Getting Fit & Staying Healthy

melkadee

Working out definitely gives me more energy! I can play with the kids for longer periods of time without tiring as quickly . They started swim lessons a few weeks ago. I am required to accompany them in the pool. I am pretty spent afterwards :indifferent: . I do lots of cardio, but I am interested in doing more strength training. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to start a strength training program?

Brie4me

I agree, exercising definitely gives me so much energy!! Are you interested in doing strength training at home or a gym?

melkadee

I have very little fitness equipment at home. I recently joined a gym. So I plan to take advantage of what they offer.

Brie4me

That's great! Most gym's have trainers to work with you to get you started. Personally, I think doing circuits using the weight machines is a good place to start because they help you maintain form. If you think you would prefer to do free weights, the trainer will show you proper form.

I see these two books recommended around the forums often: Stronglifts or New Rules of Lifting for Women (NROLFW). They say both are great for beginners. I have not read them, but you could do a forum search for more info to see if either one feels right for you.

Have fun!!

cwolfman13

You should do a tried and true lifting program to get the most benefit from lifting. A lifting program is going to tell you exactly what to do, how often to do it, when to increase weight, when to decrease weight, etc. A good beginner program is going to focus primarily on the big compound lifts with little to no assistance/isolation work. This is due to the fact that noobs, 1) need a lot of exposure to these lifts for proper development; 2) doing a lot of random accessory and isolation work is counterproductive for an individual new to weight training.

One problem that rookies have in the weight room is that they tend to gravitate towards assistance work (the least beneficial of any lifting you can do) and completely or almost completely ignore the compound lifts. The compound lifts are the most important...these build your base or foundation...they should be at the core of any routine whether beginner or intermediate and apply either way to women or men, sex doesn't matter.

Personally, I recommend a free weight program as this is the only way to expose yourself to these lifts. IMHO, machines have their place...for assistance and isolation work. To do a full body workout using machines would literally require hours in the gym to hit everything because they isolate the muscles so much...a full body workout with free weights takes 30-45 minutes.

Once you start to plateau with strength gains is when you would want to switch to a program that incorporates assistance work...that's what assistance work is really for...to "assist" those big compound lifts. BTW, those compound lifts are: Squat, Dead-Lift, Bench Press, Standing Overhead Press, Power Cleans (But a lot of people substitute Pendlay Rows.

New Rules of Lifting for Women is a good beginner program, particularly for women who are interested in true barbell weight training but are a bit intimidated. Starting Strength is also excellent...the book is very technical and boring, but you will know your stuff when you finish it. Strong Lifts gets mentioned here on MFP a lot, but I'm not a fan of the guy (can't remember his name) and I don't like the fact that it's just a rip off of Starting Strength but a 5x5 format rather than a 3x5...otherwise, it's pretty much the same with far less instruction.

If you go the Personal Trainer route, they will most likely want to show you how to do a bunch of machines...this is because most PTs aren't worth a lick to begin with...and most just assume that because you're a woman you are afraid of barbells and such things. My wife had to fire her PT because he just couldn't get it through his meat head skull that she wanted to train with barbells. Don't get me wrong, some PTs are good...but a lot of them are pretty worthless and have bro-science coming out the wazzzuuuu....

Also, circuit training with weights can be great...but it's not "strength" training...it's circuit training. It's a phenomenal workout and you will gain some measure of strength and certainly muscular endurance...but strength gains will not be substantial and neither will hypertrophy (if that's your goal). Just mentioning this because a lot of people equate circuit training with weights with strength training...but they're very different things...just an example...

Strength Training = 3-5 reps w/3-5 sets where you are close to failure on your last reps; also referred to as "Heavy Lifting"

Hypertrophy Training = 8-12 resp w/3-5 sets where you are close to failure on your last reps; also referred to as "Body Building" or "toning"

Muscular Endurance Training = Generally more than 12 reps and often done with very little rest between sets and moving quickly to other exercises; also called circuit training. This is basically cardio that incorporates some level of resistance work.

Brie4me

Thank you for sharing, Wolf!

melkadee

Cwolfman13, thank you for the wonderful info. Thanks for clarifying the difference between strength training, hypertrophy and muscular endurance. I met with a trainer and he did only introduce me to the machines. He did not venture toward the free weights at all. He wrote a plan that include 12 - 15 reps with 3 sets for all the machines introduced. Thank you for the insight. It is apparent that I will have to keep educating myself on this subject as it is new for me.