Heavy Lifting

berthabunny

I am convinced. I need to start lifting!

I am planning on starting the week of March 18th, as I have a sport season championship the weekend before that, and I shouldn't switch up my routine right before hand (my coach would go nuts :laugh: ).

I was reading the thread a ways down the page about beginner strength training, and have gotten a few ideas of where to start, but am not sure how to go about it yet. I have access to a full gym, but don't know half of the equipment in it (I am sure they do intro tours though).
My goal is to be able to do pull-ups, which means I need to strengthen/keep those muscles especially, while losing the weight (starting my cut on Friday). I understand that I should probably work out every muscle group 1-2 times week, correct?
Any advice, or a workout plan with how many days per week, and what to do on those days, would be greatly appreciated.

Some more background:
I am 5'6"
18
Female
152 pounds (GW 135 ish)
TDEE 2700ish (I generally log about 2550, and I think I probably get 100-200 calories more because I estimate amounts usually)
BMR: 1500 ish
Currently swim 8-11 hours a week and do dryland (including TRX and some light weights for shoulder exercises) 3-4 hours a week. Doing this nearly year-round leaves me fairly strong, but I was doing a VLCD for months until 6 weeks ago, by the time I can start lifting, I will have eaten TDEE for 6 weeks and 15-18% deficit for 2 weeks.
Come March 18th, I switch to rowing, but we have indoor erging/tanks and dryland until the ice melts, maybe 6-7 hours a week. I am planning on swimming 30-45 minutes 3x week during that time as well.

Thank you!

SweatpantsRebellion

Wow. You are involved in a lot and have quite a bit of activity. Please make sure that you use strenuous activity as your level when you set your calories so that you are not undereating. Listen to this also. When you start lifting, you will undercut your hard work if you undereat, so it's very important that you get enough calories for your activity level. You might even consider eating at your TDEE for awhile when you first start lifting. This is because it's hard to build muscle in a deficit. You want your hard work to pay off and you will see more gain in lean muscle mass by fueling your body properly.

I strongly recommend the book New Rules of Lifting for Women. I like it because it's written for women who are new to lifting. Also, the author goes into a lot of specifics about how to eat, what to eat, how many calories to consume while lifting, why that's important, etc...The book includes a full workout program consisting of stages that is easy to follow - even for someone new to lifting. There's pictures and descriptions for each lifting exercise that's included as part of the program. The program progresses in difficulty and seems to really ease into the lifting without being overwhelming.

ladyace2078

I strongly recommend New Rules for Abs. The title is misleading and it really is a focus on building a strong trunk. My pull-ups had huge gains with the program. New Rules for Women has been updated to New Rules Supercharged, but both are great programs. I LOVED NROLFA and I just started Supercharged, which I also love.

berthabunny

I think I'll go with NROLFW, because I want to work my legs and arms as well as trunk.
Do I need to buy the book? I am very, very low on money and am pretty good at finding info online.
I found the workouts for Stages 1 and 2, with demos, and I know some of the eating 'rules' from reading the NROLFW forum in MFP (I am working for 40, 30, 30 macros currently).
I need to find out reasonable weights to start with. Is there any way to measure what point I should start at for each exercise, or is it more trial and (hopefully not) error?

Thank you for the advice.

Greenrun99

NROLFW is a great start(from what i have heard), but with what your doing (swimming and rowing) it might be difficult some days.. Since you have a coach have you approached him/her to ask what type of lifting can improve your performance (as you mentioned its a sport).. I mean with swimming there are leg exercises you can do, as well as shoulder and back to improve your swimming.. same with rowing, that's is intense on the lower back and shoulders..
Then if training those days muscles you wouldn't want to then lift with those on a different/off day as they need to heal.. plus if you haven't lifted weights you don't want to lift, then be sore and suffer in the sport session you have.

berthabunny

NROLFW is a great start(from what i have heard), but with what your doing (swimming and rowing) it might be difficult some days.. Since you have a coach have you approached him/her to ask what type of lifting can improve your performance (as you mentioned its a sport).. I mean with swimming there are leg exercises you can do, as well as shoulder and back to improve your swimming.. same with rowing, that's is intense on the lower back and shoulders..
Then if training those days muscles you wouldn't want to then lift with those on a different/off day as they need to heal.. plus if you haven't lifted weights you don't want to lift, then be sore and suffer in the sport session you have.

The sport part of swimming will be over by the time I start lifting, the 3 days a week is for my personal pleasure, swimmers get addicted to the chlorine, ya know, we cry if we don't visit the pool for too long :sad: That swimming is to keep me from going crazy, I might not do quite as much, but it will also be fairly easy and relaxed. I am contemplating asking one of my coaches, good idea. It might be awkward to ask my head swim coach as I'll never be swimming with her again (college), and I don't see the crew coach being highly supportive, but I might ask anyways. One of the other coaches is more of a life coach kinda person, so I might ask her.

I really want to be able to do most military exercises and be stronger in general, because I will be at Basic Training this summer, hence the pull-up worry.
BTW, I just tried pull-ups again today, I can start up and go down 3/4 of the way and back up 3-4 times! That is better than starting at nothing.
This might be able to give you a better idea of where I am: I can also do 40+ push-ups, modified sit-ups to the end of eternity (100ish in 2 minutes) and my best mile is a 6:38, average more like 6:50.
I would like to be able to do push-ups to the end of eternity, a 6:30 mile (not highest on my list) and at least 3 pull-ups.

ETA: I know my goals are not exactly weight-lifting oriented, but they are strength oriented, which is why I think lifting will help.