Females doing Heavy Weight Training

to answer your Qs:

1 New rules of lifting for women (book, v good)
2 Not much cardio, some H.I.I.T following lifting or on inbetween days (max 25 mins)
3 Totally individual, but in 6 weeks i went from 18kg squat to about 34kg. Everyone's different, it's all about what's heavy for YOU.
4 YES- i soon ditched the 1200cal thing and went to 1660 plus about 200 more on lifting days. Haven't gained in 2.5 months, and measurements reduced.
5 Yes, I have a protein shake most days as i'm pescatarian and don't get 120g protein otherwise
6 a few weeks. I'm feeling the muscle before i see it

Feel free to add me. It is annoying how real life people think women are nuts for lifting!

Edit to add I am in maintenance, so was aiming keep keep my weight same! The book i mentioned has some good cal guidelines that seem to work with adjustments if you're trying to lose some.

I know so many people like NROL4W, but I would definitely give some thoughts to Stronglifts 5x5, Starting Strength, or Rippetoe's other program: Practical Programming. The workouts are so simple because there's only 3 main exercises per workout; a total of 5 core exercises. However, it's all about intensity and increasing your strength over time.

Oh and don't listen to those guys. The big buff dudes can be just as ignorant as others. Heavy lifting will help you gain some muscle initially, and preserve it in the long run, increase your bone density (which is especially important for women because of osteoporosis being so prevalent in the gender), and make you over all more awesome.

Thanks for the replies! Keep them coming!

Hahaha, yes, dangly part individuals are welcome.

I don't understand what you mean by strong lifts 5x5 ? Is a cycle similar to what I refer to as a set? Do you rotate your cycles every 3 weeks to change things up?

Stronglifts 5x5 as well as the other two things I mentioned are lifting programs. 5x5 means 5 sets of 5 reps. It's 5 main exercises, 3 each workout, and you do each for 5x5.

Derp, the cycle question was referring to my routine. Well, I can copy paste what I do.


Squat Day
Main Lift
Week 1: High Box Squat (using Safety Squat Bar)
Week 2: Parallel Box Squat (using Safety Squat Bar)
Week 3: Full Barbell Squat

Bench Press Day
Main Lift
Week 1: Warm-up with Full Bench Press; Max Effort 3-Board Press
Week 2: Warm-up with Full Bench Press; Max Effort 2-Board Press
Week 3: Max Effort Full Bench Press


Deadlift Day
Main Lift
Week 1: Rack Pulls off the 3-pin-hole in the power rack
Week 2: Rack Pulls off the 2-pin-hole in the power rack
Week 3: Deadlifts from the floor

There's some accessory work in there as well, but it varies a lot.


So the first 3-week cycle I did working sets of 5 reps. I basically decide how much weight I'll put on after each set based on my past performance and how my body's feeling.

Each following 3-week cycle I decrease the rep per set by 1. I keep doing this until I get down to sets of 2 reps. Then he said to restart at sets of 4 reps and go to singles.

I've only been doing this for 5 weeks now, so I don't know how legit the strength will be over time, but I did go from Rack Pulls of 145lb. 1x5 to 195lb. 1x4 in 3 weeks.

I still have a fondness for Rippetoe's programs (Starting Strength and Practical Programming), but my trainer is a well-renowned powerlifter, and I paid him to train me and make a personalized routine, so I'm going with that for now.

1. What is your heavy weight routine?
I too am working through the New Rules Of Lifting For Women book, It's my first foray into weights

2. Do you do cardio with training or only on off days or both or neither.
I cardio every second weights day (as prescribed in the books) and I do RPM, Body Attack and Fit Box (group training classes) on days I'm not doing weights

3. What kind of weight did you start off with and how often do you increase the weight?
I started with as heavy as I could to complete the set, without being able to complete it easily - once it felt easy I'd up the weights in one or two sets (ie: at the moment doing wide grip pull downs, last workout I did 3 sets, 30kg, 30kg, 35kg.. today I did 30, 35 35)

4. Did you up your calories?
Yup, from 1200 to 1750.

5. Did you use any protein supplements?
I have a shake after I get home from the gym vanilla whey with my own added coffee.. yum!

6. How long did it take you before you started seeing results?
I'm about 3 months in (? Maybe) and I'm really feeling and looking good So I think!

i'm 12 workouts into NROLFW Love it.

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1. What is your heavy weight routine? - i'm currently doing NROL4W (second time through), I've also done strong lifts and i've done a good deal of heavy lifting for sports i played in high school and college, including power lifting.

2. Do you do cardio with training or only on off days or both or neither. - i do 30 minutes of cardio of lifting days and 45-60 minutes of cardio on non-lifting days. of that cardio, 45 minutes total is anaerobic HIIT, 90 minutes is aerobic HIIT and the rest is steady state.

3. What kind of weight did you start off with and how often do you increase the weight? i took about a year off from lifting, so when i started back again in february these were my 1 rep max
deadlifts : 125
Lat pulldown :112.5
Bench :95
BB row :95
tricep pull down : 90
bicep curl: 50
overhead press : 25

now 2 months later my 1 rep max
deadlifts : 210
Lat pulldown : 160
Bench : 135
BB row : 135
tricep pull down: 130
bicep curl : 70
overhead press : 45

i increase my weight every set of every workout if i can. i'm most excited about the overhead press because i have an issue with my right shoulder and now that's getting much better.

4. Did you up your calories? no, in fact i decreased. even though i've been overweight for awhile this is the first time i've ever wanted to lose weight. since i know that eating at maintenance and a bit above while lifting heavy weights isnt going to result in weight loss for me, i decreased my calories by about 20% from maintenance.

5. Did you use any protein supplements? nothing besides protein powder that i have in my smoothies

6. How long did it take you before you started seeing results? strength results immediately. i still have way too much body fat to notice much else, but i do lose on average 2 inches and 3-4 pounds every 2 weeks

I lift 3x a week and do cardio 3x a week, 1 rest day. My schedule is as follows:

Abs - Hanging leg raises, slant board crunches, planks
cardio (zumba)
Legs/glutes - squats, lunges, calf raises
zardio (zumba)
Upper body - pullups, lat pull downs, rows, bench presses, curls, lateral raises, kickbacks
rest
cardio (kickboxing)

I use the heaviest weights I can manage and maintain good form, while achieving 3 sets of 6-7. I aim to have to struggle on the last couple of reps of the last set.

I have only lost 8 pounds since Jan 1 but I've lost 12 1/2 inches and can actually see ab definition and other muscles. For me, it took about 2 1/2 months to see anything noticable.

I eat between 1400-1600 per day including exercise calories. I just took a week to eat at maintenance, which I do every 3 months. Note that my lifestyle, excluding workouts, is extremely sedentary (2 desk jobs).

I try to get 100g protein per day and only use protein supplements if I'm having trouble getting there with normal food. I do not eat fast food and cook most of my food from scratch.

bumping for later