Lifting heavy

LoeshaElizabeth

ive seen some of the progress pics on lifting heavy and i think its incredible! I currently go gym 3 days a week so i was thinking of changing my routine to lifting heavy on those three days and then focusing on cardio, endurance and toning on using fitness blender on 3 days at home. The thing is i have literally no idea where to start on lifting heavy. I want to make sure to get my form right, i have no one to help me at the college gym and i dont want to look stupid being the only girl there. when i did my induction they actually said 'i wont bother showing you the weights as i suspect you will just do cardio' the cheek! so yes if people could give me some ideas? what lifts do u do? what are good starting weights? ect

kindrabbit

I would suggest you start by looking at you tube. I have made my own little routines based on sessions I have seen on there. There is a lady called Jayme Bayles who I love. Just put women who lift into the search and watch them.

I have got most of my form from YouTube but do get the PT at the gym to watch me the first few times. I tell him I want to dead lift and he'll just come and watch the first few times. I cant afford a personal trainer but if you can its worth going that way when you first start. The instructor in my circuits class literally commented yesterday on my form "see, watching those YouTube videos paid off, that'a perfect". I was thrilled I had impressed teacher!

Sweet_Heresy

Check out Stronglifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. The last 2 have a book that will tell you everything you need to know.

I've been on SS for 6 weeks and getting awesome results. Best of luck to you, feel free to add me

mikevandewetering

i would reccommend looking up compound lifts. like the poster above me said, check out strong lifts, starting strenght.

Sued0nim

http://stronglifts.com/5x5/

ana3067

Repeating all the compound program recs. Also exrx.net is a good place to go to understand what the exercises do and how to perform them (they have gifs of the movements).

And if any of those programs above tells you that you have to use a barbell but you a) don't want to or b) can't use one yet, then use dumbbells. There is nothing wrong with doing dumbbell shoulder presses for instance instead of a military barbell press. dumbbells are great if you have elbow or joint issues, and if you have imbalances, since each side works on its own to carry the weight.

ETA: I do not follow any of the listed programs, never have. I started out with full body, though. Once doing all the lifts on such a schedule gets too tiresome or hard, you can try switching to ABA BAB schedule (Google ABA BAB full body or something to that effect) or upper/lower, which is what I do. But I had dabbled in lifting before I joined MFP, so by the time I got serious here I was already well on my way to finding full body difficult/not enough recovery.