Women Lifting Heavy

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stephanne82
stephanne82 Posts: 58 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I went to the gym last night to meet with a personal trainer (they offer this to see if you would be interested in getting one) and I was hoping that he could show me how to lift heavy. I wanted to start doing this after I finish with Insanity next week. Well, he said he doesn't do that with women and that I might hurt myself! :noway: That for women we need to do low weight and high reps. WTF! After reading posts in here and doing research, I thought a personal trainer would be more open minded. I guess I was wrong. I will just have to try to figure it out on my own...any suggestions?
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Replies

  • MustBeTheRows
    MustBeTheRows Posts: 377 Member
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    What a douche canoe. New Rules of Lifting - Women.
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    perhaps he meant as someone who hasnt lifted weights before ( I assume you havnt?) that you need to START with low weights.

    All this "lift heavy" talk on these forums is concerning. I hope you dont think that you just walk into a gym as a new lifter and start "lifiting heavy". Like the trainer said, thats a great way to hurt yourself.
  • SmudgerSmithRhino
    SmudgerSmithRhino Posts: 96
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    Women lifting heavy rock!

    Find yourself a tranier who will walk you through the whole process and show you how to lift correctly.
  • stephanne82
    stephanne82 Posts: 58 Member
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    perhaps he meant as someone who hasnt lifted weights before ( I assume you havnt?) that you need to START with low weights.

    All this "lift heavy" talk on these forums is concerning. I hope you dont think that you just walk into a gym as a new lifter and start "lifiting heavy". Like the trainer said, thats a great way to hurt yourself.

    Of course I know I can't start out with really heavy weights, I wanted to learn the correct forms with lower weights until I get stronger; you know?
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
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    Heavy doesn't have to mean "so heavy that you are going to hurt yourself", heavy is relative to each person.

    You are not going to hurt yourself if you are using proper form. That's the most important thing. Make sure before you even use ANY weight that you understand that aspect of lifting.

    New Rules, like someone else suggested, is good. I can't really vouch for that program, because I haven't seen it/read the book. But have seen many have success with it.

    Strong Lifts 5x5 is a good program you can find online.
  • Jenlwb
    Jenlwb Posts: 682 Member
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    As long as you do your research it's possible to do it without a trainer. I lift at home, using new rules of lifting program, which is a great introduction. There are lots of good youtube resources.
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    in my gym trainers know nothing.
    I saw one teaching girls how to bench press 5kg (11lbs) bar in smitch machine.

    They would never do free weights here, because that means teaching proper form... machines are just easier for them. Alsoe they make everybody do 12 reps 3 sets, like it's the only way to go.

    don't worry, the fact that somebody is trainer nowadays does not mean a lot, you can be one after weekend training...
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    perhaps he meant as someone who hasnt lifted weights before ( I assume you havnt?) that you need to START with low weights.

    All this "lift heavy" talk on these forums is concerning. I hope you dont think that you just walk into a gym as a new lifter and start "lifiting heavy". Like the trainer said, thats a great way to hurt yourself.

    Of course I know I can't start out with really heavy weights, I wanted to learn the correct forms with lower weights until I get stronger; you know?

    buy a book new rules of weight lifting for women, learn form from youtube videos, you can do this on your own.
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    perhaps he meant as someone who hasnt lifted weights before ( I assume you havnt?) that you need to START with low weights.

    All this "lift heavy" talk on these forums is concerning. I hope you dont think that you just walk into a gym as a new lifter and start "lifiting heavy". Like the trainer said, thats a great way to hurt yourself.

    Of course I know I can't start out with really heavy weights, I wanted to learn the correct forms with lower weights until I get stronger; you know?

    Im glad to hear you say that. lifting heavy is great. But I see people at the gym every time I go that have no clue how dangerously they are lifting because they want to "lift heavy".
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    perhaps he meant as someone who hasnt lifted weights before ( I assume you havnt?) that you need to START with low weights.

    All this "lift heavy" talk on these forums is concerning. I hope you dont think that you just walk into a gym as a new lifter and start "lifiting heavy". Like the trainer said, thats a great way to hurt yourself.

    Of course I know I can't start out with really heavy weights, I wanted to learn the correct forms with lower weights until I get stronger; you know?

    The important part is whether he specified women or beginners, and it looks like he did.
  • stephanne82
    stephanne82 Posts: 58 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your replies! I appreciate it :happy:
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Sounds like you just need to find a different trainer.

    Mine teaches proper form with the lighter weights.. and then once I have that down, he goes heavier... hence the 20 pound dumbbells he had me working with last night and then the 180 pound leg press he was having me do.
  • KINGoftheBUFF
    KINGoftheBUFF Posts: 67 Member
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    The personal trainer you saw was an idiot!

    My female clients do heavy compound lifts as well as metabolic drills (Kettle Bells and HIIT Training). And they all lost weight and look very lean.
  • annieu613
    annieu613 Posts: 143 Member
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    Your trainer sounds like a jerk.

    I've been doing New Rules of Lifting for Women, and I love it. I would strongly suggest it to any woman interested in weight lifting. Like others have said, it's really important not to lift so heavy that you're sacrificing form, but you can still push yourself.
  • Hendrix7
    Hendrix7 Posts: 1,903 Member
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    The majority of personal trainers in the large chain commercial style gyms are totally useless......as you just found out.

    If you feel like you want a PT to guide you, you would be better looking around locally for someone with a good track record and decent recommendations.
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    Wow. He's dumb.

    Check out this post. I think if you pay attention to form and start with low weights Stronglifts5x5 is a great program for beginners.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary
  • juliebeannn
    juliebeannn Posts: 428 Member
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    ewww. what a d-bag. i understand that you'll have to start with lower weights but a blanket statement like "i don't do heavy weights with women" would've had me spewing profanity at him. :mad:

    check out the group rae6503 posted. i do this program and i've been able to increase my strength and i love it!!! to go alongside the program, i recommend youtube-ing "mark rippetoe", he has great videos explaining form and if you're interested, he wrote a book called "starting strength" that's great, also.
  • Jules2Be
    Jules2Be Posts: 2,267 Member
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    perhaps he meant as someone who hasnt lifted weights before ( I assume you havnt?) that you need to START with low weights.

    All this "lift heavy" talk on these forums is concerning. I hope you dont think that you just walk into a gym as a new lifter and start "lifiting heavy". Like the trainer said, thats a great way to hurt yourself.

    Of course I know I can't start out with really heavy weights, I wanted to learn the correct forms with lower weights until I get stronger; you know?

    Im glad to hear you say that. lifting heavy is great. But I see people at the gym every time I go that have no clue how dangerously they are lifting because they want to "lift heavy".

    I think it should be "lift a little more each time" or something... for some it can mean going from 5 pounds to 8 pounds on dumbell shoulder presses...not heavy to some, but challenging to someone just developing upper body strength...that was me 10 months ago...now i use 15.

    Same thing with squats etc...HEAVY means what is challenging to YOU doing a lower number of reps versus a ton.IMO
  • PittShkr
    PittShkr Posts: 1,000 Member
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    I went to the gym last night to meet with a personal trainer (they offer this to see if you would be interested in getting one) and I was hoping that he could show me how to lift heavy. I wanted to start doing this after I finish with Insanity next week. Well, he said he doesn't do that with women and that I might hurt myself! :noway: That for women we need to do low weight and high reps. WTF! After reading posts in here and doing research, I thought a personal trainer would be more open minded. I guess I was wrong. I will just have to try to figure it out on my own...any suggestions?

    Find a new Trainer!
  • thoeting
    thoeting Posts: 89 Member
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    A trainer should be responding to what your needs/goals are! If you want to lift heavy, then the trainer's job is to get you there SAFELY.

    Not to mention, you may want to focus on building muscle groups - and he/she is going to need to know how to train the assistor muscles too.

    This BS of 'women do high reps/low weights' is the very very lazy way to train a client. S/He should have a plan for evey meeting and a long term plan of how to get you to YOUR goals, not his.

    Yep, you need a new trainer....

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