MTheads

Example Workout

I had a great workout this weekend.  I wanted to push myself a bit harder than usual and I did this by upping the reps.  When I thought I couldn't do one more rep, I had my workout partner help me do two more negatives.  And now I'm paying for it!

I did 95lbs deadlifts 10reps x 3 sets  - a bit lighter and more reps than usual - just because.

150lb leg presses 10 x 3

80lb leg curls 3 sets to failure

85lb bench press and then down 10lbs a set for 3 sets

Superset rows and lat pulldowns for a total of 6 sets

Tricep pushdowns 2 sets

Calf raises 90lb 2 sets.  I just do whatever weight the guy in front of me left in place.   Crazy, I know.  Though, if there are four large plates on the machine, I remove two. 

And that's my weight workout.  I switch out walking lunges for deadlifts and occasionally do squats.  I also do the bench press/fly machine here and there.  I like to do shoulder presses when my stupid shoulder doesn't bother me (old injury).  Ditto for pull-ups.  I don't do anything for my belly.  The abs get a great workout anyways, and after four children, one c-sec, and two ab surgeries, the days of the six pack are long gone.

I return to the gym once all my soreness is gone.  If I don't get sore, I change up my routine.  I'm getting stronger and a bit more muscle-ly, so I'm quite pleased with my program. I'll have to post some pictures of me soon.  I have a "before" shot of a wimpy arm somewhere for comparison. 

Why am I bothering to post this?  Because I love to read about other women's workouts -- sort of a way to compare my effort and see where and how far women can go -- I thought maybe someone would be interested to know about mine.  

 

How Goes the Working Out....

Haven't posted for awhile, thought I'd state the obvious.  I have been lifting weights regularly, however.  I'm still doing fairly high intensity once or twice a week.  It depends on how sore I managed to make myself.  Is it normal to be sore after every workout?  I do lift aggressively.  I also switch between certain exercises to keep my muscles confused.  For example, I switch between dead lifts and walking lunges.  After each rotation, I'm sore!  I can't do too much switching with the upper body due to some shoulder issues.  I've found what hurts and doesn't hurt.  Luckily, bench pressing is fine.  But dumbbell presses and pull downs hurt the shoulder. 

I've plateaued on the bench press.  I lift 85 lbs as my heaviest set.  My PR for one lift is 95 lbs.  I won't move past 85 lbs until I can do 6 unassisted reps.  Right now, I can do 5 with help on the 6th bringing it back up.  For deadlifts, I do 115lbs reps for 3 sets or so. 

My approach to weightlifting is very personal and intuitive.  I've found what works for me and, maybe more importantly, I've found what keeps me motivated to continue.

1) I enjoy lifting heavy.  So, I start at my max and go down in weight in successive sets, if I go down in weight. 

2) I don't like warm-up sets.  I go straight into my heaviest set.  Everyone is different.  Many people I know lift heavier after a good warm-up set.  I do not.  No amount of explaining how important a warm-up set is will change this fact.  I have given the warm-up and work-up to max lift plenty of time and found they are not for me. 

3) I don't like most small muscle or isolation kind of lifts.  These are a waste of time for me when I could just spend a bit more time doing the big lifts.  Again, I've done every lift in the books and isolating my quads doesn't work them like doing dead lifts until I hate dead lifts.  My muscles look the same from heavy bench pressing as when I also did curls, flys, and other teeny tiny lifts.  And I'm out of the gym in less than an hour rather than after two.

4) I don't sweat missing a workout.  Sometimes, my schedule will not allow time in the gym.  There are always the people who say that one can always make time to workout.  These people lack imagination and/or children.  That said, I certainly put working out towards the top of my priority list.  I'm just not going to flog myself when life gets in the way of plans.

5) I value sleep over exercise.  Exercising without adequate sleep is like running a car without proper oil levels.  Also, I'm a horrible person when sleep deprived. 

6) I never assume my way is for everyone.  I hate the scolds who have lists of rules for the rest of us.  Telling us what we should wear, or what we should or shouldn't listen to, or what lifts are mandatory for "real" weightlifters, or what "real" gyms should look like is fascist.  Hitler had a list like that, or would have.  These are preferences, not biblical scripture. 

The Perfect Weightlifting Blog

I'm having trouble finding good weightlifting blogs.  I've found a few I enjoy reading, and I ought to throw those up on my blog list, but they are often unsatisfactory.   Many fitness blogs are more about the ads than about fitness.  Or they are about finding clients for fitness trainers.  Or they are devoted to pictures of the writer in tiny bikinis looking for clients.  Or they are infrequently updated.  Or they are dogmatically devoted to a particular way of lifting weights that comes off as insulting.  Or the authors are too young and have too many adorable pictures of their cats and boy friends.  Maybe I'm too picky. 

Many women blogs on weightlifting also have a feminist slant that I don't enjoy.  I dislike wallowing in a miasma of testosterone resentment while reading the word "vagina" over and over.  For me, being a feminist is about not having to think about my sex every single second of my life.  And I hate the word "empowering."  And "partner."  Dated and stale.  I'm difficult to please, I admit it. 

All I want is a nice straight forward site about lifting weights from a woman's perspective exactly the way I'm imagining it in my mind; updated every day would be a plus.

 

I Could Rip Off Your Arm Workout Philosophy

I want to get really strong.  Why?  Who knows.  Just do.  Weightlifting also keeps me in much better shape than either aerobic exercise or yoga ever did.  Studies show how important weight bearing exercises are for women.  Muscles burn more calories.  An effective weightlifting program doesn't demand much time.  So why don't more women lift weights of some kind?  My thoughts:

Some women seem to be devoted to cultivating that engagingly brittle-boned and cute look over the "I could rip off your arm" look.  And while skinny arms and the inability to stand up straight may work for teenagers and supermodels, it's not an overall healthy look to pursue.  Talk about a failure of feminism!  Women are strong inside, but few really want to be strong outside.

Yes, yes, I know, women are out there getting in shape by the billions.  But many of them are exercising to be thin and small, motivated by an oddly compelling image of feminine frailty, whether they admit it or not.  Not all women, of course.  I know athletic women and women who lift weights, but they are the minority.  So many women have a fear of muscles and of appearing unfeminine, even at the risk of health problems like bone and muscle loss as one gets older.  I know, because I've been told so.  Muscles are not what they are after.  Which is a shame.

I fight this image with my daughters.  I encourage them to run as hard as they can, jump as far as they can, lift things, push things, pull up on things, and to never let the unhealthy images of women as mere clothes hangers influence them.  I want them to take pride in their strength and physical competence.

I prefer the "I could rip off your arm" look.  To get that, here are my goals:

Right now, my goal is to bench press my weight which is around 110lb.  My max one rep is 95lb.  I'm lifting 90lb regularly for my heaviest set.  I don't have goals for anything else right now, just to lift heavy and to failure.  I met my goal for pull ups, which was ten.  Now I'd like to do ten wide arm grip pull-ups.  But I mostly lift intuitively, trying to make myself sore the next day.  When I stop being sore, I change up my routine, which is why I've started doing dead lifts.  Those are hard. 

 

Lifting Heavy

I haven't written about it for awhile, but I'm still lifting weights regularly.  And I'm still following my rather idiosyncratic plan of lifting heavy and infrequently.  It's hard!  I try to push myself to complete fatigue every time I work out which is about every 5 to 7 days.  I do the whole body each time, with maybe 2 to 3 exercises per portion with anywhere from 4 to 10 reps for 2 or 3 sets.  I'm rarely in the gym for more than an hour.  Which has led to one guy asking me after a particularly grueling workout how could I complain of being so tired when I had just gotten to the gym.  

I'm basically following a high intensity workout plan with plenty of rest time in between workouts.  Luckily, there is a lot more known about this approach to exercising.  One can read Mike Mentzer or Body by Science, by John R. Little and Doug McGuff, for example.  Both great sources explaining the reasoning behind the less is more philosophy. 

This approach to exercising is a revolution -- a revolution based on a better understanding of how the human body responds to weight bearing stimuli.  Why spend hours exercising when one can concentrate one's effort into a fraction of the time.  It's energy and time efficient.  It's the intelligent way to lift weights.  As far as aerobics go, I don't do much.  But I do wonder if the same high intensity approach couldn't be applied to aerobic exercise like running and swimming.  Maybe one day I'll try it. 

 

Got Your Ticket to the Gun Show Yet?

I took a weightlifting class as an elective in high school and loved it.  After that, I joined a gym and started to work out fairly seriously for the next ten years.  And after a break of over 15 years, I've finally made it back to the gym.  Yeah!

I'm always hesitant to recommend my way of doing anything to others. This includes weightlifting.  I'm a to each their own kind of gal.  But I'm going to try to get over my reluctance to give advice and start writing more on weight lifting. 

Lifting heavy a few times is better than lifting light a lot of times, except in certain cases.  I spend more time on multiple-muscle lifts than on muscle-isolating ones because I find the big lifts are more efficient and effective.  Though I do include smaller lifts, like the bicep curl, occasionally, or for a few specific exercises.  I like to start with the heaviest weight I'm going to use and go down from there, rather than spend the time to pyramid up and down to my max. This way I can lift my heaviest while still fresh. 

I generally use a weight that allows me to do no more than 8 or 10 reps.  And for most sets I do btwn two and six reps. Again, I have exceptions.  Sometimes I do two sets, sometimes five.  It depends on how I feel that day and on the particular lift.  I tend to push really hard each workout.  This of course leads to soreness and sometimes needing to skip an extra day.  I just get bored if I'm not working hard.

Also, I don't like to rest for too long.  My heart definitely feels worked after a good session in the gym.  I think many fitness experts don't consider weightlifting aerobic enough.  Well, I disagree there.  I've done quite a bit of aerobic exercise in my life, and I find lifting heavy to be just as effective an aerobic workout.  And I can feel the effects on my heart for hours after, just like after a fast 10k or a long bike with hills.  I'm not arguing weight lifting is superior to other exercises, just equivalent and as worthy of respect. 

To sum up my weightlifting philosophy:  lift heavy, lift big, and keep moving.  Push yourself.  Don't be afraid to find that weight too heavy to lift once.  Then you'll know your limits.  If you feel tired, do fewer sets.  Take a day or two off if sore.  Go back refreshed.  Don't be overly worried about numbers and sets and reps.  Don't be hemmed into anyone else's program.  Find what works for you.  Just be sure to have a balanced workout that hits all muscles and one that is taxing enough to provoke muscle growth.

A Fascist Regime

Now that the kids are older and in school, I'm able to once again hit the gym.  And while I can put together a good workout, it has been awhile and I wanted to read up on the subject.  So I bought the book The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess by Lou Schuler. 

Generally, I wouldn't buy a workout book which promised to make me look like a goddess.  Usually that denotes a lightweight approach to working out.  But the reviews on Amazon convinced me the book took weight lifting seriously.  So I went ahead and bought a copy.  I was disappointed.

This book is like most fitness books for women  --  promises of weight loss, lots of peppy hand-holding, and endless repetitions of the main points.  I suppose if one is completely new to working out with weights, this would be a decent book.  Though if a woman is serious about starting a weight lifting program, I'd advise getting a more serious book also geared to the beginner, but not one geared to the woman customer looking to get thinner.

The author went on and on about women not having to worry about bulking up.  I think he is wrong here.  Some women will develop largish muscles if they lift heavy weights.  Some women do not want rippling biceps in a cute summer dress, even if these biceps are only relatively a bit bigger.  These women should choose another activity.

At least the author emphasizes lifting heavy weights with fewer reps.  He encourages women to work out hard and to put aside the 2 lb dumbbells.  He includes the big moves like squats, dead lifts, bench presses, push-ups, and pull-ups.  But I don't like how the author completely dismisses weight machines and other common exercises used by body builders.  He cannot definitively say what will or will not work when it comes to lifting weights.  No one can.  That's why we all have to figure it out for ourselves through experience and education.  Every weightlifter endeavors to find what works best for him or her. 

The nutrition section is the same kind of thing you can find in almost any fitness book these days -- a moderate diet within a fascist framework of meal plans, scheduled snacks, and forbidden foods.  If you refuse to eat at least five meals (approved meals, of course) a day, expect to get fat.  If you skip breakfast, might as well stop working out now because you have no chance at becoming fit.  Too much is made of the details of eating.  There is no one right way to eat.

Bodybuilding is so much more than losing weight and finding the one perfect workout and nutritional regime.  It's about endless ways to push oneself. It's about finding what works through trial and error.  It's about getting stronger and seeing the physical proof of that. 

I'm now ordering The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger.