Women and strength training, your experience and advice please page 3

[Catrin]

I concur that it really does help to hire a professional who knows what he or she is doing. Not all trainers are equal, some facilities require next to no education from what they call trainers, so do your homework.

[ragwort]

I've been reading this with great interest as I'm trying to up my exercise from just being normally busy, walking and doing PE with my class! I'm 56, live in the UK and cannot find anything useful written down pertaining to women. Do I gather from this thread that there is very little on the net as well? I really could do with some kind of structure to base my weight lifting on.....

[Ketonkoerper]

I have some suggestions for point 1, they're not very specific, but maybe it will help with your hunger. The first time I tried fasting I went for 18 hours or so without food. That changed my view on eating completely and after doing it again for 24 hours my feeling of hunger completely changed. I eat less now and I'm less hungry.
I stuff myself at lunch with whatever I have for a main dish so that I can avoid being hungry until dinner. I literally mean stuff - long after feeling full I still eat. I think overall it makes me consume less calories because snacking makes me lose overview of how much I've been eating all day and I end up munching all the time and never feeling full. I use a lot of oil and butter for my main dish and salad too.
Between meals I only eat fruits and nuts, maybe that would help?
If you need more calories the day you do your workout I would say let your body have what it needs. If you maintain a deficit overall I guess it shouldn't be a problem .

[spuggygirl]

I've been reading this with great interest as I'm trying to up my exercise from just being normally busy, walking and doing PE with my class! I'm 56, live in the UK and cannot find anything useful written down pertaining to women. Do I gather from this thread that there is very little on the net as well? I really could do with some kind of structure to base my weight lifting on.....

Check out stumptuous and Nia Shanks websites. Both have really good content with beginners guides and are aimed at women. They're both, I think, US sites, but I don't think that makes a difference apart from weights being in lbs rather than kgs. I'd definitely recommend finding a good trainer though, to make sure you get technique right - I think I struck gold with mine!

[spuggygirl]

I've been reading this with great interest as I'm trying to up my exercise from just being normally busy, walking and doing PE with my class! I'm 56, live in the UK and cannot find anything useful written down pertaining to women. Do I gather from this thread that there is very little on the net as well? I really could do with some kind of structure to base my weight lifting on.....

BTW I'm 45 and have only been lifting heavy for 3.5 months....love it, love it, love it!

[Owly]

Check out stumptuous and Nia Shanks websites. Both have really good content with beginners guides and are aimed at women. They're both, I think, US sites, but I don't think that makes a difference apart from weights being in lbs rather than kgs. I'd definitely recommend finding a good trainer though, to make sure you get technique right - I think I struck gold with mine!

Both awesome sites. Gubernatrix is also good (UK site).

[sbhikes]

I think Stumptuous is Canadian.

I'm following Starting Strength, more or less. I don't find that I can progress quite so linearly. I always redo the same weight I did last time if I did not feel that I achieved good form or if I didn't do all the reps, and I progress only 5lbs each time, not 10. I also have not done any power cleans.

I started by hiring a trainer who showed me around. But after I read Starting Strength I could see that she taught me some things incorrectly. For example, she didn't think I should go quite so low in the squat. She certainly thought I should go about parallel, but not as low as what Rip shows. And she thought I should keep my head up while Rip says to look about 4' in front of you. She also didn't show me how to grip the bar the same as Rip. So I try to follow Rip's form suggestions rather than hers. She also wouldn't show me real deadlifts. Instead she showed me Romanian deadlifts. So basically I have just been doing a great deal of this on my own. I am a self-motivated individual, though, so it works for me.

I have managed to go from 25lb squats the first day when my trainer showed them to me to 95lbs on my own. I showed myself the deadlift and can do 110lbs. I started the press at 20 and now 45 feels pretty easy. Bench press from 30 to now 65lbs.

I, too, think this is really enjoyable.

[Owly]

Yes, Stumptuous is Canadian.

Yay for enjoying it!

[paleo-bunny]

Great progress SB. Glad to hear you are enjoying it.

[zoebird]

Canadians, you can't trust them.

I kid, they're great.