Strenth for women. Help needed

elizak87
elizak87 Posts: 249 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been doing weights at the gym for a while but I want to do serious and heavy weights. At the moment I use a combo of machines and free weights. No weights are candy coated but they aren't real heavy. I can leg press up to 73kg, bench press 25kg, squat press 15kg and dead lift 17.5kg for example but I want to go heavier and I want to increase my strength.

So my questions are:
1. How heavy show I am to lift?

2. Is there a trainer for weight training only?

3. What are the name of the books for strength training?

Replies

  • KatieJane83
    KatieJane83 Posts: 2,002 Member
    1. "lifting heavy" is completely relative. your heavy is not the same as my heavy which is not the same as the next person's heavy. Heavy is whatever weight you can max out at doing somewhere around 5-8 or so reps.

    2. I don't know.

    3. Resources: I believe New Rules of Lifting For Women, Stronglifts 5x5, and Starting Strength are often recommended. (I think the last 2 are only websites)
  • jfrankic
    jfrankic Posts: 747 Member
    1. "lifting heavy" is completely relative. your heavy is not the same as my heavy which is not the same as the next person's heavy. Heavy is whatever weight you can max out at doing somewhere around 5-8 or so reps.

    2. I don't know.

    3. Resources: I believe New Rules of Lifting For Women, Stronglifts 5x5, and Starting Strength are often recommended. (I think the last 2 are only websites)

    ^^ This. Except, I'm adding to #3. Check out anything by Nia Shanks. She ROCKS. I'm doing her Beautiful Badass programs (just finished her beginner and I liked it WAY better than NOLFW) and am following her Singles program to prep for a PL competition. http://www.niashanks.com/beautiful-badass/
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
    if you can lift it more than 5 sets of 5 reps (WITH PROPER FORM) without struggling at the end, it's not heavy enough.

    books: New Rules of Lifting for Women (although personally, after stage 1, I felt like the workout was too long and complex to remember without your book by your side, and it incorporated too many isolation moves instead of sticking to the big lifts), or, even better, Starting Strength. Free online: Stronglifts.com

    I like the stronglifts 5x5 program - only 5 big compound lifts; in, out, boom -- strong.

    I started with an empty bar (45 lbs) last March and within a few months I was squatting and deadlifting more than my body weight--it was such an accomplishment to load the big plates and reach 135#.

    blessings.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    3. Resources: I believe New Rules of Lifting For Women, Stronglifts 5x5, and Starting Strength are often recommended. (I think the last 2 are only websites)

    "Starting Strength" refers to both a lifting program and a book by Mark Rippetoe. If you do nothing else for your lifting education, buy this book. (Even if you never follow Starting Strength as a program).

    There is a website too, with a forum, as well as a wiki, but there is no substitute for the book.

    To answer your questions..
    1. Lifting heavy means lifting what challenges you in around the 4-8 rep range, and usually in this context we are talking about the big compound lifts. If you can do 15+ reps, it ain't that heavy

    2. A trainer for lifting only is called a Strength Coach.

    3. Re: books, see above.

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