Weightlifting people, here! Ongoing chat thread...

Ooh, a weights thread. Can I hop on, albeit I've only got 3 weeks till a foot operation which will pretty much put me out of action for 3 months? I do strength work 3-4 times a week - less in winter as I do more trail running, and more in summer when it's too hot to do much running. Today:

Back squat: 4 x 6 reps at 60kg, accumulating total of 10 neutral pull ups in between sets.

EMOM 12 mins : Alternating 10 front lack lunges with KBs, 10 Romanian DL with DBs

AMRAP 6 mins: 1 armed KB swing, reverse cable fly
AMRAP 6 mins: front delt raises, cable row
AMRAP6 mins: Single arm DB press, 1 arm ring row

Accumulate 2:30 in a hollow body hold.

I wouldn't be surprised if you did - I do bimble on! This is all resulting from the 1:1 I had with the coach.

For the deadlift there's been minor tweaks in my starting position - my shins are closer to 90 degrees from the floor which means hips are higher. The major change is in getting my whole posterior chain really tight in the starting position rather than just having everything in the right place, if you see what I mean. Before, I'd brace my core, but I think I was mainly using my quads to get the bar to clear the floor.

New style deadlifts -
5 x 3 @ 70kg
2 x 3 paused @ 50kg
Felt a lot harder than that. Videoed them for the coach - they looked OK but I now realise I was concentrating so hard on getting my back nice and tight I forgot about my hamstrings, so essentially I was all back and no legs.

Relearning things is hard.

Then accessories:
4 x 12 hamstring curls
4 x 12 face pulls
5 x 30 second planks
4 x 20 thrusters with 24kg kettlebell
Assisted pull-ups and dips superset - 4 sets of 5 each
Shoulder superset with 6 kg dumbells -
3 x 10 lat raises, bent over flys, front raises.

I used to use creatine too but didn't notice much of a difference tbh, and I like being supplement-free now. Apart from a chocolate protein shake I make after the gym in the morning, just because it's handy and I like it.

Currently I do weights 4 x per week, which for a powerlifting programme isn't unusual. I also do cardio 2 x week. One day on, one day off lifting is ideal for me, I'm a bit older (40 next year) so need that extra time for recovery.

I alternate squats and deadlift days with bench every day and then two or three accessory exercises at the end (accessories focus on muscles that aren't central to the main lifts) So a day might look like
Heavy squats
Bench press
Pause squats
lat pulls/shoulder presses

Or

Spoto press
Deadlifts
Floor press
Back extensions/rows/planks

So there's not a 'split' as such, pretty much every day is whole body, just to different extents.

I do an upper/lower split. I either lift 6 days a week or 4. Lately, it's been more 4 x a week. This week I'll have done 3x lower body, 2x upper and one day swimming.

Mulch I do cardio x 3, strength x 2 weekly. Usually have Weds and Sat off. sometimes skip Friday night cardio too

I use BodySpace. It's a brilliant app. You can choose workouts according to how you'd like to look. I did the Kris Gethin transformation which was how I lost 10kg. You can also save them to the built in calendar or just choose when you're at the gym. It's a really good app. Another good one is the Nike training one.

Both of these really help manage splits and push you more than you would on your own.

Whats everyone's training split look like? I'm working on increasing strength and struggle to do two days in a row so doing one day on one day off. Would like to increase frequency. Previously used creatine before lo but since I've had him I've not bothered with any supplements.

Well the bank holiday has put a right spanner in my works.
I shifted monday's PT session to Tuesday, which meant I shifted Tuesday's spin class to Wednesday.
Missed my rest day (Weds) and went straight from spin at 9 last night to legs day at 8 this morning.
I'll not do that again in a hurry 😂

Thank you! You are your own gym looks intriguing. I would do it at home I think. Really don't care about weights, just wanted to be less skinny so if I can do that at home that would be better!

Marking

You'll likely find friendlier people at the no frills, weight-focused gym.

You can learn a fair amount from reading and watching YouTube videos. You can record yourself on your phone and see what your squat looks like (and you can post a video for a form check on reddit.com... The xxfitness subreddit is very friendly. There's an awesome xxfitness Facebook group, too.

If you stick to very light weights while you learn, you won't hurt yourself.

And it's OK to ask someone who looks like they know what they're doing to tell you if you're doing it right. They'll likely be thrilled to help.

Have a look and see if there are any beginner weightlifting courses near you - these often work out very cheaply compared to personal training. I agree that 1:1 time with someone who knows their onions is important when starting out, but if that's not possible there's a lot of free online resources and support you can access.

Alternatively, if you're not fussed about weights but want to get stronger you could do a lot worse than getting yourself a copy of You Are Your Own Gym or similar. There's apps too. You could do circuits of bodyweight exercises at home and get hella strong that way: you just need to be able to motivate yourself to do it regularly, which some people find tricky in their cosy home environment.

Thanks Lazyi . Pure gym seems fab but I want a nearby gym or I won't go! Only two choices really round here which is a local leisure centre or a new gym which seems very weights focused but seems very focused on weight loss and has no pool, cardio stuff etc. I will investigate both.

Hi Fairly, I am sure that different people will have different advice, but here's what I would recommend... it's useful to have someone teach you the basics, e.g how to do a squat or deadlift. I am a member of pure gyms (great value for money) and they have some induction and some weights classes to get you started. PTs are often in the gym, and very happy to give ad hoc advice (otherwise they have to clean/ just stand about), so again, always worth chatting to someone. Otherwise, I would look on the internet for beginner weightlifting and see what that gets you. Best of luck!

I definitely get stuck in a rut sometimes too, although I think it's mostly because I'm not very consistent with my training, and partly because I don't bother to track anything properly so I can't see the small changes. So I was getting annoyed with myself as I've been stuck on 25kg on bench press for ages until I thought about it properly and realised that I can do 7 reps now and was only able to manage 5 reps a month ago. So progress is happening, just very slowly!

Hello all, just dipping my toe in here if that's ok? I have had weight training recommended to me (super skinny, struggle to put on weight) but wouldn't have a clue what I was doing! I'm not even a member of a gym. Hope it's ok to ask in here but can I just join a gym and get started? Do they show you how to lift? Don't think I can afford a personal trainer.

I'm trying to imagine eating just 1200 calories a day. MFP has put me on 1650 (plus exercise calories) and I'm losing a steady 2lb per week on that. Think my maintenance must be pretty high!

When I started lifting I didn't want to get into the whole bulking/cutting thing but sort of like you, when I look back that's exactly what I've been doing.

Timmytoo I wouldn't call a couple of glasses of wine and 1 beer per week self-sabotage! Sounds like you're really focused and whatever you're doing is working for you.

I'm trying to lose a bit of weight too whilst maintaining strength, but going about it a bit differently - tracking calories on myfitnesspal and going easy on the malbec.

Hi

I'd like to join. I'm a big fitness junkie. I'm going for the fitness look and nearly there. After a breakdown I had to stop training for three years due to CFS. I put on 13kg from meds but now made a full recover and have been back in training for 8 months now of which I e managed to lose Q10kg but have another 3kg to go. These are a bitch to lose.

My workout plan as follows:

I do The Grid without at Virgin gym Monday & Tuesday - this is great for endurance and shredding
Body pump on Wednesday
Thursday - Rest
Friday to Sunday - An hour spin class and 45 minutes heavy weight session where I do two muscle groups a day.

I take my whey protein after workouts and I'm on CLA and L-Carnitine which has an added bonus of helping with ADHD. These I use for fat burn and tone

I'm trying to get my six pack beach ready so I've gone The S diet route - no sugar or snacks on days not starting with an S

I've just started this S plan but have seen positive results.

I sabotage myself with alcohol (not much just a acoupke of glasses of wine and maybe a beer a week) and sweets although I'm hoping the S plan will help with that and I've cut alcohol down to one pint of beer a week and no wine as I get indigestion of it too.