Hi ladies,
I just stated this week and this is a ridiculous question, but does the squat in workout one just mean a normal squat? Are you supposed to use a barbell in stage one? I didn't find the book very clear.
Thanks!
Unless otherwise stated, squat always means barbell squat--all the other forms are variations of the original back squat. BUT, you need to be doing as much as you can do: if body weight squats are hard work for you, start with those, or grab a lighter barbell, or load up an olympic barbell. It's all about what pushes you.
ETA: (Body weight squats are a kind of precursor to regular bb squats. Kind of like incline pushups for regular pushups.)
DesertTabby: Remember with squats, go deep. With lunges, go long - stagger your legs. With step-ups, go high. And remember to engage the glutes by squeezing your butt muscle at the top of the contraction in each of thoses exercises so you focus on the butt and not so much on the legs. Glute activation is crucial in NROL4W. I didn't really start paying attention to engaging my glutes until about a month ago and what a difference! My glutes are still a work-in-progress but I'm seeing improvement after just 4 weeks. I also felt like I was eating too much at first as well but you'll get used to it. And 45 seconds is awesome for a beginner! That ability will come in handy when by stage 5, you're doing a 2-minute plank.
I did my first work out for real (I had gone through 2 practice runs with pretty low weights last week) on Friday. I found a private section of my gym used for personal training and they said I can use it as long as no one is being trained. woo hoo! I feel so much less self-conscious in there while I am learning all the moves. All the equipment is there except for the lat-pulldown, and the dumbbells go up to 25 lbs so I think I can use this room for a while. I started with 10 lbs in each arm for most exercises - 25 each for the cable-rows - but I was down to body weight on the step-ups by the end (BIG step; total jelly legs, I had run some intervals earlier - NOT going to make that mistake again!) It felt great! I was wiped out by the end.
I have been experimenting with finding more ways to get protein in - I made a chocolate tofu pudding last week and added protein powder to it - so good! Also made "protein ballz" as a quick snack. Made a pumpkin/white bean chili with soy protein crumbles. Lots of Greek yogurt.
I still didn't manage to get my calories up high enough - maybe 1600-1700? I was averaging 1200-1400 before, and I eat such filling foods already that this will continue to be a challenge.
So - I am going to bring up the topic of weight loss question one last time then I will drop the subject. This is especially for sumire and fitmom, who are the same height as I am and are at the weight I used to be until I hit my mid-30s (though I was not terribly strong, I ran and did yoga...). I gained nearly 30 lbs very quickly about 3 years ago. Long story short, after "working on this" for 3 years, I am back up again in the last few months.
I am not attached to seeing some arbitrary number on the scale but realistically, I don't think any amount of muscle-building alone is going to get me back into the 90% of my clothes that don't fit right now. I can't afford to buy an entire new professional wardrobe .
I guess I don't fully understand the process of building muscle & eating at maintenance calories. If I start now, bigger/heavier than I would like to be, will I just build muscle and ~maintain my weight at this higher level? Vs. if I lost weight (presumably muscle as well as fat) first and THEN started to weight-train, would I build muscle at that new lighter point and continue to get smaller as I tighten up?
Such a long way of getting at the question of: how do you ever lose weight if you are strength training?
I really appreciate any insight. I am already on board with this weightlifting program, so I won't stop either way.
You will lose weight/inches/body fat. You need to focus on 80% diet and the other 20% is going to be following the program. I had a different situation than you because I was 114 lbs. when starting the program and underweight for my height. I gained 10 lbs. on purpose and my waist size remained constant (meaning that the gains were all muscle). When I retook my measurements recently, I discovered that I still managed to lose a 1/2" off each thigh and 1" off my waist without even really trying. If you just did cardio and no weight training, you'd lose weight but still be flabby. The weight training allows you to lose weight and sculpt some nice muscles IMO. It sounds like we might be in the same age group too. If someone had told me that at my age and after having two kids, I could possibly be in better shape than I was in my twenties, I wouldn't have believed them, lol. My only regret is that I didn't start way sooner than I did. My fear always stopped me. You will succeed. I know you can do it!
EmmaD: The way I understand it, when you first start weight training, you have a window of about 6 months in which you can build muscle more easily than someone who has been training for a while. If you eat above maintenance, you're going to build more; if you eat at maintenance, you're still likely to build some, if you're working hard enough & eating enough protein; and if you eat at a deficit, you still might get a little bit of newbie gains, though probably not a lot.
It's easier to keep muscle than it is to build it. So if you're eating a moderate deficit, getting enough protein, and doing strength training, you should be able to minimize muscle loss. Sadly, of course, it's even easier to lose it than to keep it... so being careful about these things when dieting down is a good idea.
You probably know all this, of course. I guess it comes down to the question of how long you can / will wait. I wonder sometimes if I would have been better off if I had spent the first ~6 months of my weight loss journey eating more at a maintenance level and really focusing in on strength training, to maximize muscle gain, and then trying to lose the fat. But if my body fat estimations are to be believed, in losing ~42 pounds over the course of a year, I didn't lose any lean body mass; in fact, it appears that I might have built a pound or two. So eating at a reasonable deficit led to what I think was a pretty good outcome, all things considered.
Either way, I think you're going to get smaller. You'll get smaller faster while carefully eating at a deficit, but if you're not happy with the body you have when you're done, it's a bit of an uphill battle from there. I think I'm seeing a little bit of muscle gain / fat loss so far in NROLFW, but it's really going to take time for me. You'll get smaller slower while eating at maintenance, but once you're done, if you want to lose more fat, you may end up happier at a higher weight, with more muscle, than you would have otherwise.
EmmaD: I thought I'd add--since I saw you in a Featherweights thread worrying over weight gain since you've started the program--that since you've just started strength training, your muscles are almost certainly retaining some water while they repair themselves. My weight jumps a bit after any new or particularly hard strength training workout. When I start a new program, my clothes are temporarily a bit tighter, too-- again, because your muscles are retaining water and are slightly swollen while they repair themselves. (This is also the reason why many gals freak out after a single weight lifting session, decide they have already become "too bulky," and quit. ) I really do recommend giving it a little time & patience!
EmmaD: I second what Sumire said. Also, you may notice that your muscles look a little fuller ("the pump") after a weight training session, it's because you're retaining water. I thought when I first started that I was gaining muscles from the get-go, not so. It does take a while to start seeing visible results. Just keep that in mind. I weigh myself twice a month and that's it. Try not to be a slave to the scale, easier said than done - I know. Your mirror and how your clothes fit are better indicators of how you're doing IMO.
I did my second "real" workout last night and I am sooo sore behind my shoulder blades. That is most likely due to all the shoulder issues I have anyway. But I ended up doing the pull-overs instead of the lat pulldowns and they were hard! With only 8 lbs/arm... yep, I'm starting low.
Oh and I have also been doing the squats & deadlifts with dumbbells! Holding them in a position like a barbell. I will have to brave the "real" weight room with the sweaty boys so I can use a barbell (the bar only, presumably).
Re: my weight, it is more of just a curiosity at this point what will happen. So I'll keep weighing to track what happens, but I am more focused on building strength/muscle than I am on just losing weight (because honestly, maybe it's the point of my life that I am in now - late 30s - but the just "losing weight" part isn't really working out for me!) I'll be really sad if I don't ever fit into my nice clothes again, but maybe that is just the way it is... I am really bummed out about my body changing so much recently, but I have to accept it and do the best I can with what I have to work with now.
The eating at maintenance may be moot in the end, as I haven't yet been able to eat enough! I have focused on getting plenty of protein but overall I am not eating enough calories. It's weird, I have never had this problem before.
I have about 2 more weeks until I am done with Stage 1. I did my first workout A of 3 sets of 10. KICKED MY BUTT! I was able to move up in weight, but the extra set was killer. I was also moving pretty quickly between exercises since I have a limited amount of time in the morning. Eep! I've got to start studying up no the exercises for Phase 2 since some of them are unfamiliar to me.
Emma D - I also just finished my second work out and used dumb bells instead of the barbell for squats..I just felt to embarrassed to grad to barbell in the 'man room'. I realize that is silly!
It's good to hear a little gain is normal, I'm up to 138 (from 135) and my pants feel tighter not looser. It is kinda freaking me out..so much that I'm also like maybe I should cut my calories and go back to just cardio...but I'm going to stick it out.
I'm also exhausted!! I don't know if that has anything to do with the weight lifting of if my iron is just low.
EmmaD: Go you! I was intimidated, too, to start lifting on the "guys' floor" in my gym, but I faked confidence for a while, and most of the time now I do actually feel confident. Even when I do something goofy, like yesterday, when I thwacked myself in the chin with a barbell during the front squat/push press. (Heads up, everybody: look out for that pitfall in stage 2, haha. )
fitmom: Yay! You've done so well. I'll be curious to see how stage 6 goes for you. It's the one that I'm really looking forward to (though I am also looking forward to stage 3/5 for the one-arm dumbbell snatches, which look cool).
LindsB: I loved the last 2 weeks of stage 1! It's so satisfying to up those weights.
LisaTcan: Keep plugging away! And get plenty of rest. I needed it at the beginning of stage 1, and again here at the beginning of stage 2.
Still plugging away on stage 2. Everything going well.
A couple of days ago I had hubby take some progress photos. Did occasional photos (sports bra/undies) starting in mid-March of last year, when I began P90X. It's funny, every time I did new photos & put them side by side to compare to the originals, I was really disappointed. I didn't see many changes, even as the tape measure was telling me that I was getting smaller...
...Until this time, when my brain finally decided to recognize all the changes that have been happening all along. I can even see them in past pictures now. It was like my brain just filtered them out before. So crazy. Maybe it's because I hadn't taken photos in a long time--about 6 months, I think. At any rate, I was thrilled to notice how my remaining tummy fat is melting away, my arm fat melting away, my shoulders & upper back getting broader, giving me that nice V-taper look, and even my thighs looking way slimmer. My thighs are my tough spot--saddlebags, lots of cellulite on the back, etc--but they're really starting to get there.
So I'm inspired to continue being patient & let my body slowly reshape itself.
Sumire: The cellulite and saddlebags will go away. The intervals will attack them, so to speak. You're doing awesome! And the one-armed DB snatch is fun to do. I took progress photos recently too and definitely saw a difference from when I started. Before I only saw slight differences.
LindsB: I used to look over the exercises too before each stage to get familiar with them. It does help so you're not constantly flipping through the book.
I was at Dick's today and was eyeing some heavier dumbbells for when the time comes and a heavier kettlebell too. I didn't buy them because I'm not quite at that point just yet. Have to be patient.
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