Hi all,

I'm trying to get serious about building some muscle, but I do, of course, have a couple of questions. (How is it that men seem to know intuitively about weight training and that women--or at least, this woman--are completely clueless from the get-go???). I met with a personal trainer at my Y a couple of weeks ago, but I really don't feel that she provided me with much more knowledge than I already had, and she wasn't as forthcoming about working with free weights as I would have liked.

I spent a few hours last night reading about lifting and watching internet videos of people doing squats, and practicising the form. I did some this morning while walking my dog, before I went to the gym. I easily did 2 sets of 12 without weights (although I can feel it in my quads and gluts tonight) and I'm curious about doing them at the gym. As a general rule, I don't do any exercising outside the gym, so I would, on the whole, prefer to do them at the gym with the rest of my workout. However, I would feel like a great big dork doing squats at the gym without weights! So my question is this: Is adding weight to the squat something a relatively unmuscular-but-fit woman can do without making an *** of herself??? Should I march into the gym, pick up the lightest possible weight-bar-thingy and have at it, or would I be better spending a couple of weeks doing them at home without any weights at all?

Thanks for your advice!

The trouble with this whole muscle-building-malarkey, it seems to me, is that it gets *more* complicated the more research one does, rather than less. It's quite the paradox!

Baffled -- You WILL the get the hang of all this information overload in no time, it just seems like a lot at first... and you're so willing to learn and that's refreshing... Sometimes I wish I were there to show you around the gym ...

Don't worry about doing the squat in the gym with no weights, it's no body's business but your own... I remember starting with no weights because just getting the form down right is an art in itself, plus you don't want to hurt your back by adding weight too quickly... I remember using just a broom stick, then a weighted bar that they used in the aerobic room/class, then progressed to 10#, and in no time I was using the 45# bar in the squat rack... So take your time there is NO rush...

Baffled,

I'll let you in on a secret. This stuff isn't any more intuitive for men. It's just that we hide it better and don't ask questions. It's sort of like asking for directions. It's against our nature. Of course, we often end up driving in circles in the gym as much as on the road, but eventually we get there (and we get there on OUR terms, Dammit!)

As for the squats, Ilene gave great advice.

As for looking like a dork:
1. Fewer people notice what you are doing than you think.
2. Sadly, in many gyms, if someone looks at you funny because you are doing unweighted squats, it is often because they haven't seen someone actually do a squat in their gym for quite sometime.
3. Most experienced lifters would be more impressed that someone is taking the time to learn and perfect this complex/compound exercise regardless of the amount of weight used. As for the those few ego lifters who may think unweighted squats are beneath them, don't worry about them. They are too busy posing in the mirrors to notice you.

Depalma's right -- men don't have any more idea how to lift weights intuitively than women do, but they act like they were born knowing what to do. And try telling them differently, especially if you're female!! Once you're confident that you know what you're doing, you'll look around the gym and realize that 80-90% of the people there are clueless or just plain doing exercises incorrectly. Lat pulldowns are probably the #1 exercise done incorrectly - just stand and watch what people do there sometime. You'll have to avert your eyes!

Nailing your squat form down so it's perfect before you start adding weight is an excellent idea. A couple of ideas for the gym: use an exercise ball and do squats with the ball behind your back and then, when you're ready to add weight, go with light DBs. You don't need to jump into a 45# bar right away. When you're ready to try a bar, hopefully your gym has some lighter weight body bars. My gym has 12#, 17# etc. And we have a 35# BB. So you can comfortably progress up to the 45# bar.

Have fun with squats! They're my #1 favorite exercise.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll give the weightless squats a couple of weeks and then I'll hunt around for a moderately light bar and start with that.

As for your sociological comments, I've never seen anyone doing squats of any kind at my gym, actually (in part, this is probably because I usually go around noon, when most of the patrons are older people doing light cardio), so you're probably right that no one would pay any attention to my doing unweighted squats. Also, they gym is pretty empty that time of day, and the trainers don't have much to do, so it's possible that if I'm doing it all wrong, one of them would come and give me some advice, which would be nice.

And yeah, I realize that men usually have no idea what they're doing (and this goes for outside the gym, as well as inside it) but many of them do seem to know quite a bit more about weight training than the average girl. By the same token, I was using the tricep pull-down-thingy for the first time the other day, and making a hash out of it--I couldn't remember the form the PT had showed me--and the giant muscle guy working next to me stepped over to help me with my form. He reminded me, rightly, that I am supposed to keep my upper arms by my body, and then was quite insistent that I should hunch over while I'm doing the exercise. I was quite sure the trainer had told me to stand up properly, so I ignored this pearl of wisdom! Then, of course, he started to show off, telling me that I had to do very complicated things with reps and different weights for different sets. I ignored this, too. I think I'm allowed to just to 3 sets of 10 with the same weight before I start getting all complicated about things. I also have a natural mistrust of advice from very muscley-men. I know women don't bulk up easily, but I still suspect that a woman starting out with weights has different needs than some giant muscley guy. And also, I don't trust them to be helping me out of disinterested benevolence instead of showing off and hoping they have a chance

(Excuse the rambling. I'm evidently feeling very long-winded this morning!)

baffled -- I don't really have any wisdom to add, but I'm enjoying reading your insights about the gym!!!