Weighted squats?

mgalovic01

Pinch your shoulder blades together to protect your spine. Keep a little arch in your lower back. Don't let it round out. Open up your groin, like you have a watermelon between your legs, just below your crotch. Get into a comfortable, stable stance. Tighten your whole body when pick up the bar, and keep it tight until to put the weight back on the rack. Especially, focus on tightening your glutes when you do the squat. Concentrate on activating the glutes. Try to get down to a 90 degree angle at your knees. The knees can come forward a little, but not that much. They probably shouldn't pass your toes. Don't bend over too much with your lower back. It should feel natural and stable, as if your body is functioning as one unit, not the legs moving without the back or vice versa. Once you lose tension in the glutes put the weight back on the rack. Its going to take time for your glutes to get strong enough to lift heavy weight. Don't be afraid to work on form with just the bar. Even seasoned lifters practice fine tuning their form this way.

genpopadopolous

I do all my workouts with dumbbells and FitnessBlender in my basement.

I'm a stay at home mom to two young kids and a husband who works a ton. The gym isn't happening for me.

I will ask my husband to watch me or tape myself sometimes to check my form.

a45cal

freckles2392 wrote: »

I would love to utilize the gym weights but its very intimidting because alot of men are in the area of the weights and I feel like they will all be looking at me n judge me as a beginner

I second what the others have said about people not noticing, and a progression of bodyweight -> goblet -> empty bar -> weight, but I wanted to add:

If you're going to lift more than just dumbbells at some point, then you'll eventually have to go in the free weight area anyway. And if you're to the point of starting to lift the empty bar, you'll probably still feel kind of like a "noob" compared to the guys. But I'm guessing you're not going to buy a squat rack for your house, so it's going to be necessary to do that in the gym.

So basically, you can pick which you prefer. Dive on in and get over feeling anxious now, or spend extra money on dumbbells that'll probably have limited usefulness and then likely still have to deal with feeling new when you finally go over there. I'd say bite the bullet, but it's up to you.

kar328

I started lifting last year and was intimidated by the idea of the weights section as well. I got sessions with one of the personal trainers and had her show me the various lifts I wanted to learn. Watching all 5 feet of her saunter through the weight room (she used to be a powerlifter) helped me see that I had a right to be there and her instructions and help with my form made me look like I knew what I was doing. Now, every so often I look around, see I'm the only female in that section and smile. And honestly, if I feel any intimidation now, it's with the women not the guys. Probably because I'm comparing myself to them, whereas I just don't with guys. I say go for it and have fun. I enjoy it more than I thought I would.

rybo

A great resource for learning how to squat properly is squat university. They also recently did a bunch of videos with barbell shrugged. So much information.

canadianlbs

kar328 wrote: »

And honestly, if I feel any intimidation now, it's with the women not the guys. Probably because I'm comparing myself to them, whereas I just don't with guys.

funny, yeah. although i also love lifting around other women and/or watching other women lift.
it depends more on my own mood and what i've got going on with my own self than on them, i think. some days it's inspiring and yay-us with women, and some days there's a few extra threads of 'should i be able to do that by now? am i slacking?'

i don't compare myself to the guys. if someone does something that is a triumph for him, it's a party without having anything to do with me personally.