lifting_heavy_things | (no subject)

Hi! I'm new both to this community and to weightlifting, but I plan to keep at it, especially after reading some back entries here.

I'm in good shape generally (I do yoga twice a week, cardio four or five times, and commute by bike when it's warmer than it currently is in Canada) but I've never had great upper body strength. As a former dancer, most of the exercises I know involve strengthening the lower body and to a less extent the abdominals and lower back.

I've been reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women, which seems good so far, and have read, like, ALL THE THINGS at Stumptuous and I've gone to the gym several times (with the help of my more experienced-at-lifting sister) and worked out at the weight room. But as an overweight person, and a woman, I'm sometimes not the most confidant about being there. I don't really know what I'm doing.

Basically- any advice about starting out would be welcome... stuff to read, watch, or think about; specific routines you recommend; anything, really.

I am in awe of your collective strength and perseverance!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Thanks, I'll check it out!

I went through the NRoLfW program and liked it a lot and then switched to StrongLifts 5x5 (very similar to Starting Strength, except that you start out doing five sets of five reps instead of three sets of of five reps.)

I also looked through New Rules of Lifting for Abs and liked the look of the workouts better than what was in NRoLfW -- I think they made improvements over how they did things there, but again, if you want to learn to lift heavy, try Starting Strength or StrongLifts.

SS and SL are both pretty simple programs -- they each have five different exercises; you do squats every work out and two of the other four on alternating workouts, so if you like more variety, the New Rules books also do compound type lifts; they just have different kinds and have more dumbbell work instead of just basic barbell lifts.