Lifting support thread 2

[RayKray]

Just noticed I was the last to post on the lifting support thread as it went to 1k so here's another.

Original thread intro post here from
@Work2live

"Thought I’d start this thread as a few people thought it’d be a good idea.

"It might be a nice place to support each other and talk about lifting in general, ask for tips and advice on workouts, how to get enough protein etc.

"All levels very much welcome, from complete newbies to those who’ve been weightlifting for years! 💪🏼"

I know what you mean. One issue I know of re protein powders can be that its often the same common sweeteners, so if people have an issue with the ones used it's difficult to find an alternative. Personally I find shakes less satisfying - they're filling, but I don't enjoy them and I'm likely to still want something else (for taste/texture rather than hunger) I prefer yogurts for that reason, usually have one + fresh berries for breakfast and I enjoy it so I'm more likely to stick to it.

I try and avoid what I understand to be 'ultra processed food' but personally I'm ok with processed food in general. My mindset on that was really changed when I read a feminist article that highlighted how convenience food has enabled women to spend less time in the kitchen and that the pressure of eating 'clean' and cooking from scratch all the time threatens that. It's easy to get hung up on perfection, when for most of us eating well the majority of the time, managing stress and getting enough sleep would be much more relevant to focus on!

I have protein yogurt/pudding too. At the moment I'm usually having fage yogurt/oats/fruit mid morning, protein yogurt/pudding after tea, plus morning and evening shake. Plus protein in my meals. I had 4 eggs on toast for lunch after the gym the other day! The shakes are really an extra dose of protein rather than replacing a meal or snack.

Thanks for all the info & advice!

I do eat a lot of protein in my normal diet: 2 eggs for breakfast, 2 (Iceland size) tuna steaks for lunch, 200g of Fage yoghurt with nuts & seeds each day. Plus a heap of tomatoes, avocado, broccoli & peppers. I eat a lot, but as I'm about 8 kilos overweight - not a lot, but in your mid-60s not ideal & it's hard to shift! I can be quite a hunger-hound and eat too much crap stuff on occasion, and I have a VERY well-developed sweet tooth and no moderation of it ... so eating clean and feeling satiated are both quite important for me.

(Gosh, when I write that out it sounds as though I have an ED - I don't think I have, just a typical female approach to food as emotional, rather than fuel. When I'm upset or overly stressed, I start to think of comforting myself with a Mars bar. I think that through now, rather than impulse buy!)

So it might be worth me adding in some protein powder with a second yoghurt each day, I think. Will get some at my local Holland & Barrett to test out brands. Or do you lovely people have any recommendations? Might try Creatine as well

(due to the way I eat in an 8 hour window, I now rarely drink wine, so the savings there can go on healthy stuff!)

Baby bel light have about 5G protein each so those are handy as a snack. I've got bovril too but only for the winter months as from memory, almost 5G protein in a 12g portion which makes a cup of bovril
I eat a similar diet - B Greek or protein yogurt, L - tuna/mackerel and salad, chicken/salmon/other fish for dinner. I have ready made protein shakes for when I'm at work or out for the day - if I eat breakfast at 7, I don't want to leave my next protein until 2pm lunch. Protein powder when at home - sometimes mixed in Greek yoghurt or steel cut oats.
Creatine is well researched so I take that daily (not averse to dry scooping it 😂)

This way of eating suits me very well - I feel great on it.

Well, I'm trying some vanilla favoured whey protein in my (very late) lunch yoghurt, which is my pudding after a grilled chicken breast & tenderstem broccoli (my favourite vegetable atm). I use the FitBit app for logging steps, exercise & food - it says I'm on 175 g of protein! so I think I was worrying too much.

But the vanilla protein is yum - it satisfies my sweet tooth.

And I had an active recovery day today after PT beasting me yesterday. I use the programming from MegSquats on my non PT days, and did the upper body work out. Bench press fine as only 60% of training max, but delt flies and lateral raises - oh boy even with baby weights (only 6 kilos) my shoulders are dead ... nice pump tho'

She programmes dumbbell shrugs which feel really nice, and non-weighted I-T-Y-Ws - boy, they look easy but are darned hard.

I think b/c with my PT, I tend to do squats & deadlifts, and then accessories like thrusters & devil's press, but also a lot of agility and metcon stuff. Not much specific focus on arms/upperbody apart from pull ups, (and endless burpees & hand-release press ups in between CV stuff like ski-erg & air bike).

Was back in the gym today. Wow that was nearly 7 days off, all I did at home was some 3kg weights in the week and some squats. I really surpassed myself on all of it. Actually it's been so good to have a break as realised I have a tendency to push myself and expect my best on all of it all the time. I mean how fucking unrealistic is that. I mean is I was very experienced maybe. I did however go to my highest on the leg press, abduction. I did what I felt like, without overthinking it, and had pretty good form on everything. I actually think this is a breakthrough for me- it's not actually each individual performance that matters (though training for something very specific would be different), but it's the consistency that gets the results.

@MistyTrains totally agree about consistency. I usually have one rest day a week, and run on some of my strength days. I also work PT, volunteer, have a family, etc etc. I can’t be exhausted all the time and sometimes I have to plan training round other stuff, like everyone. Some workouts I really push, others I work through what I want to get done, leaving something in the tank for tomorrow. But I have found I progress (slowly) as long as I show up and focus, most days. And I enjoy the rest of my life, look forward to my training sessions, sleep and eat well and rarely get colds etc like I used to. That’ll do nicely I think, fingers crossed (and some is partly due to other changes probably. )

Yes so important about having stuff in the tank. It really showed me it's ok to work through what you want to get done and push/perfection doesn't have to be the aim. I did know this but kind of forgot.

I use the Fast800 Chocolate Protein Powder. It is pretty clean - pea isolate, chocolate flavour, it does have stevia but I am yet to find a powder that doesn't. About £20 for 600g.

I also bought Form Nutrition sachets- my god they are sweet! Very delicious but a bit much- I mix it onto porridge oats rather than drink it. It is very pricey.

I buy Fage 0% and 5% and if feeling indulgent a 10% greek yoghurt. I eat most of the 0%.

Me too, I make the mistake of trying to give 110% to every session but my coach is gradually bringing me round to periodised training where the intensity steps up over the weeks until I do an easier deload week. But I still mentally feel like I should be smashing every session!

I think intensity has to be worked out, depending on the rest of you life, your recovery times, how DOMS affects you etc. I train most days so I calibrate accordingly. That suits me and is sustainable- I’ve been strength training 5 years now and still loving it. Sometimes I ramp it up for a bit but over time it averages out and consistency does seem perhaps the most important thing.

Yeh I agree it depends, and will be perceived differently anyway. My training is v intense right now but will drop back before competition. I couldn't sustain it indefinitely. It's quite nice to have a plan with varying intensity as otherwise I will go all out every single time and have to be persuaded not to.

What is a deload week? I have a 6.30am with my PT tom. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

@MistyTrains it's where you reduce intensity for a week to give your body a chance to recover. You still keep training but less. Different to a rest week where you wouldn't train at all.

@RayKray definitely. Skewed for me because I do three classes plus PT a week so a lot is in place already although I might do legs before a cali class, or eg pull ups if I know it will be push, and I run on strength days too.

Thinking on, I can recommend powerlifting to anyone who is in that 200% get the numbers up mindset. I care a bit less about numbers now as I know I get a chance to show that further down the road. My weights go up and down depending on what the sets are for, how many reps, RPE etc. I'm usually not working at my max in terms of weight at the moment. But I can look to the bigger of that end goal and know that moment is coming. So it's intense in a different way, but really suits my desire to hit high weights.

Rest days, huh!

My PT beasted me soooo much yesterday, I needed a 3 hour lie down. He's training for the Hyrox competition in London in November, so of course, I get to do his training (as does his wife, they are very well-matched!).

I just did the 8 pieces without running the 1000 m in between, and I am still aching.

1000m on the ski-erg; 50 m sled push 100 k; 50 m sled pull 75k; 2 x 16 k KB farmer's carry for 200m (that was the easiest of them all); 100m x 10k weighted lunge (also easier than the rest); 80m burpee broad jumps; 1000m row; 75 wall balls @ 4k ball. It took me pretty much the full hour of my session.

I felt good immediately after (endorphins), but by an hour later, I could hardly stand up. And I didn't get to lift heavy weight! So going in later today to do some deadlifting.

Sounds intense @DollyParkin . There is nothing that could persuade me to do all that! I realised today I was being a total cliche powerlifter faffing on with shoe changes, resting for ages after lifting something once etc.

There were not enough swearwords in the world when he told me this is what I was doing in my session, believe me

But I've just looked up times from last year for women in my age group (60-64) and if I took 8 minutes for each of the runs - my warm up run is for 5 mins and I usually cover 0.75k I'd come in at about the time of the 10th fastest woman in the UK. So I feel a bit better about that, particularly as the sled track at my gym is appalling, so I'd be faster on the sled push/pull. I like the sled for it's sheer grunt value - no technique needed!

I used to be able to drag (in a harness so full body drag) around 375 kilos, but I'd be lucky to drag 150 on the current track.

But racing against time is not my thing. I was so pleased when I discovered weightlifting.

@DollyParkin sounds amazing and very inspiring.

I practised my deadlift technique today - found the switched hands hold to be much better. It is an interesting exercise as it engages everything- for me with adhd where my brain is prone to wandering...there is no wandering!

I also had a calories conversation with my PT- she said we can just see how it goes, which I am happy with as it's quite a lot to balance - protein, calories, sleep, workouts.

Wow @DollyParkin thats amazing! Well done.

love reading what everyone’s up to!

intensity - I think it is even affected by minor things like where your gym is 😂. Mine is an 8 min walk so I can pop in even if not up for full strength session, for bad weather cardio or skills practice or a single exercise that I missed out, etc.

Thanks everyone. I don't feel very inspiring! I was moaning & whinging for the whole session. But it knackered me for the rest of the day, and I actually had work to do (am writing a book that has a deadline).

Had an inspiring chat with a friend today - has anyone read Poorna Bell Stronger? I was thinking of getting a copy.

My normal training day has been Monday but I have decided to mix it up and train tomorrow. I find 2 days off at weekends too much, but Mon/Tues off would work as it's the start of the week at work so I can rest physically but mentally focus at work.

I'm excited for another session tomorrow, still in the loving it stage!

Yep I read that when I first started. It's great!

And I still look forward to every single session nearly 18 months on. Literally every single one, I've never had to force myself to go. I've been waiting for that stage to end but it never has. Today I was aching, little sleep and tired from all the training. Still excited to go.

I don't get to go tomorrow which always makes me a bit sad. Have a great session!

@RayKray I'm fascinated to know what you'd typically do in a session, ad how many across the week?

I want to lift more, but with 2 sessions a week with my PT, plus a bootcamp class, feels like it's hard to do more - possibly because of my age (mid-60s). But then I think, no if i just lifted, rather than also did the HIIT/Metcon stuff I do with my trainer, I could do a couple more workouts in the week.

So do you lift heavy-ish everyday?