You will not get bulky! And you might gain weight... but you might want to look like this girl...
[url=http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/]Meet Staci: Your New Powerlifting Super Hero | Nerd Fitness[/url]
Sweeeeeeeet
She's amazing!
Oh, lord, lucky gal! The beginning of my story is absolutely the same: lost stubborn post-pregnancy weight on CW and intervals, got miserable after ~ 1 year of maintaining it on CW, started heavy lifting/low carb dieting, tried anabolic diet, went into primal later + IF. I have no fear of barbell, I WANT big muscules, have been training for over a year now.
But my results just not there. My lifts stalled, and when I tried to gain weight (gained 12 lbs, from 122 lbs to 134 lbs) to 'bulk up' I gained 75% fat, and my lifts barely went up. I am still struggling to lose the bulk (since January! sitting at ~ 125 lbs), and lost all the measly 4 lbs of muscule I manage to add right back. :(
I wish I knew what the problem was and why fat just doesn't go away. I am trying to do 2 lifting workouts with the barbell now, 1 kettlebell workout and then do HIIT and walking on all other days of the week to mobilize that stubborn fat.
I do not want spectacular 'contest-ready' results, I just want to get to the point when i put on the swimsuit and look like I lift weights, not look like I am 'you are not fat'.
Wow amazing story, just the thing I needed to read today.
Awwww ... I love Nerd Fitness - great site.
Lol, I posted a link at the dieting site, and a girl goes like: "Wow, so inspring, I gotta step up my strength training! I am going to do this DVD...."
Sheesh. Did not you READ it? Didn't you get that Jillian Michaels etc DVDs do NOT give you the real strength training, the one that get Staci her body? Don't you get the words: "GET UNDER THE BAR!" Should they be printed in big red letters?
I might not get to the happy place Staci is in, but I do see and feel the difference bwteen doing the Ripped-off 1000 DVD or 30 Day Shred-Your-Muscules and building up to a body-weight squat 3x a week!
[QUOTE=Leida;519782]Oh, lord, lucky gal! The beginning of my story is absolutely the same: lost stubborn post-pregnancy weight on CW and intervals, got miserable after ~ 1 year of maintaining it on CW, started heavy lifting/low carb dieting, tried anabolic diet, went into primal later + IF. I have no fear of barbell, I WANT big muscules, have been training for over a year now.
But my results just not there. My lifts stalled, and when I tried to gain weight (gained 12 lbs, from 122 lbs to 134 lbs) to 'bulk up' I gained 75% fat, and my lifts barely went up. I am still struggling to lose the bulk (since January! sitting at ~ 125 lbs), and lost all the measly 4 lbs of muscule I manage to add right back. :(
I wish I knew what the problem was and why fat just doesn't go away. I am trying to do 2 lifting workouts with the barbell now, 1 kettlebell workout and then do HIIT and walking on all other days of the week to mobilize that stubborn fat.
I do not want spectacular 'contest-ready' results, I just want to get to the point when i put on the swimsuit and look like I lift weights, not look like I am 'you are not fat'.[/QUOTE]
just out of curiousity what does your typical lifting workout consist of? what type of exercises are you doing with how much weight?
also to build muscle you have to increase the amount of weight you lift as your strength increases. not sure what your progression looks like but if you are lifting the same amount of weight every time you workout you wont ever build muscle
I started with the 5x5 Strong Lifts (SQT, OHP, DL, BBR and BP), built up to about a BW squat (I weigh ~ 123-127 lbs), 0.5 BW OHP, ~ 1.5 BW DL (175 lbs), and 3/4 BW bench. And I stalled. I went to 3x5, microloaded. Did a 12 week MadCow cycle, gaining slightly on the squat - I can now squat 128 lbs 5x from 125 lbs, and 130 lbs ~ 3x; almost got 80 lbs on the bench (4x) and BBR at 86 lbs (a bit higher), and dropped OHP drammatically (for me; from 65 lbs back to 60).
I started a new cycle on Madcow (5x5) with the goals of 82 lbs bench, 132 lbs SQT, 94 lbs BBR and 65 lbs OHP and DL of 185 lbs, but what I do while the weights are building up, I do OHP and BP and SQT sequences as a warm-up, and then lift the final suggested weight in a 3x5 regimen. DL I really love on the MadCow volume-wise, so I just do it that way. I set Madcow for a very slow build-up (8 weeks) with 1-3 lbs increases. I do not do the 'light' squatting day, because I now do MadCow 2x a week, and 1 dynamic kettlebell+TRX workout. I try to do chin-ups and pull-ups after every workout (I can do 3 full chin-ups, but only 1 pull-up and that off the toes)
For kettlebells, I am right now at ~ 15 lbs kettlebells for everything (down from 20 lbs, because I just restarted them), and do 3 sets of 12 reps with the breaks taken by Figure 8's and double-handed swing. It takes me about 40 min to getthrough kettlebell workout non-stop. The excersises I do are one-handed swings, side lunge & lunge pass; one handed snatch; side bend; curl and press; inclined deltoid raise. On the TRX I so far am only trying one-handed squats.
I add planks and push-ups to my free-flow and stretch yoga-inspired sessions (4x a week, trying to do them during the days off too, but so far no luck)
I also walk every day for at least 45 min and garden.
Oh, and I used to try to put 1 run, 1 swim and 1 Zumba class a week, till the summer came and I started gardening. Then I started sprinting & aggravated my bunion. Starting to bring the cardio back now.
like i said i was just curious, it looks like you got everything covered. id almost say you are doing to much but thats probably because i dont have time to do all that stuff!