ladies - lifting question

shiseido_faerie

Hi everyone,

I've seen a lot lately about women lifting heavy and the New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women book, after seeing everyones pictures i've realized THAT is the kind of body I want, not just skinny like you get from cardio, but strong. Right now I can't get a gym membership (probably not for a few more months) so I am wondering is there anything I could be doing to prepare myself for this at home until I can??

Thanks for any input!

brandyk77

I have found the 30 day shred is a nice entry level, mostly body weight at home option. I got some great arm definition from all the push ups!

abirkel

i don't belong to a gym and do all my workouts at home. someday i want to join a gym but it's not in our budget right now.

bodybuilding.com has a few entry level strength training programs (I like jamie eason's live fit trainer). some of the exercises require gym equipment (lat pulldowns, for example) but i just google dumbbell or bodyweight substitutions for X and do those instead (like instead of lat pulldowns i do dumbell rows, for example).

i also do bodyrock.tv workouts and ZWOW workouts (both on youtube). they are circuits and intervals mostly but are bodyweight only or with a sandbag (i use large purse with a broken zipper filled with garden rocks and duct taped) but you can substitute dumbbells, a kettlebell, etc...whatever you have. i don't have the gymboss interval timer they recommend, but i just set up the intervals on a website called beach fitness tabata or something. if you google that it will come up.

i am 28 years old and i have two young children....i have better muscle tone and definition, as well as endurance and overall strength, from these two programs alone, than i have ever had in my life (except for when i was in high school, playing two sports and lifting every day...plus i had a 17 year old metabolism). and all of this was completely free.

i hope this gives you some ideas for places to start strength training.

Il_DaniD_lI

Go to Winners (if you have that there) and buy weights, I say Winners because they are especially cheap there. Do squats, lunges, etc with weights from home until you get the gym membership.

SqautsAndOats

The book convict conditioning has a ton of progressive body weight that you can work on for the time being.

shiseido_faerie

Thanks guys!

I do 30ds etc so maybe i'll just get some heavier weights and work on that until I can get a gym membership, not sure why that didn't occur to me duh! haha

nutandbutter

Get NROLFW from your library and read through it. I never did the actual program but it has a lot of good info in the beginning and will definitely convince you to lift heavy.

yogibella

I'm thinking the same thing shiseido_faer. I have a bench at home so I might run off to Canadian Tire or Fitness Depot etc. and invest in some barbells until joining a gym (the 5 & 10lbs dumbbells will quickly become redundant). Still waiting to get the book so will see how it goes! Good luck:)