Ladies who lift.

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Hello all, Monday I am planning on starting a new diet and exercise routine and have decided to give lifting a go! I have been doing some research but find it a little daunting, so I thought I would come here for some advice. So ladies, how did you start out? What was your weekly workout regime, I want to lift to lose weight to begin with and once I am the shape I want to then add/tone, what is your diet? Do you follow a specific diet plan for your lifting? As you can tell I am a complete beginner so all and any advice would be great, I don't wanna hit the gym Monday and cause myself serious injury !!
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Replies

  • fattymcfatterson2121
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    I do crossfit and thats how I started lifting. I think I definetely would have injured myself if I just tried myself at the gym. If there is a crossfit gym near you and you can afford it I would join. Everything is scaled which is great for people new to lifting.
  • 52cardpickup
    52cardpickup Posts: 379 Member
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    New Rules of Lifting for Women is life changing. If you go to a gym, you can ask a personal trainer to show you how to do the lifts in it properly. I'd say it's a great place to start for a beginner.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
  • Ghoulygirl
    Ghoulygirl Posts: 10 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    I started with another fitness app, a dumbbell routine that's gotten me up to 20-25 pounds on most of the exercises. Next week, though, I'm moving on to NROLFW because I feel I'm finally ready for it.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...


    What are your goals?
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...


    What are your goals?

    ^This
  • Ghoulygirl
    Ghoulygirl Posts: 10 Member
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...


    What are your goals?
    To lose wait whilst toning and strengthening my body I'm skinny fat at the moment.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...


    What are your goals?
    To lose wait whilst toning and strengthening my body I'm skinny fat at the moment.
    If you are in fact skinny fat, maintenance calories+ whatever lifting program you choose= your goals.
    What is your definition of skinny fat?

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...


    What are your goals?
    To lose wait whilst toning and strengthening my body I'm skinny fat at the moment.

    With the exception of "newbie gains", you're not going to gain much muscle in a deficit, but you will lose fat! Sounds like a re-comp is in order. Most eat at or about 250 below maintenance and lift.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,070 Member
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    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...

    Depends on your goals. If you still have fat to lose, you can lift at deficit, prioritising protein (and fat) in your diet to maintain lean mass. If you're happy with your weight, you could eat at surplus, prioritising carbs (and fat) to gain more muscle or eat at maintenance.

    I, personally, didn't like the routine in NROLFW but the section on diet is quite sensible.
  • adge1475
    adge1475 Posts: 77 Member
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    New Rules of Lifting for Women is life changing. If you go to a gym, you can ask a personal trainer to show you how to do the lifts in it properly. I'd say it's a great place to start for a beginner.

    I second the New Rules recommendation. Also, there are a TON of lifting programs available on bodybuilding.com. They also have little 30-second videos that actually demonstrate how to correctly perform the lift. If you want a great starter program, check out Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer. Start light in the beginning so you can learn the movements the right way!
  • Ghoulygirl
    Ghoulygirl Posts: 10 Member
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    If you are in fact skinny fat, maintenance calories+ whatever lifting program you choose= your goals.
    What is your definition of skinny fat?

    My BMI is 26, I'm 5ft 7" and weigh 164lbs I have very little muscle strength so it's all fat, problem areas being abdomen and thighs.
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
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    I started with Stronglifts 5x5. It's pretty simple, just 5 different, basic lifts. It's a good place to start if you're a complete lifting newbie.
  • Ghoulygirl
    Ghoulygirl Posts: 10 Member
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    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    My advice is to start now, not wait til Monday. Also check out strong lifts 5 x 5's.
    Hiya, this is the one I've spent most of my time reading about. I'm most interested in this. But it's not to clear on diet...


    What are your goals?

    ^This
    To lose weight while adding strength and toning my muscles.
  • levitateme
    levitateme Posts: 999 Member
    edited January 2015
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    I've been lifting heavy for almost a year now. I got started by using just the bare bar and did stonglifts 5x5 for 10 weeks. I looked up everything I needed to know online, including watching form videos, lots of them. The most important thing for a beginner is learning form and consistently going back.

    Just to prepare you: You will be really sore after the first day of squats. So sore you may find walking down the stairs a nightmare. This goes away. Once you are lifting 3 times a week, you get mild DOMS but nothing crazy.
  • Th3Ph03n1x
    Th3Ph03n1x Posts: 275 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    I started with another fitness app, a dumbbell routine that's gotten me up to 20-25 pounds on most of the exercises. Next week, though, I'm moving on to NROLFW because I feel I'm finally ready for it.

    I have the book but I feel it's a little much for me starting out and a bit vague on how often to increase your weight (my memory could be off on the second one). I like Stronglifts because it's simple to follow. I plan to do it and then do New Rules later.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    I started out 5 years ago doing the machines. If I could start over I would have done body weight or freeweight. When I started again a few years ago I did dumbbells and barbells, basically just searching through exrx.net's database and choosing a random bunch of stuff, also copying people I saw at the gym. I also went like 5x a week doing the same exercises, which was a bad idea. And I think I did hypertrophy range without any purpose behind it and no tracking of my intake. When I got serious about things again this past summer I started off doing full-body 3x a week focusing on the core lifts (bench press, shoulder press, deadlift, and squat, and adding in something for upper back) and now I do upper/lower splits doing each main lift once a week but working each area twice a week. Very much how 5/3/1 is designed but without following that rep scheme since it's terrible for cutting.

    You cannot tone your body. You can eat at a deficit to lose body fat and help better define existing muscle, or you can eat at a surplus to build muscle and then do a deficit to lose extra fat. If you are at a healthy weight right now I recommend eating at maintenance calories, benefiting from newbie gains, and picking either a bulk or cut once summer comes.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    Ghoulygirl wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    If you are in fact skinny fat, maintenance calories+ whatever lifting program you choose= your goals.
    What is your definition of skinny fat?

    My BMI is 26, I'm 5ft 7" and weigh 164lbs I have very little muscle strength so it's all fat, problem areas being abdomen and thighs.

    I would think since you still want to lose weight eat at your calories deficit while you lift until your body fat is where you wanna be at.

  • lbetancourt
    lbetancourt Posts: 522 Member
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    I just started lifting. So, I needed something for beginners. I can't afford a trainer but I have a gym membership. I am using Livefit Trainer along with the bodyspace app. The app provides me with everything I need, weekly workout schedule, reminders, excercise guide to help me figure out how to do each rep & use the machines when needed. I like it because it keeps me accountable. You can track all of your workouts which is cool, I can look back to see how much I lifted.

    I used to avoid the weight area cause I had no idea what I was doing but I more confident now. I actually look forward to my workouts. I will warn you though that Phase 1 includes no cardio which freaks people out. And, the other Phases are more intense. I am enjoying it very much, it's fun! It also has a meal plan but I am not using it. Although, I did make one of the recipes, it was so good. Good luck to you. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-eason-livefit-trainer.html