Yes, another lifting for women thread

I´m a pre-beginner! I strongly consider to try StronLift 5x5, but want to know some of yours experiences and hear your advice. I know there is a group, but I haven´t read up on it all yet. Sorry if my questions is answered there and I just haven´t read it yet. I´m a 5´3 girl,154 pounds and absolutely no muscles. I´m a weakling! My goal is to lose fat and be toned and to become stronger. So:

A) what are your experiences.?
any advice ?
C) I´m a little to comfortable and I´m afraid to lose motivation fast. What about the InnerCircle? Any experiences on that? Or is it just a waste of money?
D) Any pre-beginners out there?
E) I have probably forgotten a lot of my questions, so just hit me with what you got.

Thank you for your time to read and answer this.

The stronglifts for women is an awesome group. You should read up on it. I am doing stronglifts and in month 2. I enjoy it

a) My experience has been good. I like the gradual increase in weights. Its not throwing me into heavy lifting which will make me stall after a while. Its slowly increasing my strength level while making sure I learn the form with low weights.

b) Work on your form. Seriously. THE most important thing is to work on your form. Try to get some weight lifting friends (might I suggest looking for weight lifters who give sound advice on the forums?) and ask them questions if you get stuck.

c) Dunno what innercircle is. But I would suggest trusting stronglifts. Its proven to be one of the best programs for many and is highly suggested many times on these boards. If you're too comfortable, give it some time and soon you'll see its true colors when you start lifting serious weights

A) what are your experiences.? I'm doing sort of a mix of Starting Strength and Stronglifts. So far it's been good. I've progressed much further with my lifting than I did doing New Rules of Lifting for Women.
any advice ? FORM!!!! Learn your form. Read Starting Strength. Watch youtube videos on form, particularly ones by Mark Rippetoe. Form, form, form. Once you think you know it, review it again.
C) I´m a little to comfortable and I´m afraid to lose motivation fast. What about the InnerCircle? Any experiences on that? Or is it just a waste of money? Waste. Don't bother.
D) Any pre-beginners out there? I was. Now I'm intermediate and am likely going to switch to Wendler's 5/3/1 once I'm done reading it. And once I'm over this infernal flu.
E) I have probably forgotten a lot of my questions, so just hit me with what you got. Don't forget to warm up with some sort of cardio before lifting for about 5 minutes. I ended up with some pretty severe hip flexor pain from heavy squats, so I now do some stretches after the cardio warmup and no more pain.

One thing that helped me was videoing myself. Even if you never show the video to anybody for a form check, you can still get a much better idea of what you're doing (wrong!) if you can see it on screen. I also found it helpful to watch lots of other people's videos and try to work out what they were doing right or wrong. It's important to get it right. I went through a stage of not going quite low enough on my squats and by the time I caught it I had to deload and more or less start again. (All I can say is that you need to go lower than you think you're going - lower than it feels! It feels a lot harder when you're low enough.)

I have no experience of the Inner Circle as I didn't think it sounded worth the money. The Starting Strength website has a forum, videos and articles if you're looking for more information. I also found the Starting Strength book very helpful.

My experience was with Starting Strength, which is similar to Stronglifts. I found it a bit easier as it is mostly 3x5 rather than 5x5. (However, doing 3x5 probably means that you are lifting marginally higher weights than you could manage on 5x5, so you need more recovery team and probably all evens out!). Three sets of five lifts, instead of five sets.

With Stronglifts and Starting Strength, I think it's fine to start with very low weights if you prefer, because you're adding weight every workout (3 times a week) and will soon get to the weight that's right for you.

I found that I needed a gym with a power rack/squat rack. My son used to lift the bar for me to squat, but it soon got too heavy.

The Stronglifts for Women group here is great! Do join and ask lots of questions! Good luck!

I agree with Taunto^
But luckily it sounds to me like the op knows she wants to lift heavy and build muscle already and she also did not ask for cardio advice:)

I agree with taunto too. I've done no cardio for the 3 months I've been lifting (except pushing my son in his stroller!)and I've dropped a lot of body fat and more than a clothes size . I started with a made up hybrid of Nia shanks beginner programme and some other stuff thrown in just for kicks (got very excited and wanted to try lots of different lifts) I was lifting for 1 to 1.5 hours three times a week. As the weight I could lift started to get heavier and my form improved this became far too tiring, I then shifted to using 5x 5 exclusively. It's brilliant! I'm getting stronger every week and its definitely changing my shape. i can also be in amd out of the gym in 45 minutes. Go for it!!!

Edited because autocorrect DOES NOT KNOW BeST!

I have no idea what InnerCircle is, but if you want a way to keep up your motivation, try joining Fitocracy. It's a free website that gives you points for various exercises, and there are levels and quests.

When I read about Fitocracy, it seems to be a kind of replacement of, for examble, RunKeeper. Am I right about this? I apologize if that´s a stupid question.

Kind of. It's used for tracking all sorts of exercises - boxing, weightlifting, running, hiking - pretty much anything you can think of. It awards points based on difficulty (although it's not a perfect system), so doing 5 squats without weights might get you 5 points, but 5 with a 20lb barbell on your shoulders will get you a lot more. It lets you know when you've beaten one of your old records, you achieve new levels every so often, and I just find it a great motivator altogether.

I´m a pre-beginner! I strongly consider to try StronLift 5x5, but want to know some of yours experiences and hear your advice. I know there is a group, but I haven´t read up on it all yet. Sorry if my questions is answered there and I just haven´t read it yet. I´m a 5´3 girl,154 pounds and absolutely no muscles. I´m a weakling! My goal is to lose fat and be toned and to become stronger. So:

A) what are your experiences.?
any advice ?
C) I´m a little to comfortable and I´m afraid to lose motivation fast. What about the InnerCircle? Any experiences on that? Or is it just a waste of money?
D) Any pre-beginners out there?
E) I have probably forgotten a lot of my questions, so just hit me with what you got.

Thank you for your time to read and answer this.

Stronglifts 5x5 is for serious body builders looking to put on lots of muscle. I'm guessing that you are not looking to get very muscular, but rather lose the fat and get toned. If that is the case then I would not recommend doing Stronglifts.

What you're looking for is a cardio strength training program that will burn fat, add some muscle, and help you lose weight. yes, technique is important and the predominant way to do that is to work on your core (abs, obliques, and lower back). That is the area you will rely on to keep your form when you are doing your exercises. So concentrate on contracting your core muscles when lifting weights and your technique will fall into place.

I would suggest a program that incorporates strength training and cardiovascular workouts that is high intensity for 30-60 minutes.

Please donot give out bad advice. Women (heck, even men) don't get bulky this easily. Stronglifts is NOT designed only for serious body builders. She doesn't need to only stick with cardio strength training to burn fat. She won't be able to add muscle while eating at a deficit.

Am I to understand that you basically want her to do those video programs like insanity only? If so, while those programs are great, I will once again ask you to not give bad advice since you donot NEED such programs. Stronglifts will work perfectly fine, if not better

It is not bad advise, it is sound advise. The scientific basis behind low reps, heavy weights is to build muscle strength and mass. The Stronglifts 5x5 program is a 12 week program that does not have sustainability. This is no different than the P90X or Insanity programs. Individuals need to try different programs and see what works for them. I was just giving her an option to incorporate into her routine, because most people will do the 12 week program and not know where to go from there. You have to be able to mix it up each week or you will get in a rut and get bored with the same routine.

Add in some pull ups and dips to avoid T Rex mode

As much as I love them (And the T Rex mode that goes with it) its usually an overkill when doing a heavy lifting program like stronglifts and actually hurts your stronglifts since the energy is going towards pull up and dips. For starting I think you can just follow the program for a couple of month without changing much. I am thinking about adding some cardio RIGHT AFTER the lifting though since I sometimes still have energy.

I´m a pre-beginner! I strongly consider to try StronLift 5x5, but want to know some of yours experiences and hear your advice. I know there is a group, but I haven´t read up on it all yet. Sorry if my questions is answered there and I just haven´t read it yet. I´m a 5´3 girl,154 pounds and absolutely no muscles. I´m a weakling! My goal is to lose fat and be toned and to become stronger. So:

A) what are your experiences.?
any advice ?
C) I´m a little to comfortable and I´m afraid to lose motivation fast. What about the InnerCircle? Any experiences on that? Or is it just a waste of money?
D) Any pre-beginners out there?
E) I have probably forgotten a lot of my questions, so just hit me with what you got.

Thank you for your time to read and answer this.

Stronglifts 5x5 is for serious body builders looking to put on lots of muscle. I'm guessing that you are not looking to get very muscular, but rather lose the fat and get toned. If that is the case then I would not recommend doing Stronglifts.

What you're looking for is a cardio strength training program that will burn fat, add some muscle, and help you lose weight. yes, technique is important and the predominant way to do that is to work on your core (abs, obliques, and lower back). That is the area you will rely on to keep your form when you are doing your exercises. So concentrate on contracting your core muscles when lifting weights and your technique will fall into place.

I would suggest a program that incorporates strength training and cardiovascular workouts that is high intensity for 30-60 minutes.

Please donot give out bad advice. Women (heck, even men) don't get bulky this easily. Stronglifts is NOT designed only for serious body builders. She doesn't need to only stick with cardio strength training to burn fat. She won't be able to add muscle while eating at a deficit.

Am I to understand that you basically want her to do those video programs like insanity only? If so, while those programs are great, I will once again ask you to not give bad advice since you donot NEED such programs. Stronglifts will work perfectly fine, if not better

It is not bad advise, it is sound advise. The scientific basis behind low reps, heavy weights is to build muscle strength and mass. The Stronglifts 5x5 program is a 12 week program that does not have sustainability. This is no different than the P90X or Insanity programs. Individuals need to try different programs and see what works for them. I was just giving her an option to incorporate into her routine, because most people will do the 12 week program and not know where to go from there. You have to be able to mix it up each week or you will get in a rut and get bored with the same routine.

That doesn't necessarily equal bulk though. You did gave poor advice and I kinda question how a man can give advice to a woman of this kind given that said man is not a woman...

Hey, behave all. I appreciate all kinds of advise. I have decided to do lifting. But I agree, that I will have to put some thoughts into what to do when the 12 weeks are over. I´m sure that I can get some good advise here on MFP- and some bad advises as well. I will read up on the group, they probably have some great ideas. But some may have considered something I have not. A lot of people do. I have been given some great advises here, and as said, I am very thankfull. I will do a lot of reading and watch some youtube videos. I have subscribed to StrongLifts channel and some others. There´s some disagreement about what is best, few exercises or more exercises mixed. I´m leaning towards a few, like Stronglifts advises. That sounds manageable for me. But please keep hitting me with our experiences.

You can continue stronglifts after 12 weeks. Just a thought