luck and add me as a friend if you like......not sure how to do that, we can cheer each other on!!! Good luck!!!

[HeathBar]

Hey there, we can be newbies together! I am still overweight and didn't want to get to the skinny fat stage so want to start shaping up properly now. You're right there is so much information out there it's nice to get some personal experiences rather than just reading something on google so this place will no doubt send us in the right direction! I'm on MFP too and love it for logging and other resources, it's helped me get my food in order!! Good luck and add me as a friend if you like......not sure how to do that, we can cheer each other on!!! Good luck!!!

Thanks! I added you as a friend on MFP.

[sassy75]

Weight lifting is the same for both men and women, except you won't get huge.

Without a squat rack, you'll need to do deadlifts, cleans, power curls, overhead presses, rows, etc.

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Saxon/DPP/dppintro.htm

http://www.maxalding.co.uk/Great Strength/gs-intro.htm

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Hackenschmidt/wtl/The%20Way%20To%20Live/album/index.html

Once you get reasonably strong and flexible, you can try a Steinborn lift to ass-to-grass Olympic squat, or just graduate to using a squat cage.

Wow, that is a great load of info. I've watched a couple of videos, unfortunately the sandowplus ones are banned over her for some ridiculous reason!! I can find links on youtube no doubt! I already do deadlifts, power curls and overhead presses etc, but will look at rows and power cleans. Thanks for all your advice it is massively appreciated!!!

[Hermione Gainser]

Awesome, this is why I love these forums, I had never heard of nomeatathlete.com so I'm going to have a proper read of that tonight! That's interesting that you stopped finding NROLFW a bit non-essential after a while, probably you were learning more from experience and others once you had the basics down, I'll keep that in mind for when I get it! It will be a good base for me to start with. Thanks again for the info, very helpful!!!

Score! Glad to help you find that. For me, I found the starting information really good. The lifts were more basic and it was a nice intro. After that it was a lot of movements and they just seemed... excessive. I wanted to simplify. And SL is bare bones (but effective). It sounds like it could be quite a good system with what you have for at home equipment (NROLFW, I mean).

[Guest Carjack]

If you're being blocked on your home computer, I can provide PDF versions of those books I linked to.

I have or can get:

The Way to Live by George Hackenschmidt: Gives advice for diets, lifestyle, beginning weightlifting and contest lifts.

The Development of Physical Power: Teaches Arthur Saxon's favorite lifts and advises on routines and warm ups.

Weight-lifting by Bob Hoffman: Has descriptions of 50 weight lifting exercises. You'll only need the basics in your first months though (squats, deadlifts, presses, cleans, rows, etc. A lot of lifting routines are better off when stripped down at first.)

Inch on Strength: Similar to Saxon and Hack books.

Great Strength by Muscle Control: Teaches varied cleans, snatches and overhead lifts with one or both hands. Also, guys posing nude with barbells.

Anything from http://ditillo2.blogspot.com

Be warned, it all comes down to eating protein, warming up to all heavy lifts by graduating from low rep sets with light weight, using correct form on big lifts, working hard but not to failure and resting when you need to.

[weirdquark]

Hey all!

I just joined the forum today and I'd love some suggestions! I've been using a cross trainer for the last 4-5 months as my main mode of exercise, with little bits of weight/resistance training thrown in, maybe once or twice a week. I've realised that I need to cut down on my 5-6 crazy cross trainer workouts per week as they were burning me out and do some real weight/resistance training. But the problem I had was I only have 2 x 4kg & 2 x 8kg dumbbells and they weren't enough for me, at all, so I've now ordered a bench (just a bench) with a 92kg barbell and dumbbell set which should arrive tomorrow. I have asked my hubby to get me The New Rules of Lifting for Women for my stocking which I'm sure will help me know where to go from here.....but anyone have any "..been there, tried it all, this is what works best for me.." tips?

I want to lose a lot of fat and build lean muscle, so would love some suggestions on a typical routine for this? Or, is this too big an ask????

I also did NRoLfW, and I finished the entire program. Some bits I liked a lot, others dragged a bit, and I didn't notice a decline in strength in the later stages -- I didn't always know what weights to start at, but I just kept adding weight each workout. I think it's a good starting program, though if you want to do heavy lifts, it's not for you. But you can make good strength gains on it.

I actually mixed it up a bit -- I have two days a week where I have lots of time for lifting but not three, and a few of the workouts took longer than I had on that third day, so I had some stages where I would do the NRoLfW program two days a week and then I did heavy lifts on the third day. And having finished the program, like Laura, I've switched to StrongLifts 5x5 and am having fun with it.

You might also want to check out New Rules of Lifting for Abs -- it has a bigger focus on core strength (the author had back injury problems) and they think it's an improvement over NRoLfW. It's still a lot of mid-rep sets of dumbbell exercises, but it has a little more focus on heavy lifts, and I like the core focused exercises that it has more than the NRoLfW workouts.

[This is Seth]

Did someone link to this yet?

http://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/nm1fu/ama_sometimes_i_wear_skirts_to_lift/

You might find that interesting, as she is rather awesome.

[Hermione Gainser]

Did someone link to this yet?

http://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/nm1fu/ama_sometimes_i_wear_skirts_to_lift/

You might find that interesting, as she is rather awesome.

AH! I knew I forgot something yesterday... Awesome to read, though!

[icesk8rca]

This is all awesome info! I want to start doing heavy lifting. As of now I am only doing body weight exercises and am getting bored. The lbs are dropping but I think I'll benefit way more from heavy. You all have given me lots of info to search about since I know NOTHING about these lifts, I have never heard of "cleans". Thanks!!!

[maegs]

I'm doing Starting Strength right now, it's working well for me. (official website, wiki). I haven't actually gotten the book yet, since I just made the transition from poor student to unemployed, but the wiki is really useful. There's a logbook calculator somewhere on it where you can put in the weights you used on the first day (when you figure out what you can actually lift) and it'll calculate how much you should lift for all your warmup sets and work sets for 24 workouts. That's made it really easy.

And cleans? Cleans are awesome. I always feel like a BAMF when I do them

[This is Seth]

ice skater : check the warriors guild knowledge base for a place to start reading up on lifting heavy things.

[icesk8rca]

Awesome, thanks Seth!