Women - lifting advice

It depends on your goals really. I started with cardio before joining gym, then added lifting. I soon switched to doing light walk on treadmill after lifting as a cool down as I do like walking. That made for some really late nights though as I go to the gym after work and usually work close shifts. I eventually did less cardio and would just through in a cardio day on occasion. My warmup was never really cardio but that's partly because I'd already been moving around 6-8 hours at work as I'm on my feet the whole shift. On a day off from work when I lift I would sometimes do short warmup with cardio.

Now, after 12 weeks of stronglifts and finishing stage 1 of nrolfw, I do cardio 3 days a week and lift 3 days. The cardio is in order to reach a different goal, which is to jog a 5k, so I'm doing couch to 5k.

One doesn't have to do cardio in order to lose weight since a large portion is on the nutrition side of things, but you can if you want and have goals that require such.


As for protein shakes, it depends if you're needing more protein or not. I do use protein powder to make shakes a few days a week because I struggle to get over 80 grams of protein every single day and it's a convenient way to get a little more. On days where I have a short shift, I don't take a lunch break so it's nice to have something I can keep with me and not interfere with helping customers. It can be useful as a supplement but one can also do just fine without it. Same goes for protein bars, cookies, etc.

I totally agree with the comment above! It just depends on your goal.

Personally, I strength train because I want to be strong and toned but still have a thicker lower body! I rarely ever do cardio, when I want to lean out a bit more I will just drop set or super set my workouts! I rarely ever do cardio, sometimes I will do high intensity at the end of my workout just to burn some fat but only for about 5 minutes. I do a lot of cardiovascular weight lifting workouts like lunges, jump squats and stuff like that!

As for supplements when I was 30 pounds heavy I was taking a fat burner but now it just makes me sick to my stomach and I've heard a lot of negative things about them.
I just take preworkout occasionally when I need an extra boost, whey protein right after my workout to feed my muscles and just fish oils and a multi vitamin!


Goodluck with your goals

I do a 5 minute bike warm up and that's it. However after provincials in July I will work some running in - my eldest wants to watch me run a race and it's an easy enough thing to make happen.

I don't use any supplements. Don't find a need to as I'm usually pretty good at hitting my goals without it.

I do very little cardio - just some light warmup. Otherwise I do just lifting.

I take protein powder as it is really hard for me to stay under calories and hit all my macros, plus not be violently hungry the day after when I recover. Heard a few times women getting stalled out early as their protein intake is too low following MFP's numbers. I do IIFYM numbers instead.