gwenbasil (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gwenbasil) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lifting_heavy_things2012-06-17 01:01 pm
gwenbasil) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2012-06-17 01:01 pm
(no subject)
Hi everyone,
I'm new! I used to work in a grocery store, where the job was awful, but some of the physical work made me happy - I did several sets of "rotisserie chickens" a day, and was proud of my "box of five watermelons" deadlift.
Now I work at a desk, and the pay and treatment are better but I'm getting restless. So I'm shopping for a gym membership - help, what am I looking for?
Also, I don't have the monies to pay a TRAINER - where do I start with the exercises? I can get over-enthusiastic in step 1 of anything I do, so even though I intellectually know I need a sort of limited program to stick with, my instinct is DO ALL THE EXERCISES and I don't think that's right.
My goals are to get stronger, especially in the top half - and not gonna lie, LOOKING stronger, with poke-outey arm muscles eventually is a motivation too. I'm 5'9 and 150 pounds-ish, eat what I want, turn a big stink-eye on beauty-standards-for-women, and am completely uninterested in weight loss (though I know I am probably going to have people talk to me about it at every gym I go to) I FEEL skinny, as in skinny-with-the-negative-connotations. I'm accepting diet-to-go-along-with-sudden-interest-in-gaining-strength suggestions, cos I think y'all probably get where I'm coming from.
Right now I can't do a pull up, I can do about one push up, but I can walk pretty much infinitely.
The idea of running for a reason that isn't fleeing danger makes me go ugh and roll my eyes, but I'll do it if it's in service of some other goal.
I've lurked on this blog for ages, being impressed by you all, so I've suddenly decided to jump in! I know a lot of the things I've mentioned are repeated in your archives, but 80% of the motivation of this post is "State your plans in public, so you aren't tempted to weasel out" ;)
I'm new! I used to work in a grocery store, where the job was awful, but some of the physical work made me happy - I did several sets of "rotisserie chickens" a day, and was proud of my "box of five watermelons" deadlift.
Now I work at a desk, and the pay and treatment are better but I'm getting restless. So I'm shopping for a gym membership - help, what am I looking for?
Also, I don't have the monies to pay a TRAINER - where do I start with the exercises? I can get over-enthusiastic in step 1 of anything I do, so even though I intellectually know I need a sort of limited program to stick with, my instinct is DO ALL THE EXERCISES and I don't think that's right.
My goals are to get stronger, especially in the top half - and not gonna lie, LOOKING stronger, with poke-outey arm muscles eventually is a motivation too. I'm 5'9 and 150 pounds-ish, eat what I want, turn a big stink-eye on beauty-standards-for-women, and am completely uninterested in weight loss (though I know I am probably going to have people talk to me about it at every gym I go to) I FEEL skinny, as in skinny-with-the-negative-connotations. I'm accepting diet-to-go-along-with-sudden-interest-in-gaining-strength suggestions, cos I think y'all probably get where I'm coming from.
Right now I can't do a pull up, I can do about one push up, but I can walk pretty much infinitely.
The idea of running for a reason that isn't fleeing danger makes me go ugh and roll my eyes, but I'll do it if it's in service of some other goal.
I've lurked on this blog for ages, being impressed by you all, so I've suddenly decided to jump in! I know a lot of the things I've mentioned are repeated in your archives, but 80% of the motivation of this post is "State your plans in public, so you aren't tempted to weasel out" ;)
no subject
I know you said you don't have the money for a trainer, but I highly recommend either going to a class or doing a short-term training (possibly in a small group) with someone who can show you how to lift weights properly. Lifting weights with bad form is an easy way to get hurt, and you'll see more improvement if you know how to do things properly. They can also give you some ideas on what to do on your own.
At the very least, if you can't/don't want to do that, there's a lot of great youtube videos out there which can tell you what the proper form is (you just don't have the person to tell you if anything is wrong and how to fix it). I'd check out crossfit.com for various descriptions of weightlifting moves and some links to videos, as a start.
I've seen a lot of people say very good things about the book The New Rules of Lifting for Women - I don't know it myself, but it's probably worth checking out.
And good luck! Getting stronger is a ton of fun and it's really exciting to see results.
(I get the weasel out thing - part of the reason I do CrossFit, in spite of the high price tag, is because I have a coach right there keeping me from giving up when it gets hard)