Lifting Heavy for a Beginer

slimintraining

Can anyone offer me any advice on lifting heavy please.

I am 37, 5"3 I weigh 195lbs and I have been exercising on the cross trainer at home for 30 mins 6 days per week and do toning too. But I want to lift, I have weights at home as I am not able to get to a gym so if anyone can offer any advice about how much to start with and what exercises to do I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance.

craftybirdy

For me the beginning of any new wieght training routine take a couple of days to figure out how much I should be lifting. Just as a general rule, the approppriate amount of wieght for any exercise is the amount you can lift for 10-12 reps while maintaining perfect form. If you lose your form and have to cheat the last few, you are going too heavy. If you feel like you could keep going, you need to go up in wieght. Also it's going to dep on the number of reps you are doing per set, if you are only doing 6-8 reps, you could go with a heavier wieght compared to the amount you would need for 20 reps per set. Hope this helps a little.

Gallowmere1984

If you want to go the heavy lifting route, only stick in the 10-12 rep range until you are comfortable with the movements. After that, can the high reps and drop into the 3-5 range. If you can do more than 5 reps, the weight is too light and you need to add more.

For example, I have only been lifting for two months, and my deadlift progression last week looked like this:

1x5 @ 225
1x3 @ 315
1x3 @ 335
1x2 @ 355
1x2 @ 365
4x1 @ 395

The 395s were a bit ugly, including some grip slip, but I still managed to lock them out and walk them back to the pins. I'll be hitting DL again this afternoon, so I'll be interested to see if I can break 400 this week.

ETA: I am 5'10" 220 lbs. Was 241 when I started lifting a couple of months ago.

slimintraining

Si is it just dead lift that is effective or should I be adding anything else?

Thanks for the replies so far.

Gallowmere1984

Squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press should be the core lifts. Everything else you add is basically just there to increase the power of the four cores. I just gave my deads progression as an indicator of a rep scheme that has worked well for me. My lifts have increased exponentially, whereas I see people who stick to the 'high reps for hypertrophy' stuff who have been lifting for over a year, and can't touch my 1RMs after two months.

That said, everyone is different. Once you have the basics down, then it's just a matter of finding what works best for you. The four fundamental lifts should always be there. You just build routines around them, basically.

sarahmoo12

bump to read later

Game8

First test your muscles and joint with light weight and work your way up to a weight that you can do 8-12 repetitions with. As long as you're keeping proper form, moving the weight in a controlled fashion and keeping the tension on your target muscle, lifting with the rep range I mentioned should be no problem.

Game8

Si is it just dead lift that is effective or should I be adding anything else?

Thanks for the replies so far.

If you're just starting, I would do full body workouts 3 times a week. And the best advice I (or anyone) can give you is to learn how to do proper form on the exercises, especially one like dead lifts. No one told me this when I started and now I have a lower back injury and will never be able to do squats or dead lifts ever again.

IrishDaveRed

I have not started lifting yet but when I asked about it on MFP I was given a link to Stronglifts 5x5. I found a lot of the materiel on his site to be very useful, especially the videos on proper form.

GuybrushThreepw00d

bump

Nix143

Hey there are a lot of lifting groups on here

There's a Stronglifts group for women which is really friendly and a great place to start with the basic compound lifts.

FullOfWin

It would help to know what equipment you have, but anyway, give this a look http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/686963-large-collection-of-info-for-beginners

slimintraining

I have, different sized weights up to 250 lbs, 2 dumb bells and a bar bell. I have a cross trainer. I don't have room for a bench though. Is there anything else you could suggest?

Gallowmere1984

I have, different sized weights up to 250 lbs, 2 dumb bells and a bar bell. I have a cross trainer. I don't have room for a bench though. Is there anything else you could suggest?

If you don't have room for a bench, that definitely eliminates a squat rack, which sucks a bit. However, you could very well use lighter weight, and clean and press the weight to behind your head, then squat. Just make sure you keep enough gas in the tank to be able to press it back to the front so you can clean it back to the floor.

FullOfWin

I have, different sized weights up to 250 lbs, 2 dumb bells and a bar bell. I have a cross trainer. I don't have room for a bench though. Is there anything else you could suggest?

Well it depends on how serious you want to be. If you really want to lift heavy as the title implies, you need the proper equipment. You could start out subbing with weighted push ups, or you could get a board and lay it on some cinder blocks or stacks of books or something to do db bench presses and then take it down and store it when you're done. You could do split squats, pistol squats, or regular squats holding DBs at your shoulders with hammer grip. Eventually you would be best served with a real bench and squat\power rack, whether at home or at a gym.

ilovedeadlifts

If you don't have room for a bench, you could still do some floor presses and overhead pressing variations.

I'd try to set up madcows 5x5 and just sub out the bench press if you can't get a bench.

Will210

If you haven't lifted weights before - I am not sure if I would recommend lifting heavy to start. Maybe a more pyramid approach like Body for Life which allows for excellent gains and somewhat lifting heavy at the last set. I would also recommend starting with a friend who has alot of experience with weight training and/or a trainer. Just to show you the ropes.

There is so much you can mess up like destroying your rotator cuff on a press exercise because you do it wrong or lift too heavy. Another example is lifting heavy curls and only work your forearms out. Stuff like that.

slimintraining

Thanks guys, I think I am going to try and make room for a bench that I can fold up and put away after I have finished.

@ilovedeadlift - what are madcows?

wmagoo27

what are madcows?

Madcows 5X5 is a program that has been floating around the internet for a while. It is a variation of an old 5X5 routine created by coach Bill Starr.

http://madcow.hostzi.com/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm

For form and exercise specific questions, you might check out www.startingstrength.com. There are some knowledgable people over there, and that site is focused on novice lifters who train heavy.

slimintraining

Thank you, will have a look into it.