Lots of questions

Jamtab

Proper form - how do you know if you're doing things right? I'm working out at home, I've watched you tube videos of proper form. For lunges, how far forward do you step? I feel like I'm not "lunging" forward, but taking a smallish step, I do feel the burn in my leg muscles, and get my leg pretty close to parallel to the floor, but I don't feel like I'm stepping out as far as you're supposed to. For deadlifts - I'm only up to 35 pounds, I feel a slight strain in my lower back but it's mostly leg burn. Is that right? I don't know if there is supposed to be no back pain, I always hear you can really hurt your back if you do them wrong. And for squats - I'm doing them at home and I don't have a squat rack. I feel like my limiting factor weight wise, is getting the barbell up over my head. Is there a proper form to do this? I'm just kind of winging it right now.

I feel like I'm always struggling to guess how much I can lift. I feel like I'm wasting my workouts bc maybe I could do more? I up it on the second set usually but feel like I should do another set bc I wimped the first one. Should I just over estimate my weight right off the bat and lower it if necessary? What do you guys do?

I'm at home, so I'm not sure how gym equipment works, but I have to change my weights on every exercise it seems, so I know I have more than a 60sec break between one exercise to the next? Is this going to be detrimental to anything, do you think? The book just says its not the workout Allwyn created, but doesn't really say why it's so bad, etc. Any thoughts there?

Thanks for your time.

aquajen77

For lunges, make sure your knee is behind your toe. If it's not, you are not taking a big enough step.

whiskeysister510

OK, let me try to address all of these as best I can! I’m no expert, but I’m in Stage 6 of the program and I spend hours reading about weightlifting every week!

For form, I don't think the NROLFW book provides enough detailed information for a beginner to learn form. I would suggest using Mark Ripptoe’s Starting Strength as your form bible. The book devotes an entire chapter to squats, deadlifts and bench presses, respectively. Practice your form with no weights, then slowly start adding weights as you feel ready and comfortable. If you can afford it, consider a session or two with a trainer to learn form—just make sure the trainer is willing to do what you want to do and doesn’t have their own agenda for your sessions.

As for the strain in your lower back when doing deadlifts, you may be using improper form and/or lifting too much weight. Deadlifts do work the lower back, but the focus should be on hips and legs. Do you feel the pain/strain while performing the lift or the next day? Could just be normal DOMS, but the only time I have ever felt pain/strain in my lower back due to deadlifts was when I attempted to lift too much and my form got really bad! It was stiff and sore for a few days, then back to normal.

As for squats without a rack, bottom line is: you need a rack. As you have already found, getting the barbell in position without a rack is challenge. Without a rack, I would suggest dumbbells instead of the barbell.

For selecting the right weights, eventually you will get in a good rhythm and know when to move up. For the barbell, I have found it helpful to use 2.5 lb plates so I can add just a little weight every time I’m ready. For now, find a weight that allows you to do all reps in a set while feeling very challenged at the end of the set. If you can’t complete the set, you may have too much weight. If you complete the set too easily, add more weight. If you feel your first set as too light, consider it a warm-up set (which I would recommend you do) and then go ahead and add the next set with the heavier weight. When I complete the last set of a workout and it feels too easy, I note this on my log and move up from start of the next workout.

On spending more than 60 sec in between lifts, don’t worry about it. It’s better to rest more than it is to rest too little. And anyways, if you’re lugging around heavy plates to change the weights, then you might not truly be getting more than 60 seconds of rest! The 60 seconds is just a rest for your muscles. Later in the program, you will rest 2 minutes between heavy low-rep sets.

Lastly, if you really want to take advantage of all this program has to offer, it sounds like you’ll either need to join a gym or get yourself a better home gym set up. You need an Olympic barbell, a set of weight plates ranging from very light (2.5 lbs) to heavy (45 lbs), a set of 10 lb bumper plates are great for learning deadlift form, a set of adjustable dumbbells will help save space, a step/box will be required later on, a resistance band can act as a replacement for cable work, an adjustable bench (flat and incline), a swiss ball, and you need a squat rack or at the very least a squat stand!

Good luck! I hope this helps—this is just all the stuff I learned as I went through the first few stages of the program.