Lifting Weights for Women

TminusFitnessN321

How long did it take you to start seeing results and how many times a week and for how long did you lift weights?

TminusFitnessN321

AND, I forgot to ask, how much weight did you lift...

Liftng4Lis

Lifting in a deficit, one only sees newbie gains.
Personally, I'm in a recomp and "seeing" results is minimal (8 months). I AM getting stronger, those are my results.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I did a recomp (lifting at maintenance) and it took about 6 weeks to notice anything. It was a pretty slow process. You might see more results at a deficit just because losing fat is generally a faster process and you'll be uncovering the muscle that you already have.

I did Stronglifts 5x5, so it's 3x/week starting with the bar and adding weight each workout.

HeidiMightyRawr

Results in terms of strength were in a matter of weeks, very soon.

Was lifting "heavy" 3 x a week, roughly 5x5 (but I wasn't following a specific program) Sessions were roughly 1-1.5hrs hours in the beginning, more of a full body style.

Started with the bar (20kg) for bench and squats. For me on bench, that was a good starting weight. Squats it wasn't really heavy for me, I moved up fairly quickly but needed to start with just the bar because I struggled with getting the technique right at first. Deads I started on about 40kg. OHP I used dumbells for a few weeks before progressing to the bar. I would recommend finding a good weight for you depending on your technique, and the rep range you want to achieve (3-5 reps for strength, 8-12 for muscle, 15+ for endurance) The last few reps should be a struggle, but managable with good technique. Get the technique down early on and it makes for a much easier life later on, and better progression/less chance of injury.

In terms of looks, fat/muscle etc it really depends on your diet more than anything else. Gaining muscle in a calorie deficit is hard, you'll really only get newbie gains, but you can definitely see gains in strength and maintenance of your muscle. If you're eating in a surplus and working hard on the weights you'll be able to gain some muscle (as well as fat)