Weightlifting people, here! Ongoing chat thread...

[MaidOfStars]

We are a bit cut off in the designated forum so here's a shiny new thread to populate.

Hello to anyone that hasn't ventured over to The Weights Room but is lifting/resistance training.

Thanks Just, I think you've said some very interesting things.
Thought provoking.

I suppose I am the large one in my family: both sisters are sylph like with slender limbs and my mother too. I'm the only engineer, the others are in the arts. I've always been compared to my dad, another engineer, who is built a gymnast and very muscular. My DH is a swimmer and hasn't a speck of fat on him.

I suppose it's a shock when the tidy body you had before kids turns into something quite different after pregnancy and a section, and I suppose I'm still coming to terms with a large overhanging, numb and weak abdomen, and saggy post breastfeeding boobs.

My fear is that if I do lift weights regularly I'll just look massive and my work clothes will hang badly. It doesn't help my 25" waist has disappeared.

I'm going to try doing some yoga and try to reconnect with myself.

Thanks so much for your insights and support. I'm actually feeling quite raw about my body post baby, so it's good to know there's such a group of support here. I'll keep you posted. Best of luck all.

I've read Just's other post properly now and I'm not sure who it was aimed, but I certainly don't think you need to defend or justify your feelings about your body, Mercury. I said I was a bit jealous - I am! - but you feel how you feel.

Having never had a 'tidy body', before kids or after, I can't exactly relate but I do sympathise. I would say most women (not all) that I know find it difficult to be comfortable in our skin.

It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, really. I just remember the feelings that I used to have and being told "pshaw! I wish I had your "problem!" "

I think the glute guy article is good but those pictures of crossfitters further down....those girls all look chemically enhanced to me

...... Nothing wrong with that..... their choice, but it's not a look which is achievable for most women without 'help'

They very possibly are. I think he was only using them to illustrate what many women do not want.

I think power lifters can gain that muscle... It's the being big and ripped that makes one go

True I can drop body fat easily just by doing loads of Endurance training
But then I get that 'turn sideways and you can't see me' physique😕

To be strong as possible I need to drop the running/biking/swimming and eat a lot and then I turn into a bit of a porker 🐖

I'm finally trying to bulk. This is harder than you might think.

First, there's the fear of gaining fat. As an apple, any fat will immediately appear on my belly. I fought hard to get it to a decent measurement and was starting to see abs.

Second, it's not easy to eat more than you want to. I naturally maintain at my tdee so long as I don't drink alcohol or have added sugar. Eating more is difficult (I won't be drinking alcohol) and I suspect that I'll be resorting to sugar to get the calories in.

I'm tracking on My Fitness Pal, which is an annoying drag. I think I'm going to have to track my protein to make sure I'm getting enough and then I'll probably have to resort to things like eating ice cream in the evenings just to get the calories.

I've had over 100 grams of protein today, I don't feel remotely hungry and I still have 800 calories to go. I'll do another protein shake but it won't be enough.

thats why I dont bulk!
I find it easy to upregulate food intake, and I wouldnt be averse to gaining body fat if it would go on my legs and arse
but it mostly goes to my midsection, and under my chin so I have bigger muscles but I pay the price of a fat face and a belly

I stick with smaller and lean these days :o

How are you working out how much calorie surplus you need per day, Just? Are you going by feel or are you following a plan?

I'm still in an overall deficit (though the less said about yesterday's spinach and gorgonzola pizza and Friday's beer and mezze feast the better...) and still slowly losing. Then I'm going to try maintaining for a bit. When I was unintentionally bulking I got a whole lot stronger which seemed to have been achieved mainly with biscuits at work and a hot chocolate most nights, as well as having seconds at dinner. Now I'm tracking everything on MFP I realise I was probably eating roughly 500-600 calories extra per day, most of it sugar.

Gym in a minute, once I've woken up!

Back from the gym. I am so enjoying doing my own thing again. Over the past week or so I've been re-evaluating what my priorities are. I'm never going to be an elite powerlifter - I just don't have the talent. On the other hand, I do care about numbers. I want to feel strong and I want to feel like I'm progressing.

I'm still going to focus on the mixture of the three big lifts and varied accessory work that have formed the basis of my routine, but I'm going to try to be more intuitive with it and mix it up more, day to day.

Back squats -
5 x 5 x 70kg feeling better than it has in a while
2 x 10 x 60kg

Bench press:
2 x 6 x 50kg
3 x 5 x 50kg
12 x 40kg
10 x 40kg

Bent over rows (supinated narrow grip)
5 x 10 x 30kg
Bent over rows (overhand wide grip)
2 x 10 x 30kg

Assisted pull-ups
5 x 6

I'm trying to build up my lats at the moment. Lats and glutes - must remember to take my foam thing tomorrow morning so I can do heavy glute bridges.

I just added on 400 calories to my tdee. I find it hard to actually eat that much! I will go buy nuts and gold top milk today.

yeaahh! Gold top milk. That always makes me think of Eddie Hall now, since I saw the Netflix documentary in which he detailed his daily diet. (including a litre of gold top per day)

I saw him on a video podcast recently. The amount of food he had to eat really impacted his life.

oh yeah, it didn't look much fun on the film either. I do love gold top milk though.

This morning:
Romanian deadlifts
5 x 10 x 60kg
Glute bridges
4 x 12 x 40kg (I think - used a shorter bar that I would guess is 10kg)
Seated dumbbell shoulder press
4 x 12 x 12kg dumbbells
Kneeling face pulls
4 x 12 x 27kg
Lat pull downs
4 x 12 x 40kg
Prone hamstring curls
4 x 12 x 27kg

Wow, Findoyou do a lot of volume!

I do seem to naturally gravitate towards very volume-y (voluminous?!) sessions. But also today I had to drive to the gym instead of cycle like I usually do so I had more time and energy - I don't usually do quite that much.

Hi everyone

That sounds like a great session Findo.

Quick question please. Today in my session my trainer encouraged me to try going lower on my back squats, as I wasn't going parallel to the ground.

I had to reduce the weight on the bar by a fair bit as my right knee seems to cave in a bit when I go a bit lower.

Is it best just to try to build up again from a lower weight, and always go lower?

Knee valgus (one or both knees caving) is a pretty common problem in the back squat - the culprit is thought to be weak gluteus medius and there are exercises you can do for that long term - but if you really concentrate on getting your knees tracking over your toes (I find it helps to imagine I'm splitting the floor apart with my feet) it should help. But it does happen to a lot of people, me included, as the weight gets heavier.

Depth-wise but I always aim to go lower than parallel in the back squat. In powerlifting comps you fail the lift if your hip crease isn't lower than your knee. Going lower obviously makes the lift harder, so naturally you'll need to drop the weight a bit at first, but it won't be long before you're progressing again.

Thanks Findo, that's really helpful

You're welcome! Let me know how you get on. I'm not a natural squatter myself, so have had to really work on it.

Superficially bizarre suggestion re: knees caving, but it really works for me...

I put a light loop resistance band around my thighs, justs above my knees. It gives you something to press outwards against, a nice reminder to keeps knees straight/slightly turned.

actually that's a great idea Maid - must remember to try it.

I use the band for deadlifts too.

So I've had a week off from weights, in view of this weekend's marathon. Light session planned for tomorrow morning, to wake my muscles up.

Found out yesterday that I didn't get a place in the London marathon, so this winter is going to be weights heavy!

An aside: am radically undertrained for this marathon. The last was schedule perfect, to the point that I had very few after effects, bar some light hip tightness a couple of days afterwards. However, training was so psychologically detrimental that I've sacrificed some of that with the expectation that I can deal with a heavier toll after the run. Can do halves with no problem, so might be a run/walk affair