Am I getting bad advice from my gym?

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  • MelissaPhippsFeagins
    MelissaPhippsFeagins Posts: 8,063 Member
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    CatherineElizabeth13 wrote: »
    saraAmcd wrote: »
    If your grocery bags, cooking pot, purse, toddler are heavier than the weights you're lifting, then I think there's a problem.

    I love this!

    Yes my toddler is 30lbs. I can throw him in the air and wave him around. He has me lifting 10lbs! I feel like I'm stood there playing with a feather!

    Love this! I use the ability to carry my kids out of a burning building if necessary as my training goal. The youngest is 9 and weighs 100lbs. (he's also already 5 ft tall) Listen to your body, not your gym owner. I rotate 12 weeks of Stronglifts with 12 weeks of a hypertrophy program. (currently doing hypertrophy with 10-12 reps per lift)
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    CatherineElizabeth13 wrote: »
    saraAmcd wrote: »
    If your grocery bags, cooking pot, purse, toddler are heavier than the weights you're lifting, then I think there's a problem.

    I love this!

    Yes my toddler is 30lbs. I can throw him in the air and wave him around. He has me lifting 10lbs! I feel like I'm stood there playing with a feather!
    I'll add that I'm 61 and my dumb bell sets go up to 25# plus an EZ curl bar I use for deadlifts and put 60# on. It isn't "heavy" for most, but it should show you that 10# are way too light.

  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,390 Member
    edited March 2016
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    EvgeniZyntx wrote: »
    CatherineElizabeth13 wrote: »
    Everything I've read on here and online in general suggests that women should heavy lift.
    The advice for woman as overweight as myself seem to be to lift heavy from the start, don't wait until you're close goal weight as it will help to prevent muscle loss through deficit eating and help with skin sagging.

    Am I right so far?

    Only partially true. Depends on your goals. Depends on where you are in fitness and balance. Resistance training can start with a variety of programs that may or may not include "lift heavy" lifting.

    If your primary goals are muscle retention and reducing sagging skin the type of lifting can vary significantly -- low rep, high weights isn't what one should start with anyway.

    NROLFW is a relatively good (if overly complex program) that starts with intermediate and high reps work (2x15, 2x12s, AMRAP mostly)

    A good program is aligned with your physical level, is progressive, pushes you to learn about balance and equilibrium, aligned to your goals without just focusing on a few cookie cutter exercises and just "lifting heavy".

    So yes, start lifting, get to the heavy when you are ready if that is what you want, but it likely shouldn't be anything near maximal work in the first months.

    This and the posts from @rainbowbow probably put the whole thing in better perspective than most others posts.

    Depending on the context from the owner, it's just as likely you got bad advice from listening to the internet or MFP too much. There are plenty of different ways to gain strength, bulk, or lift and make progress.
  • sllm1
    sllm1 Posts: 2,114 Member
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    He's stuck in the 80's.
  • shor0814
    shor0814 Posts: 559 Member
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    I would be concerned about taking form advise from him as well. Is he going to allow you to do a full squat or insist that 4 inches is deep enough?

    Insist and demand your knees never pass your toes?

    We know that women can't squat because their uterus will fall out.

    What happens when you get to more than 5 lb pink dumbbells and your form breaks down, will you be able to get advise from him or will he make you use the 3 lb dumbbells and not see a flaw in your form?

    You are on your own at this gym. Practice setting your phone up to record your lifts and post here for advice. You are breaking news ground here, a beginner woman who is trying to lift heavy....blasphemy.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    rainbowbow wrote: »
    erickirb wrote: »
    msf74 wrote: »
    rainbowbow wrote: »
    msf74 wrote: »
    FatMoojor wrote: »
    rainbowbow wrote: »
    CatherineElizabeth13 wrote: »
    rainbowbow wrote: »

    If he DID say that women should never work out in that manner, then yes, he's an idiot. But really, the answer is women shouldn't have to train any differently from men.

    He did say women shouldn't lift heavy. Then referred to the New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women as "feminism gone wild".

    then he's an idiot.

    Regardless, my point still stands that you should begin RESISTANCE training (in general), now. Not necessarily "heavy lifting".

    The point isn't correct though. SL 5x5 starts you with just the bar and slowly builds up to heavy lifting. There is zero, non-medical reason, why you can't start lift straight away.
    You will be starting with little to no weight but that is the idea. You learn form before adding weight.
    When people say start heavy lifting, they don't usually mean, go and whack your body weight on the bar and have a go at squating it or benching as much as humanly possible from the get go.

    How are you defining "heavy lifting"? I am inclined to agree with the other poster (and yes, much of that is because I made the same point earlier on in the thread...)

    5x5 is an excellent routine if the trainee is looking to target neural strength and some power but not necessarily hypertrophy. If the trainee wishes to target other adaptations they will use different rep ranges and so on.

    When most exercisers (rather than more specialised exercisers) say heavy lifting I think what they are really alluding to is in fact some form of resistance training which uses progressive overload. The most common recommendation and I good one as a catch all would be 3x10 in terms of sets/reps. This is because it mixes in some neural and metabolic hypertrophy with some strength as well - jack of all trades as it were.

    This was my point exactly.

    I do wonder if a common misconception of a low weight / high rep routine is one never progresses beyond pink dumbells rather than progressively increasing the weight within the given range...

    This guy was saying 25 reps, so you could still increase weight but that type of training, is resisted endurance training, not strength training (though some small strength gains would be made, just alike someone that sprints will get some endurance benefit, but not the same training for distance.

    Of course. This is why i said her training should be periodized (moving between the rep ranges) over time depending on her specific training goals. But from what i gathered from OP's initial post her goal is to lose weight (primarily) and retain some muscle mass. She never mentioned having goals for hypertrophy, maximal strength, power, etc. This is why i was questioning what her goals were and what the guy said to her specifically.

    Telling her to perform endurance training for her stated goals (weight loss, muscle retention, etc.) doesn't seem too off the beaten path. Especially if she is out of shape and just beginning. That's why i asked what he actually said and whether or not it was misinterpreted. Turns out he's just a nazi. *shrug*

    Yeah...I kind of feel like some context or something is missing here. Gyms tend to have a lot of competition and small margins...I can't imagine an owner of a gym being all..."no way *kitten* I'm not letting you lift heavy and your New Rules is feminism gone wild"...I'm just not able to wrap my head around a business person who would be highly invested in having more people in his gym acting this way...stranger things I'm sure have happened, but I'm just feeling like some kind of context is missing or there's been a misinterpretation or something.

    Also, while I do realize that 5x5 and "heavy" tends to be the stock lifting answer, it isn't the be all and end all. Having worked with a coach now for1.5 years, I've learned a lot about general fitness and periodized training is really optimal from an overall fitness perspective.

    I'd also add that when I see my coach and his wife working with untrained clients and in particular overweight clients, they do tend more towards high rep, low weight, little rest and lots of conditioning type of work...part of what they're trying to do is build up stamina and endurance...the other part of what they're trying to do is bump up the calorie burn to assist in creating an energy deficiency...so in that context, I could see someone suggesting a lighter weight, higher rep routine to start with...but again, I just feel like some kind of context is missing here or there has been a misunderstanding or something....

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