Newbie to Weightlifting...Starting SL's...Lots of Questions

ayankeefan51

Hi everyone. I’ve been thinking about starting SL for about a month now and am ready to try the program. I have a full-time and a part-time job working 80+ hours a week and am also a full-time online student so I don’t have time to read up on the SL’s program. I have a few questions that I was wondering if you awesome ladies could help me with. My goals are to lose weight and gain muscle to build a strong body for my frame. I’ve currently lost almost 50 lbs so far through eating better, calorie-counting and jogging almost every day. I still have another 50 lbs to go for my height and probably frame, but I also want to start building muscle mass as I have flabby arms that I absolutely cannot stand. I can deal with flab in other places but not the arms due to having to wear t-shirts while playing sports. Thank goodness the fall weather is here, lol. Plus the idea of developing strength through free weights is very intriguing and exciting to me. I’ve seen a lot of youtube vids on proper form and subscribe to a few power lifters so I can become more informed about weight lifting. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone else who is interested in SL’s or free weight training in general so hopefully you all can help me through this. I’m starting tomorrow morning early at a gym with a free day trial (Blink Fitness) right around the corner from me, but am nervous about going to that side of the gym and looking like I don’t know what I’m doing. I would love to buy a power stand/squat rack to do this in my home but it costs too much right now, so I guess I’m joining a gym again, especially since my job doesn’t have a squat stand of any kind in our gym, which sucks. I was going to hire a PT but rather just save the money and do this myself. Anyway, my questions are below.

Can heavy weight lifting really help shape flabby arms become muscles?
What kind of sneakers should I buy for weight lifting? (only have running sneakers)
Can someone explain how the failure part works?
Does de-loading mean to take weights off if you can’t lift the barbell or something else?
For anyone who has purchased a squat stand/power rack, were you able to set it up yourself?
What should I do to warm-up before my actual sets and do I need to warm-up for before each exercise? (think I saw Mehdi say that in the SL vids)
For my first week, how many minutes should I wait in-between sets (1 min)?
Should I do stretching before my SL sets?
Has this program worked (losing weight/becoming strong/gaining muscle) for anyone who started overweight/obese?

I appreciate all of your thoughts and insights as I start my weight-lifting journey. Thanks in advance!

lwoodroff

I would suggest you read the sticky in this forum first which explains a lot of your queries without the mehdi drivel!

roxylola

The sticky is excellent but to answer a few qs with my experience:

Flabby arms? - Yes it can
Shoes? - I just wear trainers. Shoes may help but I would not be spending a ton of cash on stuff before you get a feel for the program.
Warm up? - I do 20 minutes on a cross trainer then I start lifting I am still a newb so the weights are not massive yet and this suits what I want. Sometimes I do 5 squats at a 50% then up to weight. If I did all the warm up sets he yarks about I would be done in before I start my proper sets. And I don't bother with warm ups for each exercise.
Resting between sets? - I found a minute was enough until I started increasing weights. At 40kg squats my rests were about 3 minutes.

girlie100

Yes defo read the sticky, it covers everything u need to know to start the programme

Free weight heavy lifting is great for body composition and calorie burn so along with a deficit you will see BF go

you don't need any special shoes, just a pair of converse or bare foot will do

when you are working out using the bar then a warm up on bike/cross trainer and then some bw squats will do, when your squat gets up near the 100kg mark you will want to do plenty of warm up sets

If i remember correctly the rest time was 1min 30secs if it was easy, 3mins if it was hard and 5mins if you failed

ayankeefan51

thanks for the help, everyone. I read the sticky but had those follow up questions. Anyway, I started this morning and after had a good 1st workout. I was able to the bar with weights and although I had to stop it from tilting at first. Nothing was too heavy at all. Completed the 5x5 squat (45 lbs), 5x5 bench press (45 lbs) and barbell row (65 lbs) after doing warm up sets. Since I just signed up at my new gym, I get a free personal training session on Thurs. This is good because even though I've watched countless youtube vids on how to use it, I still looked pretty silly trying to setup the squat rack for my bench press. The bar kept hitting the holders for my first two sets until I realized I needed to move the bench. I also had to adjust the height of the bar for the bench press and had to figure that out as well. I even took the bar out from the squat stand awkwardly (lol) to set it up for the barbell row. So having this PT teach me how to properly use the squat stand and maybe help with my form will be good. Other than that a good first session and I love it already. But I'll definitely be doing my cardio on non-weight lifting days because I can tell my legs will get tired from squatting after a while.