Weightlifting

Have you tried other types of resistance training to see if any work better for you? Bands, calisthenics, kettlebells?

The opening paragraph gives me the impression that you were barbell training like it was for cardio (ie moving the weight fast). It’s not. Perhaps, this is why you dreaded it so much.

zamphir66 wrote: »

I see posts on the regular from folks who can't stand cardio but are fully gung-ho about weightlifting. And the advice is generally that's OK because as long as you're getting the heart rate up for a certain number of hours each week, you're getting the benefits of cardio anyway.

I have the opposite issue. I'm finally admitting to myself that I despise weightlifting. It's hard to explain -- for me, it hits this sour spot of boring plus painful/difficult that just completely turns me off.

Thinking that maybe it was the environment, I invested ~$1000 into a nice home gym setup. Which I sold last year because all it did was gather dust.

The problem is, that as a guy I feel like I'm supposed to be into this and supposed to be transforming myself into a stronkboi, otherwise I fail as a guy. That's toxic masculinity talking, I know, but that doesn't make the voice go away.

I'm just not into it. Is there something I can do to change my own mind? What do?

This morning, I had planned to hit my gym at 6 am. Dread has kept me at home. Tomorrow morning, I'm doing a round of 10K training where I'll be running for about a solid hour. I will have zero trouble getting hyped for that (I already am) and it might be the highlight of my Tuesday.

Were you working a specific program? If not, you might find something more to your liking here:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Often, people don't like weightlifting because they don't know what they're doing or why or how

You don't have to want to transform yourself into anything, but resistance/strength training is important if you want to be generally fit and maintain your muscle as you get older. Body weight exercises, calisthenics, dumbbells, gym machines, a barbell, TRX, and probably other stuff I'm not thinking of off the top of my head can serve as resistance training.

Otherwise, maybe let it go for now and try again in a few months.

You just may not like weight lifting. It’s not for everyone. Even though I despise CrossFit you may want to try that. It’ll put you in with people that can motivate you and the social aspect may be what you’re missing. Given what you mentioned about your home weight system collecting dust I’d bet this may be the case.

I’m in the advanced lifter stage so I don’t really need people to work out with. I have people in the gym I trust to spot me but that’s about it. Do I enjoy working out with people? Yes and was up until this year on a regular basis. I’ve gotten stronger by myself though as I’m running my mouth less and taking less time between sets. It’s what works for me.

I love the stares I get in the gym when I’m powering through 455x5 on bench or squatting 625 without a belt or deadlifting 765. That motivates me but I also love when people come ask me questions and let me help them. I just enjoy being in the gym. I hate cardio so I don’t really do it more then 5-10 minutes and I have to push myself through it.

You have to find what you like and are willing to stick with. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS for short) will subside the longer you keep at it. I’m perpetually sore but I’m used to it and it doesn’t stop me from living life. I’ve been doing this for 10 years now and I’ve dealt with lower back issues, shoulder issues, knee issues, and biceps tendinitis at various time throughout my lifting. I have just kept pushing myself and now I’m feeling the best I have in years. It isn’t easy but anything worth having is worth working for.

Understand that not liking weight lifting doesn’t make you less of a man anymore then say, not liking beer does. Try out classes, hiking groups, etc to find what you like. If you don’t enjoy it you won’t stick with it.

OP: Your body, your choice.

No doubt that you can lose/maintain wt and remain fit w/o doing any lifting but that does not mean there aren't any consequences.

When I was 150#/12% BF (measured by DEXA) w/nil (almost 0) VAT about 18 months ago, but I felt burnt out and decided to stop lifting and just do cardio (rowing) only.

BTW, my hydro BF measurement at the same time was 8%; hydro always gives lower measurements than DEXA. I believe the "truth" is in the middle and considered mysef at 10% BF then and think that I'm about 15% now.

So, the only exercise I did after that was to row 5-10k meters/day.

BUT, I just started lifting again after getting new DEXA measurement last month at 153# and 17% BF due primarily to the loss of about 5# of muscle mass and a gain of about 1# & 40 cu in of VAT which was where I was about 3 yrs ago!

Am I still fit and do I still look lean and healthy. Yes but I definitely was NOT happy to learn of the hidden chgs that occurred while I was not lifting.

So, I using my garage gym again. Not going to try to lift as heavily as I did b4 but I definitely want to regain the muscle mass that I lost and lose the VAT that I regained while I was not lifting.

To add. Last time I looked at the thread with all the lifting programmes on it there were a couple of really good intermediate resources that weren’t on it: barbell medicine - has lots of different options powerlifting, bodybuilding, oly lifting templates and also really good online forums. Also Eric helms e books called muscle and strength pyramids have template programmes for strength and hypertrophy.

zamphir66 wrote: »

Sorry folks I was in a real foul mood this morning.

I was doing StrongLifts 5 by 5 for a good long while until I eventually hit a wall with everything.

I will investigate other programs.

You probably exceeded your easy newbie gains. Look for an intermediate program, like Juggernaut. I’m running the Powerbuilding AI program as an off-season and rehab program and for $27 a month I’ve been really pleased with it.

Would a change in perspective help? Since you are training for a 10k perhaps research the strength training benefits to support running. I am also training for 10k and have recently been incorporating strength training and beginner yoga after reading about how it supports my running.