Question about strength training

There are several ways you can approach this. The number one thing you need to do is keep your body guessing. Don't let your muscles become comfortable with a routine. This can be done by changing up your whole routing, changing the order in which you work out each week, or small things like doing the same exercise and changing up the way you do it. The last approach is my favorite. Example, this week I did Flat barbell bench press, incline dumbell bench press, standing cable crossovers, machine pullovers, and machine presses for chest. Next week I will do Flat DUMBELLS, Incline Barbell, dumbell flies, and push ups. Still pretty well the same workout, just doing different versions of each exercise.

Try doing that, you will be sore almost everyday that way.

Do you have any suggestions for a 57 year old woman that has Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am going back to the gym and will begin with 2 bikes and an eliptical, but I also need to start slow on strength training. I found I can't walk because my RA flares. I understand if you don't have suggestions but you look like you are very knowledage in the gym.

If you want more advice, I'd skip the very complicated workout you've got going, and just do some basic compound lifts. My workouts consist of maybe 5 lifts, 3 days a week. This lost me 40lbs in 3 months, and has helped me put on muscle since.

Since my injury, I use the leg press machine (used to be weighted squats), dumbbell presses, horizontal row, dips, and ab work for my workout a, and leg press (instead of weighted lunges), dumbbell shoulder press, weighted extensions, lat pulldowns (instead of pullups), and ab work for my workout b. I alternate these 3x a week. I fully believe form follows function...so if I'm strong (compound lifts build strength), I'll look great as a by product.

Additionally, there are further compound lifts you can get into...but often the simple workout above is less intimidating than the bigtime barbell stuff for beginners or people without spotters (like me).

I should have mentioned that I am working out at home, so I don't have access to weight machines. Sorry for the dumbed down recap, but I think you're saying that it would be a better use of time to do fewer exercises that target more than one muscle group at a time? That sounds like a good idea. I'm going to look into it. I need to do some more reading to familiarize myself with specific exercises and which muscles they target.

To be honest, if you only have access to dumbells, you are doing similar type exercises to the compound lifts noted by some folks here - such as overhead press, squats and bench press. Just drop some of the other exercises so you get a better 'bang for your buck'. And you should work to getting 3 sets in.

As a lot of folks have noted, drop the reps and increase the weights. However, you will not be able to do the same weights for all exercises. For example, you are working smaller muscles with the arms raises than you are with the biceps curls so you should invest in some heavier weights.

New Rules of Lifting for Women has a lot of great feedback - as I have not done it I am not sure you can do it with only dumbells though - I am sure those that do can chime in.

With regard to your comment re yourwrists - is it your wrists or more like your forearm?

My wrists only, not my forearms. It feels like the heavier weights (heavier for me, anyway) are too heavy for my wrists to support them without feeling ... achy? strained? I can't think of the right word. It's not a sharp pain. I don't seem to have too much trouble with the muscles I'm trying to work, for example, biceps curls don't hurt my biceps other than the normal 'burn,' but my wrists don't feel right.

Sounds like it could be that your wrists just need strengthening - it will get better as you continue. Bicep curls can be a little hard on your wrists - you may want to try hammer curls until they are stronger (I find them a little easier on the wrists). Don't forget, achy is fine - it actually means you are working your muscle. A sharp pain is not fine. Make sure you have enough rest time between to make sure they (and the rest of you muscles) have a chance to recover.

My wrists only, not my forearms. It feels like the heavier weights (heavier for me, anyway) are too heavy for my wrists to support them without feeling ... achy? strained? I can't think of the right word. It's not a sharp pain. I don't seem to have too much trouble with the muscles I'm trying to work, for example, biceps curls don't hurt my biceps other than the normal 'burn,' but my wrists don't feel right.

Sounds like it could be that your wrists just need strengthening - it will get better as you continue. Bicep curls can be a little hard on your wrists - you may want to try hammer curls until they are stronger (I find them a little easier on the wrists). Don't forget, achy is fine - it actually means you are working your muscle. A sharp pain is not fine. Make sure you have enough rest time between to make sure they (and the rest of you muscles) have a chance to recover.

Or no curls at all.

that too - what would you suggest that would not cause her the same problem?

My wrists only, not my forearms. It feels like the heavier weights (heavier for me, anyway) are too heavy for my wrists to support them without feeling ... achy? strained? I can't think of the right word. It's not a sharp pain. I don't seem to have too much trouble with the muscles I'm trying to work, for example, biceps curls don't hurt my biceps other than the normal 'burn,' but my wrists don't feel right.

Sounds like it could be that your wrists just need strengthening - it will get better as you continue. Bicep curls can be a little hard on your wrists - you may want to try hammer curls until they are stronger (I find them a little easier on the wrists). Don't forget, achy is fine - it actually means you are working your muscle. A sharp pain is not fine. Make sure you have enough rest time between to make sure they (and the rest of you muscles) have a chance to recover.

Or no curls at all.

that too - what would you suggest that would not cause her the same problem?

Go out, and get a set of stress balls in various densities. Pick up a guitarists finger strengthener. Hang a towel over one of those doorway pull up bars in her bathroom and hang from it (feet touching the floor, back to the floor). I would say even those cheesy grip strengtheners...but I've read those can actually be damaging to your tendons in your hand (particularly if they're too big...which is likely the case for a woman), and on top of it she's probably not strong enough for one yet...so I hesitate to recommend them.

Her problem is very likely just a lack of grip strength. The weights she needs in order to stress her muscles properly are likely just too much for her hands to adequtely control...causing her wrists to tire out.

I like the lateral thinking.....

I do this workout 2x through most of the time.


15 Bicep curls - 8 lb per arm
15 Tricep kickbacks - 8 lb per arm
15 Tricep dumbbell extensions - 8 lb
20 Lateral raises (arms bent) - 5 lb per arm
20 Upright rows - 5 lb per arm
20 Shoulder presses - 5 lb per arm
20 Bent rows - 8 lb per arm
15 Flat dumbbell presses - 8 lbs per arm
15 Lying dumbbell flies - 8 lbs per arm
12 Pushups from knees

40 Standard crunches
20 L crunches
20 R crunches
20 Alternating oblique crunches
10 Reverse crunches

20 Squats (front squat?) - 16lb
20 Standing side lifts per leg - 8lb
20 Forward lunges - 16lb
20 Backward lunges - 16 lb
30 Standing rear kickbacks per leg - no weight
20 90 degree leg lifts with chair per leg - no weight
35 calf raises - 16 lb
Holding squat position for 32 seconds, no weight

This is a terrible routine, especially for a beginner. You don't need to do 25 different resistance exercises! In fact, you'll get far better results by simplifying the routine and then tracking improvement.

1. First things first, cut out all of the single joint exercises. Select several key compound lifts to work on. You can go back to single joing exercises later, but right now you need to work on the big stuff. A lot of very serious body builders rarely do single joint exercises, instead getting great results from just compound movements.

2. If you hurt your should, STOP DOING SHOULDER PRESSES. You can try them again in the future if you want to.

3. You really need to up the weights and decrease the reps!

Suggested new routine: For each exercise, do 3-4 sets of whatever weight you can do for 6-8 reps. The most important, make or break thing, is to keep track and make sure you continually increase your weights/reps. If your gym is set up so that you can do these as super-sets, even better.

1. Bench press
2. Upright row (or any kind of row, or pull-down).
3. Squat
4. Calf-raises
5. Pick any core exercise you want

Seriously, that's it! Make sure to track your progress and continually improve. I strongly recomend not significantly changing things up every 6 weeks. That causes many people to fail b/c the most important factor is tracking your progress and improving. How can you know you're improving if you're not doing the same movements? Don't change things up until you start to plateau.

I read will typically list a few dumbbell exercises for each body part in every routine.

The compound lifts will hit all the different muscles, just not in isolation. It is a more natural way to train, because in real life (pushing, pulling, lifting, etc.), you rarely use a single muscle to the exclusion of all else. Because it involves a whole bunch of muscles during one exercise, it is also more efficient. For me anyway, engaging the larger muscles during strength training also keeps the heart rate up.

There is nothing really wrong with isolation exercises, they're not really necessary or efficient, that's all.

Thanks for the input. I just threw all these moves together based on the little bit I know, so it's helpful to read advice. I'm confused, though, because all the fitness books and magazines I read will typically list a few dumbbell exercises for each body part in every routine. For instance, if my triceps area is flabby, aside from cardio and clean eating, doesn't it help to do two or three triceps-specific exercises when I work out my upper body? Or with abs -- standard crunches, oblique crunches, and reverse crunches work different abdominal muscles. If I want a strong core, doesn't it make sense to hit all the different muscles possible?

(Also, I did stop doing shoulder presses till my shoulder didn't hurt.)

I do dumbbell exercises, they just aren't isolated dumbbell exercises like curls. Presses engage your chest, shoulders etc for example.

Triceps specific workouts, won't 'firm' your triceps. Sometimes you'll even look flabbier because your fat will still be over the muscles you're building beneath. Compound exercises burn overall body fat by engaging multiple muscles, that then need repair. Triceps specific workouts burn little fat period, but do build muscle under the existing fat as I said.

Building a strong core is different, but to be honest, planks will do all the same things. Additionally, so will deadlifts, good mornings or weighted extensions, etc.