Women strength training... for real

Great thread for ratio of smart people. I'd friend almost all of you.

I will say some of it was Greek to me. If you're new and want to start a program with weight training, I'm doing body for life. You can look at their website or get the book. There's a bunch on Amazon used. Don't necessarily think you have to use his supplements or anything. You can just follow the program and do pretty well. Its awfully reasonable strength AND cardio AND reasonable diet. Any plan that doesn't have all three I wouldn't touch.

I totally agree with the OP on this, and am perplexed with my women friends - In real life who never lift any weights and are really surprised when I explain to them that it's part of my normal workout. I look forward to the weight lifting much more than the cardio parts of my workouts. I just turned 50, and if lifting will help me maintain my muscle mass, you bet I'm going to be dedicated to doing it all the time.
My only question is how to determine the right amount of weight to be lifting. I don't completely understand when a weight is considered Heavy vs. normal. Any advice there?

Fair enough. I would say that tabata can kick some folks' cardio-butts. But you've got great results and you're happy so I say yay you. I like that I look at my little print out and see that tomorrow is day 50 and therefore lower body weight training and what that means is laid out for me and the only thinking I do is, do I up the weight on the starting set of any of the exercises from last time?

But seriously yay you.

My comment was thinking more about silly plans lile eat only grapefruit and don't work out and you'll lose.

I totally agree with the OP on this, and am perplexed with my women friends - In real life who never lift any weights and are really surprised when I explain to them that it's part of my normal workout. I look forward to the weight lifting much more than the cardio parts of my workouts. I just turned 50, and if lifting will help me maintain my muscle mass, you bet I'm going to be dedicated to doing it all the time.
My only question is how to determine the right amount of weight to be lifting. I don't completely understand when a weight is considered Heavy vs. normal. Any advice there?

I've always done 12 reps. The last 2-3 reps should be hard, really hard on the last set. If it's not, move up weight. However, now I think "they" say 8 reps....(or maybe even lower).

Great thread for ratio of smart people. I'd friend almost all of you.

I will say some of it was Greek to me. If you're new and want to start a program with weight training, I'm doing body for life. You can look at their website or get the book. There's a bunch on Amazon used. Don't necessarily think you have to use his supplements or anything. You can just follow the program and do pretty well. Its awfully reasonable strength AND cardio AND reasonable diet. Any plan that doesn't have all three I wouldn't touch.

I do zero traditional cardio. My 'cardio' consists of heavy bag work in a tabata format on off days, when I feel like it. I lost 40lbs in three months, the last month of which my diet has been absolutely dismal.

I'm not saying one should or shouldn't do some form of cardio...I'm just saying that a plan that doesn't include it, isn't necessarily worthless =D.

Great thread for ratio of smart people. I'd friend almost all of you.

I will say some of it was Greek to me. If you're new and want to start a program with weight training, I'm doing body for life. You can look at their website or get the book. There's a bunch on Amazon used. Don't necessarily think you have to use his supplements or anything. You can just follow the program and do pretty well. Its awfully reasonable strength AND cardio AND reasonable diet. Any plan that doesn't have all three I wouldn't touch.

I do zero traditional cardio. My 'cardio' consists of heavy bag work in a tabata format on off days, when I feel like it. I lost 40lbs in three months, the last month of which my diet has been absolutely dismal.

I'm not saying one should or shouldn't do some form of cardio...I'm just saying that a plan that doesn't include it, isn't necessarily worthless =D.

I want to say though, that this could be misleading to women. Men have a tendency to lose bf% easier and faster than women, and can do it with diet and lifting in a lot of cases. (We're not talking about the obese or such here.) But women don't have that luxury and often cardio is needed to aid in their body recomp.

I'm not sure if you've read this thread... but women can't get bulky unless they've some serious hormone imbalances. And if you're dieting.... which most of the women around here are... you're definitely not going to be adding appreciable muscle. Heck, even guys who are dieting aren't going to be adding appreciable muscle while dieting.

Look how heavily the women in the video are lifting. They've built up to those loads over extended periods of time. Would you call them bulky?

Toning is about fat loss. Not strength training or whatever.

Because each human body is so very different from every other human body?

I don't require you to follow my line of thinking. I don't even require that I comprehend yours. It sounds like you think I'm trying to force something on you...which would not only be futile on my end, this being the internet after all, but would also be a silly thing for you to believe...well, this being the internet and all lol.

Enjoy your cardio...and if it makes you happy, by all means, I am happy for you! Just be aware that there might be better ways to go about things...and don't be offended when people post threads trying to help you and others like you out by saying so. No one required you to reply...but by doing so, in a thread that clearly runs so counter to your stated beliefs...you most definitely opened yourself up for rebuttal.

That too...is a reality of the internet.

Edited to add:

If a woman lifts weights like a man and take things like a man, she will bulk like a man.

This is completely false.

Wait 10 minutes then pass the popcorn, please!

Please lock this awesome thread before it devolves and needs to be deleted!

Great thread for ratio of smart people. I'd friend almost all of you.

I will say some of it was Greek to me. If you're new and want to start a program with weight training, I'm doing body for life. You can look at their website or get the book. There's a bunch on Amazon used. Don't necessarily think you have to use his supplements or anything. You can just follow the program and do pretty well. Its awfully reasonable strength AND cardio AND reasonable diet. Any plan that doesn't have all three I wouldn't touch.

I do zero traditional cardio. My 'cardio' consists of heavy bag work in a tabata format on off days, when I feel like it. I lost 40lbs in three months, the last month of which my diet has been absolutely dismal.

I'm not saying one should or shouldn't do some form of cardio...I'm just saying that a plan that doesn't include it, isn't necessarily worthless =D.

I want to say though, that this could be misleading to women. Men have a tendency to lose bf% easier and faster than women, and can do it with diet and lifting in a lot of cases. (We're not talking about the obese or such here.) But women don't have that luxury and often cardio is needed to aid in their body recomp.

I've always been curious about this. The hormonal response is the same for either gender. Cardio is of course the more catabolic of the two forms of exercise. Growth hormone is produced by lifting, which is a direct sign post to your metabolism to burn fat.

I'm not saying you're wrong hun, at all. I'm saying I don't know for sure. I know women have more difficulty shedding fat...but is it enough to negate the benifits of short, intense lifting sessions alone? The reading I've done says otherwise...but I'd be very, very curious to see the concept put to the test. I think a lot of it might depend on diet...and not just what you're eating, but how and when you're eating it.

Most men believe cardio is a necessity as well...and I've been told a bunch of times that my results are atypical, unrealistic, or flat exaggerated. The pictures don't lie. I have a friend here locally that is doing the same thing...only, he's utilizing the knowledge I gained in exploring my own weight loss and physical reconditioning. His gains are coming even faster than my own did.

Interesting comment, thank you =D.

I missed this. I just started reading The New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women and it insists that even women don't need a ton of cardio to get the body they want. Another blog I read (by OP I think) said cardio is really just to help with calorie deficit. I can lift and eat 1700 or I can lift, do cardio and eat 2300.... I chose cardio.