Lifting heavy: good idea under these circumstances?

yirara

Just wanting to hear your opinion if starting to lift heavy makes sense. I'd love to start, but on the other hand I think the situation is less from ideal.

I live in a company compound in a town that has no real gyms for women. Some expat spa and health clubs that cost 3000 USD to be a member exist, but no gyms with a decent weight section I could use. My compound does have a small gym with a free weights section containing a bench for chest presses, a power rack, some bars and weights and a few dumbbells.

However:
The bars are not olympic ones. They weigh just above 5kg I'd think (my kitchen scale goes to 5kg). All weight disks sum up to about 80kg. The screw tops seem to have a tendency to get loose.
I'm usually the only one in the gym. There's also no trainer. If someone happens to me I'll only be found when my husband thinks I'm gone for an awful long time. We're not (sorry for the cliche) from an English speaking country, we don't get worried too quickly
It's impossible to buy decent equipment, and Amazon (etc) doesn't deliver.

At the moment I have an 8 and 12kg kettlebell and do HIIT type exercises with these or purely bodyweight at home, or use similar weights at the gym. I could buy a 16kg kettlebell with a chearful colour, and with some luck a 20kg one as well, though my strength is not there yet. I do know my current weights are far too low for deadlifts, and I could probably go higher for squats, clean and presses and chest presses. Though for the latter I don't feel comfortable as I lost control of the barbell before and it almost fell on my chest.

SezxyStef

I don't use olympic bars...and I lift heavy. I suspect the bars are about 15-20lbs.

As for being alone that is a personal choice...I usually lift alone in my home and if you have a power rack available you have a built in spotter. The amount of weight available is about 175lbs...that will get you about 6 months worth of lifting (give or take)

But to be frank seems like you don't want to lift heavy in your current circumstance so don't.

KarenJanine

If you're not comfortable lifting under your current circumstances then you could try body weight strength training programmes such as You Are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning.

yirara

Please can you elaborate what a spotter is?

I'd like to try again. I did it before at university, ages ago. But I'm an extremely clumsy person, someone who truly attracts freak accidents. If just for the sake of it an exercise required me to lift up my right leg I'd wonder which side is right, then lift up the left, think it's wrong and lift up the right as well just to fall on my face. That's a good reason not to be alone I think. If there was something available that stops the weight from falling on me I'd be fine. My university gym had something that held the dumbbell kind of in place when doing squats and the likes, but I don't have this here. Hell, someone put a parquet floor into the gym room. If I drop something I get a hefty bill

I'm also uncertain how strong or good the equipment is. That I cannot fix the weight discs well is one annoyance. That I don't know how much weight I can put on the bar another. Don't expect any stickers quoting any ISO certificates and saying: good for use until so and so much weight.

On the other hand: I really loved lifting heavy and I loved the progress!

yirara

If you're not comfortable lifting under your current circumstances then you could try body weight strength training programmes such as You Are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning.

Yay! I love YAYOG! It's a great programme and I use it when I'm not doing any HIIT workouts.

_lyndseybrooke_

What is a "gym for women"? All they have is men-only gyms in your area? Or are you only willing to go to a female oriented gym, but one does not exist near you? It's not uncommon for men and women to work out in the same building - no fear, they're people too!

I don't see any problem with the barbells not being Olympic barbells. Weight is weight - as long as you're lifting heavy, you're solid. I lift in my spare bedroom with my own lifting equipment at 5AM around the time my husband leaves for work, so I have no spotter and no one there to answer my calls if I get stuck under a barbell. Luckily, that hasn't happened yet. There are ways to bail out of a move if you can't complete it. Then again, I'd never tell someone to do something they're not comfortable doing when it comes to heavy lifting, because mental blocks are a *****.

The kettlebells are fine, but they're certainly not heavy lifting. Free weights are key here. I say go into this small gym of yours and just see what you're comfortable with. You might be surprised.

ironanimal

You don't need a gym "for women". Exercise stimulus works, for all intents and purposes, the same for everyone.

If you want to lift, join a regular gym with free weights. No need to overcomplicate it.

yirara

Yes, woman and men here don't work out together, unless I'm going to an expat spa club - which I'm not willing to pay for (seriously, 3000 USD? I could imagine better things to do with that money!) or use the compound gym.

JoRocka

sounds like she's over seas- and in some countries- there ARE gyms for women only- because they are not allowed to work out with men.

If that is the case- make do with what you have available- and do a body weight program.

ironanimal

Ah, an Islamic state I would guess? Not that it really matters.

Is there any possibility of getting the basic equipment for lifting in your house/apartment? If not, YAYOG is probably your best bet - the Android App is pretty good and I assume they have one for IOS too.

n3ver3nder

Slap a fake beard on and go to a mens gym. Otherwise do some strength training with the equipment you have to hand, pay attention to what you're doing and overcome your clumsiness by being mindful of your surroundings and what you're doing.

meshashesha2012

the main thing i would be worried about is that light barbell. trying to load 90 pounds on a 12 pound might eventually lead to some equipment failures.

but yeah make the best with what you have, sounds like you can get a good workout in

yirara

That's what I'm wondering as well Meshashesha. I don't know how much I can load onto the bar safely. I can do deadlifts and figure out how the bar reacts, though that doesn't help with structural failure occurring over time. Anyway, I got completely jumpy over the last few days and really really want to start lifting heavy again!