New Rules of Lifting for Women group?

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  • BifDiehl
    BifDiehl Posts: 474
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    I've been reading the book and this thread from the beginning and have a question about finding the right calorie goal for myself. I see you all talking about using the "maintenance" calorie number. Are you talking about the MFP suggested maintenance number, or the calorie numbers in the book? Becase those numbers are very different for me. Here's my stats:

    5'5"
    40 yrs old
    current weight: 127
    current bmi: 21
    calories for the past 6 months recommended by mfp: 1200/day
    I do eat at least half of my exercise calories back, but on days I don't exercise I try to stay below the 1200
    Lost 45 pounds since January 1st
    Have been using 123 as a "goal weight" but at this point I don't care what I weigh - I know what I want to look like & what size i want to be. I do have a lot of fat left I want to get rid of. And I want to be strong!
    MFP suggested maintenance calories: 1550/day
    NRLW calories non work-out day: 1695
    NRLW calories work-out day: 1937

    So once I start the lifting program (still trying to find weights cheap!) how many calories am I supposed to eat?? My diary's open if anyone wants to look! I appreciate any input you might have.
  • kensky
    kensky Posts: 472 Member
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    My best suggestion is to go ahead and bump yourself up to the MFP maintenance calorie limit and see how steady your strength gains are. If you reach a point where you are hitting a wall, progress-wise (the weights I have been lifting have gotten progressively heavier through this program), then you may want to gradually bump up the calories 100kcal at a time toward the NROLFW "lifting day" number.

    I was initially very wary of the bumping of calories (and at this point I still eat below the NROLFW formula's number of 2000ish calories on lifting days) but it was surprisingly easy to fall in line with the "eat more, get stronger" mindset once I (quickly) saw it working!
  • elizabethblake
    elizabethblake Posts: 384 Member
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    Well, I started today!

    I've been sick for the past 4 days and today's the first day I felt somewhat human, so I probably didn't hit it as hard as I could have, but I'm happy to have started nonetheless.

    Those prone jack knives! OMG!!! It was a challenge just to stay ON the ball, much less move! But the second set was a tiny bit easier and I did get in a few halfway decent jack knives. I can't wait to achieve a full range of motion like the guy in the video!

    I think I'm going to like this, and I think I need to figure out how much the bar in our office gym weighs...
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Anyone on Stage 7 yet? I did the 3rd workout and it was a killer. I can't do as heavy as weights as I am accustomed to doing, but since it is such high reps and little rest I am not sweating it. They call it a fat burning stage anyhow. They are definitely good workouts. I pair it with 20 minutes of HIIT training and I've got a nice 45-minute workout.
  • sunshine79
    sunshine79 Posts: 758 Member
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    Anyone on Stage 7 yet? I did the 3rd workout and it was a killer. I can't do as heavy as weights as I am accustomed to doing, but since it is such high reps and little rest I am not sweating it. They call it a fat burning stage anyhow. They are definitely good workouts. I pair it with 20 minutes of HIIT training and I've got a nice 45-minute workout.

    Stage 7 - wow! It's funny because I never ever look ahead at future stages (I'm currently on 5) but today I looked at stgae 7 and was thinking what an achievement it will be to reach there - I cannot wait. Well done for your consistency in reaching this far. What will you go onto when you complete the program?
  • duckpond11
    duckpond11 Posts: 197 Member
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    I started today. I was surprised at how short the workout was - I think it took me about 20 minutes including a 5 minute warmup. I was lazy and didn't do warm up sets though. Also, it wasn't all that challenging for me except for the push ups - probably because I've been doing body pump and yoga for a few weeks now. We've been working on those prone jack knifes in yoga class! But I tried to push myself with as heavy a weight as I could do. I just felt like maybe I wasn't working hard enough because I'm used to 60 minute workouts. It did kindof make me wonder if I should skip stage 1, but on the other hand, this way I'll get better at push ups.
  • seventysix06
    seventysix06 Posts: 88 Member
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    I started the program :) over again after completing stages 1 and 2 :(...but here's to starting over :)
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Anyone on Stage 7 yet? I did the 3rd workout and it was a killer. I can't do as heavy as weights as I am accustomed to doing, but since it is such high reps and little rest I am not sweating it. They call it a fat burning stage anyhow. They are definitely good workouts. I pair it with 20 minutes of HIIT training and I've got a nice 45-minute workout.

    Stage 7 - wow! It's funny because I never ever look ahead at future stages (I'm currently on 5) but today I looked at stgae 7 and was thinking what an achievement it will be to reach there - I cannot wait. Well done for your consistency in reaching this far. What will you go onto when you complete the program?

    I think I am going to do a mini bulk and a more weight intensive program like Stronglifts 5x5 or something like that. I want to gain more muscle and strength, though I did gain a fair amount of muscle, more like a recomp (replaced fat with muscle and didn't gain/lose any weight) with this program. I haven't done the entire program week by week, I took a couple weeks off of it here and there. I also do Crossfit which sometimes involves heavy lifting so I would have to miss a day or two of NROLFW if it followed a heavy Crossfit day. I have been doing NROLFW for 6 months.
  • elizabethblake
    elizabethblake Posts: 384 Member
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    I started today. I was surprised at how short the workout was - I think it took me about 20 minutes including a 5 minute warmup. I was lazy and didn't do warm up sets though. Also, it wasn't all that challenging for me except for the push ups - probably because I've been doing body pump and yoga for a few weeks now. We've been working on those prone jack knifes in yoga class! But I tried to push myself with as heavy a weight as I could do. I just felt like maybe I wasn't working hard enough because I'm used to 60 minute workouts. It did kindof make me wonder if I should skip stage 1, but on the other hand, this way I'll get better at push ups.

    So, are you sore today? I am! I didn't think I would be, because I've been working out 5x week, including 3 days of strength training, but I guess the change in exercises shocked my body, which is good! My thighs are sore from the step ups and my abs are screaming from the prone jackknives! Yay!
  • duckpond11
    duckpond11 Posts: 197 Member
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    I started today. I was surprised at how short the workout was - I think it took me about 20 minutes including a 5 minute warmup. I was lazy and didn't do warm up sets though. Also, it wasn't all that challenging for me except for the push ups - probably because I've been doing body pump and yoga for a few weeks now. We've been working on those prone jack knifes in yoga class! But I tried to push myself with as heavy a weight as I could do. I just felt like maybe I wasn't working hard enough because I'm used to 60 minute workouts. It did kindof make me wonder if I should skip stage 1, but on the other hand, this way I'll get better at push ups.

    So, are you sore today? I am! I didn't think I would be, because I've been working out 5x week, including 3 days of strength training, but I guess the change in exercises shocked my body, which is good! My thighs are sore from the step ups and my abs are screaming from the prone jackknives! Yay!

    My back & chest are a little sore, as well as my shoulders. but other than that, not really. I am going to put more weight on the squats and hold more weight for the step ups next time I do workout A. I thought I was working hard... but obviously I need to do more.
  • elizabethblake
    elizabethblake Posts: 384 Member
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    You know, I'm tempted to do that (add more weight next time) but I'm not going to. The weights increase pretty steadily (every third workout) so I'm going to stick with the plan. I *did* weigh the barbell in the gym today (we have a small gym in my office building and there is one barbell), so I'll start using that as soon as I get past the 15 lb. dumbbells.

    The barbell is a curvy one - anyone think it'll be a problem to use that instead of the Olympic straight barbell?
  • kensky
    kensky Posts: 472 Member
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    Hi Elizabeth! I think the curvy barbell (my guess is an e-z curl bar that people typically use for bicep curls) is not ideal but if it's what you have then I think it will be fine.

    kdiamond--I am technically done with the workouts in stage 6 but I think I might linger (hopefully just a little) longer in the hopes that I will be able to do one actual pull-up. If this doesn't happen for me in a month, then I'll move onto stage 7. I'm happy to hear it's been great for you, especially since I have been mentally preparing for "fat-burning" mode.

    I think I am going to do Ripptoe's Starting Strength (apparently what the Stronglifts guy based his plan on) after I'm done with NROLFW. After that, I might just do it again!
  • BifDiehl
    BifDiehl Posts: 474
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    Yay! I picked up my Craigslist bench and weights yesterday! I'm going to start tomorrow.

    Two quick questions for you: since I'm doing this at home and I dont' have a squat rack, what should I do instead? And same thing for the lat pulldown - I didnt' see substitutions listed in the book for these two exercises.
  • lorettatat
    lorettatat Posts: 30
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    Wow this looks interesting..I want to start NROLFW
  • elizabethblake
    elizabethblake Posts: 384 Member
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    Yay! I picked up my Craigslist bench and weights yesterday! I'm going to start tomorrow.

    Two quick questions for you: since I'm doing this at home and I dont' have a squat rack, what should I do instead? And same thing for the lat pulldown - I didnt' see substitutions listed in the book for these two exercises.

    I don't have a squat rack either, I'm planning to substitute regular squats and maybe get one of the guys to spot me if needed, once I'm up into the high weights.

    The book lists the Pullover (page 201) as the alternative for a lateral pulldown. I don't have access to a cable apparatus either!
  • baisleac
    baisleac Posts: 2,019 Member
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    Yay! I picked up my Craigslist bench and weights yesterday! I'm going to start tomorrow.

    Two quick questions for you: since I'm doing this at home and I dont' have a squat rack, what should I do instead? And same thing for the lat pulldown - I didnt' see substitutions listed in the book for these two exercises.

    For the lat pulldown, the book recommend "Pullovers" I think. I've found that Pendlay Rows work my lats better than the pullovers (Google will find you lots of links and videos). If you can do pullups, those are even better.

    Right now, I'm doing some rehabilitation on my left knee and do leg extensions and curls (my home bench has the add-on for it) on just that leg, but working both legs would be a "reasonable" substitute, though they don't work the core, so not as good as doing squats with a spotter.
  • BifDiehl
    BifDiehl Posts: 474
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    Ahh... I didn't read far enough. I see the Pullover section now. Thank you Elizabeth & Baisleac!

    As for the squats... "I don't have a squat rack either, I'm planning to substitute regular squats and maybe get one of the guys to spot me if needed, once I'm up into the high weights. " Forgive me - I know nothing about this stuff. When you say you're going to do regular squats, what do you do with the bar? How do you hold it? Or do you use dumbells?
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Ahh... I didn't read far enough. I see the Pullover section now. Thank you Elizabeth & Baisleac!

    As for the squats... "I don't have a squat rack either, I'm planning to substitute regular squats and maybe get one of the guys to spot me if needed, once I'm up into the high weights. " Forgive me - I know nothing about this stuff. When you say you're going to do regular squats, what do you do with the bar? How do you hold it? Or do you use dumbells?

    You can try front squats if you don't have a rack. You'll have to learn how to clean the bar. I personally don't like squatting with dumbbells, it feels unbalanced to me and I prefer a bb.

    Here is a video that shows how to do the clean and front squat.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdNq09EnNvA
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Hi Elizabeth! I think the curvy barbell (my guess is an e-z curl bar that people typically use for bicep curls) is not ideal but if it's what you have then I think it will be fine.

    kdiamond--I am technically done with the workouts in stage 6 but I think I might linger (hopefully just a little) longer in the hopes that I will be able to do one actual pull-up. If this doesn't happen for me in a month, then I'll move onto stage 7. I'm happy to hear it's been great for you, especially since I have been mentally preparing for "fat-burning" mode.

    I think I am going to do Ripptoe's Starting Strength (apparently what the Stronglifts guy based his plan on) after I'm done with NROLFW. After that, I might just do it again!

    I've been trying to do true pullups for a year! We do them in Crossfit weekly. They are super hard (one of the hardest things a woman can do). You may want to try using a band for your knee for a little help, or try jumping pullups.
  • kensky
    kensky Posts: 472 Member
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    If I was doing this at home, I'd do goblet squats for the squats...at least as my weights got heavier. They are more of a "front squat" than a back squat though.

    Goblet squatter extraordinaire
    > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmrXTx6jZs

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