Weighted squats - advice pls

[MESSING2]

For a beginner 50+, trying to sort out my rather flat/saggy glutes.

Can anyone advise a programme, or even just what weight to begin with?

TIA

Start with body weight, to develop good form. Film yourself, look at all the good YouTube sites to get tips on form, or pay for a couple of PT sessions at your gym. Attend also to ankle and hip mobility. And stretch.

Then start with the barbell (that weighs 20 kilos just by itself) and slowly build strength on a progressive programme. Add maybe 1 or 2 kilos a week with 3 sessions a week.

Add "accessory" exercises, like forward and reverse lunges, gradually adding dumbbell weights. Also deadlifts & RDLs, with the barbell or dumbbells.

There are various online programmes you can follow for weights - I was recommended MegSquats here a couple of years ago - it's around £90 a year, with a properly programmed app, with lots of advice and demonstration videos. You can find her on YouTube.

Caroline Girvan’s Epic Beginner program on YouTube is free and has got me going again after some time off. Starts with body weight only and then adds some weights on day 4.

Caroline Girvan is who you want. In addition to the EPIC and other programmes, she also has lots of shorter, targeted ad hoc workouts.

life-changing…

Thanks all - really useful.

Many 50 year old women would struggle to lift 20kg bar bell never mind squat with it - it’s a third of my body weight

start body weight and after that use weights you can manage for say 12 reps - you might judge that by going to a shop and seeing what dumbbells you can easily lift and move around. But 2*5kg might be a better starting point. As you get stronger the 5s will be useful for smaller muscle groups

you can trade weight for reps - so if you don’t have very heavy weights you need to do more reps till you can’t manage more

You don't lift a barbell in a squat. You step under the rack, and hold the barbell across your upper back! The weight is then distributed into your glutes, abs, and quads.

And a 50 year old should be able to pick up 20 kilos. Goodness that's not heavy.

We should all be able to carry the equivalent of our body weight for about10 metres. It's survival - if you fall, how are you going to get up?

there is a lot of difference between the average and the relatively fit 50 year old

And that attitude os why we have an obesity crisis with all the attendant other health issues. 20 kilos is not heavy and any 50 year old should be able to pick it up, or squat it.

Eh?, dude, you're tougher than you think, a 20kg bar is not too heavy. Those weights won't do much for you either.

OP book in a couple of sessions with a PT. See where you're at and I'll bet you'll surprise yourself.

Indeed @gamerchick ! Most people can lift heavier, and work harder in the gym than they think.

You can start with light weights and sets of 12 reps @MESSING2 but eventually, you want to lift/squat weights heavy enough that by the 4th or 5th rep, you can't do another rep. That is the way to use weights to get strong glutes, abs, and quads, and counter osteoporosis etc

I doubt most women can carry their own body weight.
I regularly do pump classes in the gym. In order to do weighted squats, first you have to be able to lift the weighted barbell over your head and onto your shoulders. All the women squat with 10-15 kg max. The ones who squat with 20 or more are big and stocky.
The squat contraption you are talking about might be different, but I’m not sure every gym has one.
As a beginner I wouldn’t start squatting with 20 kg. Maybe 10. She might hurt her back if she’s not strong enough yet.

Ive never met a gym that doesn't have a rack for the bar.

The OP might be doing this at home rather than the gym.

I would start with body weight, then goblet squats with a dumbbell before looking at bar bell

Thanks for all the replies. I should have specified that I'm hoping to do this at home, and that I am pretty much a beginner.

Have you thought about body pump classes? I am 55 and do them regularly. They include squats and lunges and give an all over workout. You can start light and it’s more about higher reps than really heavy weights. Might not be every one’s cup of tea but works for me

I have been where you are now and my main advice is to start small. When I was totally unfit and had never exercised, even the beginner Caroline Girvan was far too much and forget about a bar bell. (I now enjoy both CG and working out with a bar bell but it took time).

I would start with just five minutes.

https://drchatterjee.com/blog/5min-kitchen-workout/

Crikey, those of you getting at me - please read my post: @MESSING2 asked specifically for advice about weighted squats

I started my advice by suggesting body weight squats. And then adding dumbbells. And doing things like lunges (static and walking) and RDLs - Romanian deadlifts.

If @MESSING2 does have access to a gym, I suggested a couple of personal trainer (PT) sessions to check her form. And there will be a squat rack at a gym - it's a basic piece of equipment (hardly a contraption!)

Pump is great fun, but it's aerobic, rather than using weight bearing. The advice to women in middle age & beyond is that we need to do resistance training. You can do this a number of ways: using weights, using resistance bands.

I suggest the OP look at a couple of really brilliant online trainers I've found offer great programming, and run by women: Henley fitness and MegSquats

Find them on Instagram and YouTube to have a look at their material; they both offer free example programmes, which will get you started. MegSquats paid for app (it's about $USD2 per week - I paid $90 for a year) has a home/non-gym equipment version - you just need resistance bands and dumbbells. But you could improvise with a weighted backpack for squats, for example!

Anyone (women, men) should be able to carry their own weight, but it takes training. I spent about 20 minutes yesterday doing a "farmer's carry" building up to carrying two 32 kilo kettlebells while walking round the functional area of my gym. It's hard, there's no doubt, but I'm training to get strong so I can stay active as I head towards 70.

And so that if, at age 85, I fall, I can get up off the floor. THAT's what we're all training for - to stay active and independent. It's really worth it.

Good luck @MESSING2 - just get started with doing body weight squats. Why not aim for 50 a day, but broken up into sets of 10 which you do in between stuff - while waiting for the kettle to boil, etc etc etc

And yay to kitchen work outs @Radra !!

This is one of Caroline’s shorter quads workouts which I really like.

Don’t even think of using anywhere near her weights to begin with. I’d suggest 4-5 kg and work your way up. The yoga block makes it more challenging - again, omit when you are starting out if it makes you feel unsteady.

slowly slowly catchy monkey….. if you keep at it, you’ll get there!

I’ve joined a CrossFit gym. Love it. They are really focused on form and happily adapt to all abilities and ages (I’m in my 50s) - (I’m not sure all CrossFit gyms are as good as ours on this). It’s taken a couple of years but I can deadlift 100kg now and back squat 65kg) my nemesis was doing anything with bar over my head. The bars in our gym are 20kg and 15kg with 7.5kg training bars. When trying to squat with arms overhead I couldn’t move downwards at all even with a near weightless pvc pipe. I can now do a full squat with the 15kg bar. The whole room celebrated when I showed how thrilled I was when I did my first one!

I did use to body pump and did enjoy it. But as pp said, it’s cardio not strength. Also neee to work harder to maintain great form.

Crossdit has changed my life. There was a video of my going upstairs when I shuffled and weabled from side to side with shoulders hunch. I was horrified. I was heading for a rubbish old age. I am still one of the more overweight people in the gym, especially as I’m on medication which usually leads to significant weight gain and I’m not sure I’ll ever jump onto a box (but I’m happy with my little stack of plates) but I’m getting strong. I no longer have minor prolapses front and back from having the kids, as my pelvic floor is immeasurably stronger, I can get up off the floor without needing to use my hands, and my grip strength (physio said one of their measures for what sort of old age you’d have) is great. Also it’s great for my mental health - I have been hospitalised with this. I go even in a bad day and everyone accepts me. It’s such a lovely team atmosphere but work is done individually so it doesn’t matter where your level is at. Going to enter a hyrox comp next year.

@ParkrunDistance you sound amazing, as does your CrossFit box.

My back tends to spasm with too much overhead work, so I don't do it very often. The first time I did overhead squats it was weird. But I need my back for heavy deads - it took me almost 6 years to get to 100k and now I can pull 105. It's slooooow, isn't it?

For overhead work my PT gives me dumbbell thrusters and the devil's press (and it is - some also call it the man maker - ha! women can do it too)

I'd love to keep getting stronger but at 66 I might have to settle for maintenance (can box jump though it takes all my mental energy to do so!)

But I'd say to those pps who feel they "can't" do this stuff - find a place, or a gym, or a trainer, or a programme, or a club, or a group of friends that believes you can. And take slow and steady steps towards your goal, be that a 20 kilo barbell back squat or a better 1 rep max on your deadlift (that's me, failing every week)

Just have a look on you tube it’s how’s you how to do the actual moves and correctly, no point doing them if your not doing them right, start small and often and you’ll get the hang of it in no time.

So if I am 60kg I should be able to lift 60kg up in the air and walk 10 metres? Come on. You can’t be serious, for a beginner ??

I am not an expert but my feeling is it’s important to get your technique right and then move up in weights. All the best.

That's not what I said @3luckystars First of all, farmer's carry is not lifting 60kg in the air (have a look on YouTube to see what it is). I do it with 2 x 32 kg kettlebells (or you can use dumbbells), one in each hand, and carry them like suitcases & pray my grip holds! It's taken me a good few years of training to get strong enough to carry that sort of weight, and I still have a bit of a way to go to carry my own bodyweight - it would be 2 x 36k dumbbells or kettle bells. It's something to aim at.

And I didn't recommend this for a beginner. I said that we should aim to be able to carry our own weight. It takes years of consistent weight training for women to build muscle, but we should do it.

The OP (and anyone else) needs to get on a programme of progressive overload to build muscle. But women should do it, for a healthy active old age.

Sorry I didn’t understand what you meant. Thanks very much for explaining x