Lisa - sometimes I grab another weight, of if I have a dumbbell lying around I put it next to the bar to stop it from rolling. I learned that trick after I nearly tripped over a bar that had gone merrily rolling away! D:
Krampus - I wouldn't be surprised if you're already seeing changes!!
I mentioned it earlier, but they got these bodyweight bars at my gym. After being shown how to use them I've sort of become the official person who shows off the new toy. I realized that while I can do the bodyweight exercises with ease now, that there is no way I would have been able to do them a year ago. Women who used to be able to lift heavier than I were having trouble doing the exercises!
It just goes to show how far I've come.
Also I'm in the middle of a giant declutter because my room looks like it's from horders. I can't believe how many clothes I accumulated throughout the years and it was interesting to see how far I've come. I definitely am keeping one pair just to remind myself. Being strong is coming in handy because I don't need to call for my brother to help me move the furniture!
I BOUGHT SIZE 4 PANTS YESTERDAY. I can't drink too much water or eat a large meal in them but soon, soon they'll feel totally natural.
Got cardio in before work this morning. Will do weights this evening! Looking to up my lat pulldown game, 50 lbs felt too easy last time (I started at 40).
I was right, 60 lb on the lat pull down was good! i can bench press 50 comfortably (40 HURT 2 weeks ago). Bent over row is getting stronger too. Biceps...still ehhh.
OK, discovered by accident today: I can do a pistol squat!
I was talking with a fit friend of mine this evening & mentioned pistol squats. He said, "What's a pistol squat?" I said, "Well, I can't really do one, but it kind of goes like--" *to my amazement, I bust out a pistol squat* "Well, ok, like that."
I'm going to give NROL4W the credit for this one, because I tried back in January to do one & couldn't. I'm getting better leg strength than I expected on this program, and the balance moves (which I normally find a little annoying, honestly-- you can't pull as much weight when you're also trying to balance!) apparently have their place, too.
Took the (long...) weekend off lifting (lifted M and W last week). Thrilled to find I could lift heavier today than I could on Wednesday - went up 10 lb on bench press (50 to 60) and 10 lb on lat pull down (70! more than half my body weight!). The progress really is exponential. Now I need to get stricter about a PROGRAM vs just doing the same 4 exercises over and over again...
The scale is dipping a bit low for my tastes and several people are asking me if I'm eating. I've decided that I've put this off enough and it's time to start trying to gain some muscle. It's weird actually, as I've been at the loss/maintenance stage for a while now.
I ate about 2500 calories today (all good stuff!) and I certainly feel it! I know that probably won't be enough to gain anything substantial, but I'll have to work up to to it. I also wouldn't mind losing fat while simultaneously losing muscle instead.
I remember reading about some female lifters having trouble keeping weight on and I'm wondering if weight training really makes it so you can eat A LOT without gaining. I'm also wondering if this is why I didn't gain weight years ago when I began weight training despite eating a lot.
It's funny...as soon as I slip up on my eating and eat under 2000 I lose. It's quite easy to eat under that if the day doesn't go as planned.
I remember reading about some female lifters having trouble keeping weight on and I'm wondering if weight training really makes it so you can eat A LOT without gaining. I'm also wondering if this is why I didn't gain weight years ago when I began weight training despite eating a lot.
It's funny...as soon as I slip up on my eating and eat under 2000 I lose. It's quite easy to eat under that if the day doesn't go as planned.
I have been upping and upping and upping my calories since I started really focusing in on the heavy lifting in early January, trying to keep my weight at 125. The last few weeks I've been eating 2300-2500 calories on workout days and 2000-2200 on non-workout days, and this seems to be a good level for now.
I'm quite skeptical as to how much the weight training in and of itself is causing me to need more calories, but I can say that since the beginning of the year, I have developed non-stop energy. I am constantly moving around; I go running for the sheer joy of it; I think nothing of walking 10 miles or more in a day. This side effect I think I actually can attribute both to the weight lifting and to the fact that more food = more fuel = more energy = expend more energy = need more fuel = lather, rinse, & repeat.
Never thought this'd happen to me, and BY GUM, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Last edited by sumire; 04-30-2012 at 09:00 PM.
Reason: typo
I'm quite skeptical as to how much the weight training in and of itself is causing me to need more calories, but I can say that since the beginning of the year, I have developed non-stop energy. I am constantly moving around; I go running for the sheer joy of it; I think nothing of walking 10 miles or more in a day. This side effect I think I actually can attribute both to the weight lifting and to the fact that more food = more fuel = more energy = expend more energy = need more fuel = later, rinse, & repeat.
Never thought this'd happen to me, and BY GUM, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Oh my goodness you could have described my life now! Ever since I kept upping my calories when I hit my goal weight I have had nonstop energy!! I DO walk a lot during the day as I'm a teacher, but there are some days I don't but I can't sit at my desk so I walk around randomly at school or go for walks on my lunch hour
I'm also going to enjoy this while it lasts I never ever thought I would have this issue in my life.
Oh my goodness you could have described my life now! Ever since I kept upping my calories when I hit my goal weight I have had nonstop energy!! I DO walk a lot during the day as I'm a teacher, but there are some days I don't but I can't sit at my desk so I walk around randomly at school or go for walks on my lunch hour
I'm also going to enjoy this while it lasts I never ever thought I would have this issue in my life.
I know, right! Some days I have a low appetite and I feel like I'm just having to shovel the food in against my will. I complained to hubby about this recently: "Ugh, I don't want to eat anything right now, but I have to. I feel like I'm having to eat constantly. It's kind of a pain sometimes." He laughed and told me, "That may be the most first-world problem I have ever heard."
I am so inspired by this. Keep talking about eating more and still losing fat!
Just curious, I know this isn't a p!ss!ing contest or anything, but how heavy did you guys start out lifting/how heavy do you lift now? I am a very very weak n00b at the weight room.
Right now I do:
25 lb for bent-over row (will probably "graduate" soon)
60 lb bench press machine
70 lb lat pulldown machine
bar + 20 lb barbell bicep curl
haven't started squats/deadlifts with barbells because I'm chicken
Just curious, I know this isn't a p!ss!ing contest or anything, but how heavy did you guys start out lifting/how heavy do you lift now? I am a very very weak n00b at the weight room.
Right now I do:
25 lb for bent-over row (will probably "graduate" soon)
60 lb bench press machine
70 lb lat pulldown machine
bar + 20 lb barbell bicep curl
haven't started squats/deadlifts with barbells because I'm chicken
Completely realistically--this is not me being a cheerleader--you are not very, very weak. When I started doing weight machines about 21 months ago, I had to do my lat pulls at 10 pounds. No, I wasn't doing a million reps, I was doing 8, and I was shaky as heck when I was done. I distinctly remember the first time I used the chest fly machine, I put the pin at 10 pounds, tried, and could not do a single rep. I removed the pin, did 8 reps at 0 pounds (I guess I was just moving the weight of the apparatus itself, lol), then replaced the pin at 30 pounds, hoping no one had seen me, and walked away, my cheeks burning with shame. So, just putting things in perspective.
I don't do some of the exercises you list, but I did happen to do dumbbell bent-over rows yesterday (45 pounds), and my lat pulls are currently at 90 pounds (lat pulls, as suggested above, have always been weak for me, though I haven't done myself any favors by not doing them often until NROL4W forced me to).
Once you do barbell squats/deadlifts one time, I think the nervousness will go away. I was chicken for a long time, too, but after my first workout for each, it wasn't a big deal anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by valalltogether
hey everyone..
just bought the book new rules of lifting for women. excited to get started with it...
Good luck! I've enjoyed it so far, and I'm getting good strength results.
I started out very weak. I could barely lift 5lb weights and when I began my weight training class I was having trouble with lifting 25lbs!! It took me a long time to progress only because I was lazy and didn't try increasing right away. When I consciously put effort into increasing my weights then I made some quick and awesome progress.
I don't do most of the exercises you listed, but here's what I do/remember:
Hey, was wondering if I could jump in here. Did my first day of weight-lifting today and I guess I'm kinda sorta a feather now?!?
I admit I've been lurking in this thread for a while. I've wanted to get into lifting heavy for months and my school has a good deal on personal training sessions, but a bunch of wires got crossed and it took almost a month for me to get started. But things went pretty well I think.
My biggest concern was form, since I really don't want to hurt myself. When I've done bodyweight stuff in the past I've had issues with my knee and I know a lot of it comes from doing this just a little off. So it was nice to have someone there to go 'chest back!' when I was wavering. One surprise for me was I could really tell right away when something was a little off, even if I didn't know how to fix it, which I never really felt without the extra weight.
We did a basic overview today, squats, bench press, deadlifts, bent row, and military presses (though the plan is to split that into days), and wow I could really feel a difference between my upper and lower body strength. My trainer wasn't really pushing to see how far I could go, so we would do a set with the bar then add 20 lbs, and that was fine for the lower body stuff, but I understand now what lift to failure means after doing that with the bench press Haha, and we didn't end up adding as much/any for the other upper body stuff, cause the bar was more than enough. I think today was the first time I ever really felt my chest muscles and I'm a little worried about how I'm going to feel tomorrow...
Quote:
Originally Posted by sontaikle
If I had a spot it would be so much easier to do the last three. I know that I can lift more than that over my head.
Ah, I was kinda wondering about. I guess when you are on your own you (obviously) lower the weight and maybe add a few reps? I wouldn't even know where to start asking for a spotter.
Haha, and we didn't end up adding as much/any for the other upper body stuff, cause the bar was more than enough. I think today was the first time I ever really felt my chest muscles and I'm a little worried about how I'm going to feel tomorrow...