Weight Lifting??

donnaeve8

So I have been doing this whole fat loss thing for about 6 weeks now and have lost between 7 and 12 lbs (keep yo-yoing between the 2 weights- ugh). I cut my calories, have been doing cardio 3 x week, upped my calories, zig-zagged them. And the scale is hardly budging! Anyway, someone in an earlier post posted a link to a bodybuilding link and....wow! I am so confused!! There is a lot information there that is not only opposite of what I have believed but alot of info about weight training that I don't understand (WTH is a dead-lift???)
Can someone tell me if they use a program, what program and if it is good for beginners who don't know the difference between a shoulder press and barbell curl)??
Also is the book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" beginner friendly??

Thanks in advance!!
~Donna

PS.. I want to be brave enough to attempt these weight exercises in the gym without all the muscle heads laughing at me

estevo66

Go to Bodybuilding.com. They can show all kinds of weight lifting exercises

MarieNevada

grrr i had this long post and managed to close the tab. duh. Yes bodybuilding.com is awesome. on the main page, at the left, select, find a plan and just follow the instructions. Once you have a plan, at the top of the page, select Super Site. then at the left again select exercises, search for your exercises and they have videos that show you and tell you exactly what to do, demonstrated by a woman. Ignore all the supplement stuff.

Here's a secret about the muscle heads. They're so busy looking at themselves they wont even notice you. If they do, all they'll think is "cool for her, for trying weights." When i first started, i had a month of panic attacks before i could go and when i did, i was shaking. I weighed 286 lbs. nobody laughed at me, nobody even noticed me. I love lifting weights, I use the book Body By Design by Kris Gethin, who is the editor in chief of bodybuilding.com, which has a 3-phase basic plan and a really simple nutrition plan. I've lost 31 lbs in the first 9 weeks. But any newer book should work, go check out and see what the library has. You'll love weight lifting. also don't worry about bulking up. Unless you plan on taking steroids, it's impossible for women to get huge muscles. But the more Lean Body Mass you have, the higher your metabolism and the more efficient your body will burn fat. THere's nothing but good in lifting weights.

Good luck, I think you'll love it.

lisamac878

the more muscle you have the more calories/fat you will burn. So even though cardio is excellent, weight lifting compliments it completely and tones your body (can we say bikini as for a program, I would suggest something fun like body pump or get a women's health magazine which has a lot of easy to follow weight lifting tips with pictures. Maybe even go to their website. Good Luck!!!

lkenn67

weight lifting always intimidated me too. What I ended up doing is taking a class through the YMCA. Our local Y offers a class called "Women on Weights" I have really enjoyed it. You might want to look into you local Y. Even if your not a member you can take a class. They might charge an extra $10.

One thing I have noticed is a huge change in my body shape...in a good way....good luck

donnaeve8

@estevo66- that was the site that I was on...I couldn't understand alot of their jargon and it didn't seem to be "noob" friendly

@MarieNevada- thank you!! I was lost on that site and was only looking through the forum. You just pointed me in the right direction!! And thanks for the courage, also

@lisamac- that's exactly what I was learning at the other site. Thanks for the input!

PS somehow I double-posted this topic - so sorry about that- my computer must have hiccuped.

alkruszka

One thing my old trainer told me is that if you are initially trying to lose weight, to do lots of reps at smaller weights. Like, initially I started off doing bicep curls like this:

5 lbs
Set 1 - 20 reps
60 second rest
Set 2 - 25 reps
rest
Set 3 - 20 reps

That way you can do them a little faster (hence using lighter weights, so you don't hurt yourself!) and it's both strengthening and cardio. It definitely worked. I'll be doing that again now that I'm going back to the gym.

The other thing I do to help with toning is to use either ankle weights or small hand weights when I'm doing any kind of cardio workout (at least at home where no one sees me look foolish) - Sometimes I just turn on music and dance around and fist pump with my 5 pounders :-) I look like an idiot, but it works!

circusmom

Here is a link to a site I refer back to from time to time,
http://www.strength-training-woman.com/back-exercise.html
I have also found several good books at the library. When I was going to the gym (now I have a home gym), many of the muscle heads are not paying attention to anything except their own workout. I found many of them to be very helpful and willing to share info and tips that can help someone starting out.

NubyGloom

Yeah bodybuilding .com rocks. iam not shocked that the way hey say to eat is different rom what you may have heard. most of them and body Building meaning ! huge muscles! so they need a huge in take of protein.

How ever that is not a bad thing. if you want to work towards a nice lean body. I have heard a little bit about the zig zag thing. But from the few years I have been learning about fitness and health and that stuff the common one that worked for me was consistency, so keep good clean meals very two-three hours and try to keep them with correct portions. Its really hard to go about this food intake, because every body is different and we need to learn to listen to our body. Which I have found an easy way to get your body in a routine-ish thing. Get an alarm clock and set it to go off every two to three hrs and have a meal at that time.

And example of listening to your body, my sister can eat heavy stuff [like bread, rice, complex carbs] at lunch and feel good, and have energy afterward. She watch how the food impacted her, and diner she found a light meal to be best. [salad, fish, veggies]

And I feel best with a light meal at lunch, if I eat something heavy I pretty much pass out for the day...
Know I know that was n9t a lot of your question... how ever food is important it is about 80% of what will help you get to your health/fitness goal.

As or training and working out weights and all that I would love to help you!

Dead lifts are,
stand with your feet shoulder width apart.
Toes forward NOT turned out
The dumbbells will be a few inches in front of your feet if you are to look down and check.
You will then squat down with your arms going on the out side of your knees [and arms stay straight do not bend them.
Then lift up with you legs.
When you up drive you pelvis forward
and retract [tighen] your shoulder baldes togeter.
That would be one.

lol srry didnt mean for that to be so long , i really hope it helped out ^^
And i hear ya out! Iam a chick who love lift weights! and dont want to be laughed at either! I do lost of rutines Iam working on a web site I hope to have running monday. with a program or this month! ill post later? if your intrested?

CommandaPanda

I'm working on body building right now, I'm certainly not at the intermediate level but my knowledge isn't set at the beginner level either.

A website that I HIGHLY recommend, as it's given me inspiration and guidance for getting in shape, is muscleandstrength.com

The particular workout I'm on right now is http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/24-doug---s-5-day-high-definition-routine.html?page=1

But if you go to the top and look at articles > body transformations, you'll see stories of people who used weight training and body building with good nutrition to lose tons of weight! Also if you go to Workouts > (pick something) then you'll find stuff that may help you out. Almost all of your questions are answered in each page and the authors of each workout is always around to answer questions.

If you don't know how to perform something then just click on the exercise and a video will come up demonstrating the exercise.

As for the gym... Don't be afraid of the other lifters or anybody else giving you looks... because they won't. I can 99% guaruntee that if you were to ask anybody in the gym if they could help you with an exercise or show you how to carry it out/watch your form.. they wouldn't have a problem (I know I would be more than happy to help somebody break into weight training). Weight training is a wonderful supplement to cardio and overall weight loss and personal health.

donnaeve8

Thanks for all of the great replies! It's much appreciated!

forJupiter

By the way "New Rules of Weightlifitng for Women" is awesome and really breaks down the basics and explains everything pretty well. It's very beginner friendly and shows a lot of exercises in the book. Definitely get it, it really taught me a lot and has really benefitted my workout. I'm trying to lose weight and my girlfriend is trying to gain muscle, this book is perfect for both of us and our different needs. I highly recommend it.

DanceYogaRun

Subbing to this thread. Great info! Thanks!

bgredenbaugh

Weight lifting rules! One of the great things when I was a LOT heavier was that even if cardio was hard for me, I was quite strong, so weights gave me a "win" so to speak.