MTheads

There are no Small Gyms, Only Rigid Approaches to Working Out

I've been reading a variety of weightlifting/body building books for some new ideas and inspiration.  My problem is I have limited times when I can get to the gym and then, the equipment I want to use is often hogged up by people selfishly pursuing fitness goals that aren't mine.  And the free weight room is small.  Good luck finding space for dead lifts. 

So, I need to find exercises I can do when the one squat rack and the one bench press are hogged up.  Maybe I can do more on the Smith machine or with dumbbells.  I'm giving some of the machines upstairs a try.  Of course, the aerobic and weight machine floor is cavernously huge; always an elliptical free.  I'm doing lots more pull ups and chin ups for the back and arms.  I can always find a bar.  Whatever works.

I'm much more sanguine about which exercises I do now that I've managed to bench my body weight.  I'd of course like to lift more, but I'm not going to worry about it for awhile.  I weigh 230lb, so, nothing too heavy.  hahahah.  No, more like 110lb.  So, the bar still looks pretty pathetic with the few plates hanging off it.

And, yeah, gym rats under the age of 25 with blogs devoted to selling their midriffs and services, but why anyone would want to be trained by someone so lock-step and rigid I can't imagine, I lift heavy despite not having hours to devote to myself or by occasionally using the Smith machine.

Which Way to the Gun Show?

Bench pressed 110lbs x 1 then several more sets going down by 10lbs

Squated 125lb x 6 ish three sets

Deadlifted 125lb x 6 two sets then went down in weight

Walking lunges 35lb dumbbells 2 sets

Seven pull-ups and then several sets of three

Sundry other exercises

 

Not bad for twice, sometimes thrice, a week workouts.  I worry about my knees but so far, so good.  Any workout that is intense is basically an experiment on how far a particular individual can push themselves.  Will lifting heavy (for me) break me down or build me up?  Does running long distances stall aging or accelerate it?  Studies seem contradictory.  Should an athlete care?  If it's health one is after, we don't have to run marathons.  I think many of us just love to push ourselves for other reasons. 

 

 

Goose Step Your Way to an Incredible Ass. Just Check Out My Photos.

Aack!  I am so jealous!  I read all these weightlifting blogs and these women are in the gym 18 times a week throwing around incredible amounts of metal, and I'm struggling to do 6 pull ups.  I'm struggling to get to the gym twice a week.  I usually go when my girls have their swim lessons, in the evenings, during peak hours, in a small gym with a pathetic lack of floor space, and usually no spotter.  Pity me!

Back when I was lifting seriously in the 80s and early 90s, we didn't have anywhere to post butt photos or brag about our incredible workouts and ridiculous diets or berate readers with our groupthink approach to lifting big.  That's what really irks me.  There are more women lifting and the community is so much better but so much of what I read is more about denigrating other people at the gym than engaging in an open discussion on all things lifting. There is no discussion.

If you read one weight lifter's blog, you've read them all.  Really.  Where's the curiosity?  Where's the recognition that maybe we haven't figured out everything there is to know on getting bigger/stronger/better or that different approaches work for different people? Not on any blog I can find.  It's just goose stepping all over the gym while mocking the people on the ellipticals.

Why should I let this upset me, you ask?  Because I want to be part of a shared experience.  I want to find like minded souls to talk with about lifting weights.  But today that means I have to buy into pre-packaged assumptions about what lifting hard is.  I could pay my way into a Crossfit community, but I don't like to workout like that.  But I can't make myself hate on others who do or on those who use machines or eat white rice.  I don't really care if other women are skinny fat or if guys are curling too much.  I care about what works for me.  I care about different ideas on workouts.  I like to see what kind of progress other people are making doing similar things as I'm doing.  But I don't care to be judged by these same people, especially by people who think they have everything figured out.

I guess I'm still on my own. 

Admittedly, a little funny.  But mostly smug.

Lifting Weights Up and Down Not So Complicated

Since moving to the DC area I've been lifting weights at the local Y.  I'm up to 105 lbs on the bench press, which is close to my weight.  My deadlifts and other lifts are still humiliatingly low; I'm not even going to post them (barely body weight).

I am up to 6 pull ups.  It's odd, but I used to be able to do 10 or more pull ups when I benched less.  Now I'm struggling to get past 6 pull ups but my bench is better.  Maybe I shouldn't do pull ups after a good upper body workout.

And I'm still looking for really good weightlifting sites.  I've found a couple of decent sites but they're mostly authored by  young fitness fascists who brook no deviation.  I can only take so many memes on lifting hard.  I get it.  If you don't deadlift/squat/paleo diet/Cross fit/favorite groupthink here, you are a pussy and Willy Wonka rolls his eyes at your pathetic-ness.

God, I miss Arnold and that generation of lifters who took themselves less seriously.

 

 

 

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.