Lifting Support Thread 3

[Proteinpud]

Continuing from @Work2live 's original thread, with the following intro post

"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! 💪🏼"

Hello all, and thanks for all your good wishes & encouragement. I've been home (not travelling) so have been training 4-5 times a week, and sometimes 3 times a week with my PT (pay rise so I'm splurging). Feeling really good - cardio fit & weights strong. Am getting back into heavy squats after 18 months of being very careful due to torn knee cartilage. Deadlifts are feeling great and I am back at my high training max on benching - around 40 k.

Of course "heavy" for me is 60 kilos not like some of the amazing weights some of you shift! My aim is to get to body weight - so 70 k

Spring & early light mornings help, and doing the bare minimum for my job (I'm an academic so a "bare minimum" is working 50 hours, but not on the weekends ...

But training is so good for every other aspect of my life, I'll take missing my current book deadline. Naughty

@YellowAsteroid that sounds so good! So glad you are back on track and feeling strong. It sounds like just what you need right now, not yet more work.

@2andadog I tried your spoto sets tonight and that helped! It also highlighted exactly what I am doing wrong I think - I'd gradually shifted to bringing the bar down to high up on my chest, so I lose the scap control, shoulders come into it, bar waves around. So I stuck on 40 (my max is 50) and drilled proper form. I'll build up slowly again.

Pull ups also feeling good - I've paused on weighted ones as wasn't getting enough volume and my elbow niggles sometimes, so want to grease the groove a bit, tweak form a bit, and then start adding a bit of weight in again. Feeling strong!

@MsMartini so pleased they helped! I did them with my coach on Monday as my bench is dire at the moment, and my lats have been on fire since 🤣🤣

I've been away a bit, on holiday/no gym and away for some capoeira and jiu jitsu events

At the jiu jitsu day I was wearing short sleeves and a young (19yr old) student asked me if a strength trained. I mumbled something and sh
e shouted 'yeah you do, you're jacked!'

Genuinely made me laugh and took the compliment! I don't see it myself as I still think I've got enough fluff covering my muscle, so I think I just look a bit chubby! Not that there's anything wrong with chubby, but her picking up on it made me smile.

Hope everyone's training is going well!

Fab @Proteinpud - go you, jacked & all.

I got a compliment in my gym today, too! I was deadlifting (my favourite lift) and a few sets at warm up then at 85k then heading for the hundred - a double (2 reps touch & go) - felt great, and I almost had a third in me, but not quite.

A youngish man was doing some sort of bicep curl nearby and said out loud "Wow, that's impressive - double hundreds"

A bro compliment

Made my day. I wanted to head for 105, but my PT is v strict about not overdoing it, so dropped to multiple reps at 90 ...

@YellowAsteroid And @Proteinpud this is brilliant!

My favourite young gym bro compliment so far is "You have added volume to your arms) (first language not English).

I would never have imagined gym culture could be so warm and encouraging, while allowing you to crack on quietly when you want to, and wish the other perceptions were not such a barrier for middle-aged and older women in particular (tho I do know I have probably been lucky with my positive experiences).

Totally agree @MsMartini although I sometimes get a bit nervous on my own in my gym - without my PT - and then I remember: I know what I'm doing, I lift heavy, and I deserve to be there. And actually I've found that the middle-aged bro types are actually the friendliest!

I also try to make brief contact with other female lifters - in the change room, or just in passing - not interrupting their workout but just saying "Wow, I saw you squatting heavy there. How's it going?" or the like. A nice compliment as it's just friendly recognition of hard work.

Me too @YellowAsteroid . And if younger women especially ask for advice etc I try to be as helpful as possible. I’ve had loads of help and encouragement but think blokes probably more comfortable about approaching women old enough to be their mother so I like to pay it back.

With cali especially it is different for women. I saw an insta clickbait post earlier saying here are five beginner standards. They included 10 pull ups, 15 dips and 20 push ups. So if younger women ask me about how to get some pull ups I try to help but also reassure them that scaling is different and to keep going, train in the same way as the men but progress will be different. wHalf a pull up isn’t half as hard as a full
one so it isn’t like bench where my training partner benches twice what I do but we are doing the same exercise IYSWIM.

Hello! Do you mind if I nervously pop in? I’m just starting out. Late 30s, two small kids. Used to do endurance sports pre-children but am quite out of shape and suddenly feeling very creaky. I’m absolutely yearning to be strong! I’ve joined a gym which offers 1:1 sessions on form, have been watching lots of megsquats on YouTube and am following a programme. Appreciate I should probably get a PT but currently there are other things I need to prioritise financially.

I have decent quads and glutes from my triathlon days but my arms are weedy. I’ve spent the week finding my baseline and squat and deadlift were around 75% of bodyweight, while bench pressing was… the 15kg bar. My core also feels like it did a great job growing 2 babies but has someway to go to be functionally useful back in the real world. Any hints and tips for a newbie very welcome.

That was a ramble! I’m feeling buzzy about this though in a way I’ve struggled to with my old sports.

oooo welcome @HilltopHightop - you're doing everything right!

The next thing would be to think about a plan - a "programme" Loads of fitness influencers give out basic programmes for free - have a look at Henley Fitness on Instagram - she's very funny if you don't mind a lot of rude words ... She does a free programme & an online coacjed programme I think. But there are loads of them out there.

And you can buy online programmes - the MegSquats one is $US90 per year, so not the same as a PT cost.

Squats will give you abs & core, don't worry! You could also add in some plyo work - box jumps are fun, and might make use of your marathon background? Another thing to add in might be weighted sled pushes, if your gym has a sled track. Really quick way to build real strength & power.

I can deadlift 105 kilos, but my PB on bench is only 40kilos, and my squat is only 67 kilos,- so it's not unusual to have disparities. It's about what your body's trained for I think!

Have fun and enjoy the "newbie gains" - I remember when lifting 70 k was a huge triumph.

Thank you @YellowAsteroid! I’m following the programme in Michael Matthew’s Thinner, Leaner, Stronger - I don’t love the title but it seems nice and structured.

The gym has loads of functional training stuff including a sled track which looks fun. It’s very different from the last time I set foot in a gym in the early 2000s! For box jumps would you go high box and low reps or low box and high reps?

The one thing I’m scared of is failing on a squat. There are safety arms on the rack but I think I need to ask how to fail safely and practice as I suspect my brain will get in the way otherwise.

OK with box jumps I'm not the person to ask. I pinged a knee cartilage about 18 months ago & I'm nervous still of some things. I used to be able to jump the 20 inch box but now use the 18 inch box. And I tend to do it for say, 20 jumps, or for 45 seconds. So it's what you can do, really.

The sled is great fun - I just did a 275 kilo push the other week. It gets you strong very quickly with little or no technique needed!

Re. squats. Just stay at a weight you feel safe with. Keep doing it - maybe do more reps & sets than your plan - you get progressive overload either by more weight, or by more reps/sets. It's no good freaking yourself out - you're more likely to injure yourself that way! You'll get stronger just by consistency, and then you'll feel OK about putting a little weight on - use those 1.25 and 2.5 biscuits!

I have found that most of my barriers are mental. The first time I pulled 100k, my PT kidded me that it was just 90, which I'd done before. I learnt how to climb a rope last year (yay! never thought I'd learn that at 65) . I've done it a lot now, and always the first time the struggle is mental.

When I show jumped at pony club, they always said you had to throw your heart over the fence first. It's so true.

Hello @HilltopHightop welcome! You are doing great!

I think bench is the hardest one to get used to when you start as it doesn't mimic anything in everyday life.

Sled-people - any tips for getting started and structuring? There's one at my gym but I find it ridiculously hard, don't know what I am doing, and also can't find a comfy grip. And everyone seems to do it differently.....

I love the idea of still pushing the boundaries of your physical capabilities in your 60s. That’s so inspiring. My postnatal body feels totally alien to me even though my youngest is already 4, and I’m really not ready to cede control of that so it’s very empowering to hear women older, wiser and stronger than me!!

I’ll give the sled ago this week - it does look fun.

Welcome @HilltopHightop ! With squats, experiment how high you set the safeties. Try a light squat with the safeties a bit higher than you need, and you'll find that the bar sort of lifts off your shoulders before you've gone all the way down, as the bar comes to rest on the safeties
Then try setting them very slightly lower, and as you come to the bottom of the squat you should be able to tip backwards very slightly and let the bar roll onto the safeties. Thing is, as long as you're using safeties it's not really a worry if you bail out a bit rubbish - as the safeties mean you can't hurt yourself too much. The danger of a squat (without safeties) would be collapsing under the weight, especially leaning forward and the bar going over you. If you've got safeties in the way, all you can do is a bit of an awkward fold to get out from underneath the bar that is waiting above you!

If it's not too much to add to your programme, I'd recommend adding in squats to as many sessions as you can, but only with very light weight - literally form practice. So for example, if you go three times a week, one session is following the programme for squats, and on the other two, try just one or two sets just with the bar, go slow and think about the movement. It takes a few goes before it starts to feel more natural.

the sled at my gym weighs about 30 kilos so if you just put one plate on it and do maybe 3 there and back pushes it’s a great warm up.

You can play around with- fast and light push, slow and heavy push - but work up to that!

Or pulls - the Hyrox style pull where you stay in one place and just pull it hand over hand, or the walking backwards pull. Either way you use a squat and anchor yourself against the weight. Attach your gyms battle rope to the centre pole and put a weight on top to secure it.

Just play with it.

My PT sometimes put s me in a harness and I drag more weight than I ever thought possible pretty much in a horizontal plank. But you get such strong legs back and abs.

Agree with @Proteinpud about squats. Her advice will also help you get the proper depth (“arse to grass”).

I know the deadlift is felt to be more complex technically but I find that it’s crucial to get squat form right - when I get it right - brace, hinge, descend fast and then think of pushing up with the shoulders to ascend - they feel really good and flowing. But if I don’t focus on that form, squats feel weird and in the past, I’ve twinged my back doing them.

I think you just have to keep the weights low. I warm up with 12 reps of just the 20k bar.

Im susceptible to ego lifting so I have to keep it real!

Thanks @Proteinpud, that sounds very helpful advice

@HilltopHightop welcome!

I’m similar background, did triathlon then got into strength training, functional fitness and now do Olympic lifting and powerlifting.

Coming from endurance sport, your biggest value lifts are compound lifts, so squats, deadlift, and then some upper body like pull-ups or lay pull down etc will give you good all round strength. You’ve had some great advise on the safety bars, I’d just practice with light weights on the bar how to “dump it” on the bars, you’ll soon get confident in loading more on the bar!

Enjoy it! I find lifting heavy to be pretty therapeutic and helps with the stress of day to day life juggling everything else 👌☺️

Thanks @YellowAsteroid I'll experiment! Really helpful.

I'm having a few days off gym as got lingering cold from weeks ago and generally been easily tired, and lots on at home, so thought a few days off will do me good, and hope to go back tomorrow with a bit more zing!

How are you lovely lot doing? I've been on a slight calorie deficit (at least, I'm hoping it's a deficit - I'm eating a lot less chocolate!) but I've been finding lifting is going well - equalled my previous squat PB after reducing weight and building my form up for a while.

Hope everyone is doing well, and if it's not going great, hope you're still lifting at least!

I’m good thanks. Still doing the same, nothing very eventful trainingwise. 8 weeks out of British masters now.

Doing well over here thanks @Proteinpud I spent some time rehabbing a back tweak and am feeling well recovered. Lifts are all moving well.

I have been slogging through some squat issues due to a very unstable ankle so I am doing a lot of single leg balance work (which I suck at!!) but yesterday I finally had a session where my squats moved well. Hoping to get some more weight on the bar soon but at least my paused reps were solid even if the weight was not what I would like it to be.

Also doing a lot of shoulder and arm work, I want bigger arms so that I get some of those unsolicited complements that others have had!!!

Ooh that's exciting @RayKray , seems to be coming around quick! Keep us posted how you get on

@everycowandagain glad your back is better. My ankles are a bit dodgy too, combination of having high arches and past injuries when I've rolled them. I don't find them too bad when squatting but I have to really concentrate on anything single leg (nightmare when it comes to capoeira and doing kicks).
I spent a lot of time doing squats at lower weights but I think I've improved my form compared to when I was doing squats at this weight before. Certainly feels better and more controlled.

All good here too, thanks. Been busy in rest of life but managed to keep the training going and made some pull up and flag progress, while letting other things slip a bit. I got 5 sets of 6 pull ups in 15 mins last week which I've never got close to before so will keep going with that and then maybe start adding a bit of weight.

Doing a fair bit of shoulder work too (by my standards, never focussed on it much before) for flags. I'm beefy up top anyway (family tradition) but tops are pulling a bit, whereas tight trousers fine.....

@RayKray good luck with the prep, keep us posted!