Women and strength training, your experience and advice please page 5

[arthurb999]

Starting strength was designed for high school, teenage boys playing football... not for 50 something women. Not to say the book is not applicable... the workouts, the form, etc., are crucial for someone new to strength training.

You ask some good questions but don't list out your stats (age, height, weight, etc) or your specific goals. If you provide that information, we can point you in the right direction.

[sbhikes]

My stats are in the footer of every message.

I'm finding that starting strength is a little too aggressive for me. I feel like I have crashed. I plan to scale the whole thing back. First I'm going to take 10 or 20lbs off what I've worked up to. Then I will make much slower and smaller weight increases. A pound at a time instead of 5. No more than 5lbs in a week on any one of the lifts. And forget any power-anything lifts.

I don't know when I will go back into the gym. I've so far skipped two workouts, but I went backpacking this weekend and the last mile included 2000ft elevation gain. I was starting to feel a little bit recovered until I went and did that. So I haven't decided if I will go to the gym later today or just forget about it until I feel fully back to normal.

[seaweed]

what i have found is i can do big weights but i am better doing less but doing the full ROM and concentrating on form. i also, at our age lmao, really really am precious about avoiding injuring myself. i find if i go hard with weights and then overdo the walking around up and down hills, i crash. i dont stop moving, i just eat too much and feel miserable. lose my ability to concentrate etc none of which i enjoy. it becomes a slippery slope of bunking off too which is also no fun in the long run. my advice is to find some spot where you can see that you can do this for the rest of your life. push and challenge yourself every day but be smart about it. i guess the parallel would be that you need to keep something in the tank at all times in case that sabre tooth tiger leaps out from behind the bushes and you have to out smart it or out run it.

[lorih]

SBHikes, I've just started The New Rules of Lifting For Women and am enjoying it so far. It seems that the women I've encountered on other online forums that have followed and completed this program have had impressive results. If SS is too aggressive for you, perhaps you should check out NROLFW.

[heatseeker]

When I started lifting, I was completely fed up with trying to lose fat, because it wasn't working no matter what I did, and I just focused on getting stronger. I think the diet/exercise combo is different for everyone, but what worked for me was:

1. I cut carbs and ate more fat, and overall had lower calories, on non-lifting days.
2. The only carb-ups I did were immediately post-lifting. Specifically, I'd go lift for an hour and then go have sushi, which is high in carbs and protein and very low in fat.
3. I only did 3x/wk, max. Heavy lifting wears your body out more than anything else. I was shaking every time I left the gym.
4. I ate as much meat and vegetables as my heart desired. I, too, did about 100g protein/day.
5. The only other exercise I did was walking my dogs and a weekly sprint session.
6. I belonged to a gym that was strictly lifting, not a globogym. It was an old-school strongman gym. Lots of regulars there practicing oly and powerlifting at high weight with impeccable form. They never minded if I had a quick question about a lift and were always happy to help. I think being in this environment helped me progress a lot faster than I would have at a 24 Hour Fitness-type place.

This all worked really well for me as far as getting stronger. I made serious strength gains and felt fantastic. The number on the scale didn't change, but I must have lost some BF because my muscles were bigger and stronger. However, I never leaned out. I did Leangains for a while and it had no effect on my body comp. But I did get stronger.

I don't know if any of this is helpful to you, but I thought I'd just lay out what worked for me when I was doing Starting Strength.

Your progression in strength sounds amazing! You made some fast gains!

[sbhikes]

I've decided to do my version of Starting Strength a lot slower and less frequent. Twice a week maximum and only increase weights if I want to.

Today I deadlifted my bodyweight. (At least my pre-X-mas body weight.)