"Lifting heavy" question...

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  • maranarasauce93
    maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
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    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    From an absolute or linguistic perspective.

    Lifting heavy usually means
    Greater than 1x BW on Bench
    and 1.5-2.0 on DL or Squat.

    AKA Intermediate lifting.

    Absolutely not. Most women will take many many years of hard training to hit 1x on bench, though the other two are a bit more realistic.

    Still not a great definition anyway. What's heavy to you might be Suzy Hartwig-Gary's warmup weight. What's heavy to Dan Green might as well be stapled to the floor for you.

    Ugh love Suzy her squat is perfection!! And yeah "heavy" is for sure subjective. As you get stronger, what you consider heavy should change. When I was starting out, I though 135lb squats were heavy and I couldn't picture deadlifting anything more than 200lbs. However, no I can bench a few lbs more than bodyweight for a single,I have hit 215lbs for a single squat, and I have deadlifted well over 200lbs for more than 1 rep (going for the 300+ 1RM!!) so yeah you'll progress and your perceptions and goals will likely change.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
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    maranarasauce93 wrote: »
    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    From an absolute or linguistic perspective.

    Lifting heavy usually means
    Greater than 1x BW on Bench
    and 1.5-2.0 on DL or Squat.

    AKA Intermediate lifting.

    Absolutely not. Most women will take many many years of hard training to hit 1x on bench, though the other two are a bit more realistic.

    Still not a great definition anyway. What's heavy to you might be Suzy Hartwig-Gary's warmup weight. What's heavy to Dan Green might as well be stapled to the floor for you.

    Ugh love Suzy her squat is perfection!! And yeah "heavy" is for sure subjective. As you get stronger, what you consider heavy should change. When I was starting out, I though 135lb squats were heavy and I couldn't picture deadlifting anything more than 200lbs. However, no I can bench a few lbs more than bodyweight for a single,I have hit 215lbs for a single squat, and I have deadlifted well over 200lbs for more than 1 rep (going for the 300+ 1RM!!) so yeah you'll progress and your perceptions and goals will likely change.

    Just the fact that you know who she is makes you awesome in my book. The lift progression just confirms it. :D
  • maranarasauce93
    maranarasauce93 Posts: 293 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    maranarasauce93 wrote: »
    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    stanmann571 wrote: »
    From an absolute or linguistic perspective.

    Lifting heavy usually means
    Greater than 1x BW on Bench
    and 1.5-2.0 on DL or Squat.

    AKA Intermediate lifting.

    Absolutely not. Most women will take many many years of hard training to hit 1x on bench, though the other two are a bit more realistic.

    Still not a great definition anyway. What's heavy to you might be Suzy Hartwig-Gary's warmup weight. What's heavy to Dan Green might as well be stapled to the floor for you.


    Just the fact that you know who she is makes you awesome in my book. The lift progression just confirms it. :D

    Thank you!! And I mainly know of Suzy because I was trying to look for a good example for how to set up and walk out efficiently for squats and Matt used Suzy to demo an example...I streamed the prime time of raw nats this year and saw that she has an amazing squat to go along with her the excellent set up. I also love her little robot dance when she sets up for deadlift and the little smile and nod when she knows she has a lift. Such a cool and inspiring lady!!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    Gallowmere1984 wrote: »
    Heavy is not only a matter of individual strength, but also individual perception. For me personally, if I can do more than three reps with a given weight, it's not heavy. Others will say five reps, and I've even seen some say 8-10. I can do all compound lifts to 10+ reps with 65% of my 1RM though, and imo, just over half of my max is so far from "heavy" that I barely have words for it.

    Ya, I say I lift medium heavy and for me that means I do 3-5 reps on the set with the heaviest weight.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,988 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Lifting HEAVY for any one - - young/old, male/female, lightweight/heavy weight - - is generally considered lifting weight at or above 80% of your one rep max (1RM).

    If you've never attempted a 1RM lift, there are calculators that will give you an approximation, based on the lift performed, the weight lifted and the number of reps. Here 's a link to one that takes into account age, sex and bodyweight (which are all relevant factors) when making the calculation:

    http://strengthlevel.com/

    Just bear in mind that all caculators do not take all of these factors into consideration and that different lift calculators can yield different results.

    Here's a calculator that only takes gender and body weight into account:

    http://www.liftcalculator.com/

    Furthermore, I have found that most lift calculators tend to OVER estimate the 1RM and that you may not be able to actually do the 1RM as calculated. The only way to find this out is to actually try the calculated 1RM lift. So, don't claim that you can actually do a 1RM lift at a specific weight based on a calculator. Only claim it if you've actually done it.

    You should also take a look at the Killustrated Charts, which will give you the variations in strength based on these factors at a glance:

    http://lonkilgore.com/freebies/freebies.html

    Generally, men can lift more than women of the same age/wt class and the older and lighter you are the less you are expected to lift regardless of gender.

    FYI, as a 66 yr old male at 160#, I am rated in the Elite class for the DL, SQT, BP and OHP in tbe Killustrated Charts but for men under 40 my lifts would only rank me as a Novice or Intermediate. So, age, weight and gender definitely matter in terms of ranking one's strength and weight lifting abilities.

  • Scribbledsmooth
    Scribbledsmooth Posts: 6 Member
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    I have a health condition also, albiet different from yours... As I result of my condition, I sometimes get lightheaded and faint (black vision) under normal, non-lifting conditions. But I love to lift, so I continue to lift, but stick to dumbells so that I can drop or get rid of them quickly if needed. Just thought I would share.
  • bpatt012
    bpatt012 Posts: 10 Member
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    Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated :)
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    stanmann571 wrote: »
    From an absolute or linguistic perspective.

    Lifting heavy usually means
    Greater than 1x BW on Bench
    and 1.5-2.0 on DL or Squat.

    AKA Intermediate lifting.

    disagree.

    heavy lifting is a rep range.

    it is NEVER and has never been an actual number or statistical limit to your lift.

    I have yet to someone break this down in a more meaningful manner so I will continue to argue this being the most simple way to explain the context of heavy lifting:
    0-1- is heavy- arguably too heavy for a beginner lifter
    1-5- heavy
    5-10 moderate
    10-15 moderate/light
    15-20- light (muscle endurance being the end goal- or super sets to fatigue.)

    OP- I would start with something in the 8-12 range- if you think you can do more than 12 reps- it's probably to light. Give yourself permission to go ahead and stop- like if you get to 10 and you feel like you're massively losing form and starting to momentum swing the weight- just stop- there is no harm in actually doing a rep range.

    I did a fantastic shoulder workout yesterday and the last group of super sets was "do as many as you can of these- followed by do as many as you can for this"
    my goal was 8- and 12.
    The last set I got 4 and 8 for the two exercises. absolutely nothing wrong with either dropping down a weight or cutting a rep or two off- especially if you have a medical condition.
  • Calieth
    Calieth Posts: 7 Member
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    bpatt012 wrote: »
    So I'm on board (albeit somewhat overwhelmed) with the whole strength training thing, I understand the benefits, etc.

    My question is, for women, what does lifting heavy actually mean? For you, or in general.

    ?

    The best explanation I got was from doing a program. Heavy lifting is what ever wait you can do for 'about' 6 reps (4-8), maybe 2-3 sets. So if I can do 15 pounds somewhat easy on my first set of 6 reps, but am struggling to finish my second set, then the weight is about right.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    It's simple. Lift weights in the 15 or lower rep range that make you struggle for the last 1 or 2 reps. If you can do a lot more when you set the weight down, you're not lifting heavy.

    That's it.

    It has 0 to do with how much you are lifting.

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