Wowbagger's weightlifting

[Wowbagger]

Having hit something of a plateau some months ago in the effort to lose weight, I decided to boost by effort by attending sessions with a guy at a local sports injury clinic (I haven't got a sports injury). I'm not just doing weights: there's quite a bit of cardio work as well.

I had my 3rd session this morning. I've been dead-lifting 40kg. I don't know if that's good or bad. I've struggled with bench presses because I've been getting dizzy - an inner ear problem, I'm sure, for which I have a doc's appointment next week. I did 35kg at that the first week. Then there's other exercises which at present I'm too ignorant/forgetful to be able to list. With extra repeats I hope to learn what they are, and keep track of my progress. At present, I'm letting Kieran, my trainer, take care of that side of stuff.

I'll try and keep track of what I'm up to on here.

[quixoticgeek]

Having hit something of a plateau some months ago in the effort to lose weight, I decided to boost by effort by attending sessions with a guy at a local sports injury clinic (I haven't got a sports injury). I'm not just doing weights: there's quite a bit of cardio work as well.

I had my 3rd session this morning. I've been dead-lifting 40kg. I don't know if that's good or bad. I've struggled with bench presses because I've been getting dizzy - an inner ear problem, I'm sure, for which I have a doc's appointment next week. I did 35kg at that the first week. Then there's other exercises which at present I'm too ignorant/forgetful to be able to list. With extra repeats I hope to learn what they are, and keep track of my progress. At present, I'm letting Kieran, my trainer, take care of that side of stuff.

I'll try and keep track of what I'm up to on here.

Excellent! It's not just a case of how much you're lifting, it's how many reps you're doing. Doing 1 rep at 40kg, is very different from doing 5 or 10 reps at 40kg. There's also a question of what that represents in proportion of your body weight. A 50kg lifter lifting 40kg is very different to a 100kg lifter lifting 40kg.

A couple of weeks back I was doing 3 sets of 6 split bar dead lifts with 45kg, and it left me with DOMS for days.

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

A couple of weeks back I was doing 3 sets of 6 split bar dead lifts with 45kg, and it left me with DOMS for days.

J

You went to the gym and ended up with Dominic Cummings? That's really bad luck!

[quixoticgeek]

A couple of weeks back I was doing 3 sets of 6 split bar dead lifts with 45kg, and it left me with DOMS for days.

J

You went to the gym and ended up with Dominic Cummings? That's really bad luck!

Delayed onset muscle soreness. As you well know...

J

[Peter]

Wow - have you been properly checked out before starting this?  It's comforting to think that dizziness may be an inner ear problem - it MAY be.  But it can also be a sign of heart trouble.  Now is the time to check......

[Polar Bear]

After hanging up my SPD's and then the cake tin I started back on the road with gym work.  I also had myself a personal trainer.  My objectives were weight loss and core strength improvement.

Emily my PT kept on discouraging me from heavier weights and insisting that I did many sets with lighter weights.  Her wisdom was that to bulk you use heavy weight but to build core strength and tone up whilst losing weight you do little and often as she put it.

It definitely worked for me.  The plague scared me out of the gym and back into running which I am happy with after two years graft.

[Wowbagger]

Wow - have you been properly checked out before starting this?  It's comforting to think that dizziness may be an inner ear problem - it MAY be.  But it can also be a sign of heart trouble.  Now is the time to check......

I am 100% certain it's my inner ear. I've had it before. Beside, I've made a doc appointment for next Monday (couldn't get one earlier). I suspect that the exercise has dislodged some debris.

I'm on drugs for atrial fibrillation, and have been for 18 months or so. They guy in charge of my sessions is trained in physiotherapy and is conscious of the various bits and pieces. He took my BP just after a load of weight lifting yesterday, and it was 146/85 or thereabouts - nothing surprising considering I'd just put a lot of effort in. After I got home I took it again a couple of timesL 134/70ish followed by 119 over 70ish.

I'm struggling with my balance again today but have had no real exercise - just an extremely slow and wobbly walk round the park with Jan.

[Kim]

Wow - have you been properly checked out before starting this?  It's comforting to think that dizziness may be an inner ear problem - it MAY be.  But it can also be a sign of heart trouble.  Now is the time to check......

I am 100% certain it's my inner ear. I've had it before. Beside, I've made a doc appointment for next Monday (couldn't get one earlier). I suspect that the exercise has dislodged some debris.

Read up on BPPV and the Epley Manoeuvre if you haven't already: A series of head movements designed to re-lodge the debris.  It's one of those stunningly-effective-if-it-works things.

Obviously there are less benign causes of vertigo, and it's certainly worth having the quack peer in your ear...

[Peter]

Sounds as if you should be ok, Wow.  I thought I'd ask, since I know you have AF.  good luck!

[L CC]

After hanging up my SPD's and then the cake tin I started back on the road with gym work.  I also had myself a personal trainer.  My objectives were weight loss and core strength improvement.

Emily my PT kept on discouraging me from heavier weights and insisting that I did many sets with lighter weights.  Her wisdom was that to bulk you use heavy weight but to build core strength and tone up whilst losing weight you do little and often as she put it.

It definitely worked for me.  The plague scared me out of the gym and back into running which I am happy with after two years graft.

Emily's wisdom is very much disputed.

Lift big. Always.

[Wowbagger]

Having hit something of a plateau some months ago in the effort to lose weight, I decided to boost by effort by attending sessions with a guy at a local sports injury clinic (I haven't got a sports injury). I'm not just doing weights: there's quite a bit of cardio work as well.

I had my 3rd session this morning. I've been dead-lifting 40kg. I don't know if that's good or bad. I've struggled with bench presses because I've been getting dizzy - an inner ear problem, I'm sure, for which I have a doc's appointment next week. I did 35kg at that the first week. Then there's other exercises which at present I'm too ignorant/forgetful to be able to list. With extra repeats I hope to learn what they are, and keep track of my progress. At present, I'm letting Kieran, my trainer, take care of that side of stuff.

I'll try and keep track of what I'm up to on here.

Excellent! It's not just a case of how much you're lifting, it's how many reps you're doing. Doing 1 rep at 40kg, is very different from doing 5 or 10 reps at 40kg. There's also a question of what that represents in proportion of your body weight. A 50kg lifter lifting 40kg is very different to a 100kg lifter lifting 40kg.

A couple of weeks back I was doing 3 sets of 6 split bar dead lifts with 45kg, and it left me with DOMS for days.

J

I did 3 reps of 10 lifts with 40kg. I did other stuff with different weights, all pretty challenging. I too have been "enjoying" DOMS (I hadn't seen the acronym before you used it).

My pal Sherry, who put me in touch with the trainer, deadlifts 60kg regularly, but she can do 80kg. She's not a huge lass - about 5' 6" and maybe weighs 75kg. She puts it down to lots of fencing and ballet in her youth, giving her strong thighs.

[mrcharly-YHT]

After hanging up my SPD's and then the cake tin I started back on the road with gym work.  I also had myself a personal trainer.  My objectives were weight loss and core strength improvement.

Emily my PT kept on discouraging me from heavier weights and insisting that I did many sets with lighter weights.  Her wisdom was that to bulk you use heavy weight but to build core strength and tone up whilst losing weight you do little and often as she put it.

It definitely worked for me.  The plague scared me out of the gym and back into running which I am happy with after two years graft.

Emily's wisdom is very much disputed.

Lift big. Always.

Hmm - I would say it depends on your goal.

If you are after strength and increased bone density:
Start with light weights and medium (sets of 10) repetitions to develop tendon and ligament toughness.
Then after a few weeks move to low reps and heavy weights.
'ladders' are good, where you do, say, 5 reps with a weight that is easy, then up weight, 5 reps, repeat until hitting the max weight you can manage 5 reps, then back down to start weight. Works muscles to exhaustion.

Not that I do any of that currently of course. No access to gym and I'm lazy.

[L CC]

My pal Sherry, who put me in touch with the trainer, deadlifts 60kg regularly, but she can do 80kg. She's not a huge lass - about 5' 6" and maybe weighs 75kg. She puts it down to lots of fencing and ballet in her youth, giving her strong thighs.

No1 daughter is 5 2 and a similar weight, maybe a little bit less. Weightlifting is her thing - these days she deadlifts more than 110kg.
It's training, not ballet. I've never done ballet, or fencing and last year it took just over a month of 3 weights sessions a week to get me to 5 x 70kg. I'm a lot more kg than Shelley, and clearly a lot stronger thighs.
We wont talk about bench. I think it's maybe 15kg, on a good day.

(This year I can't squat, deadlift or OHP a thing because my knees have no joint space or cartilage left.)

[mrcharly-YHT]

My pal Sherry, who put me in touch with the trainer, deadlifts 60kg regularly, but she can do 80kg. She's not a huge lass - about 5' 6" and maybe weighs 75kg. She puts it down to lots of fencing and ballet in her youth, giving her strong thighs.

No1 daughter is 5 2 and a similar weight, maybe a little bit less. Weightlifting is her thing - these days she deadlifts more than 110kg.
It's training, not ballet. I've never done ballet, or fencing and last year it took just over a month of 3 weights sessions a week to get me to 5 x 70kg. I'm a lot more kg than Shelley, and clearly a lot stronger thighs.
We wont talk about bench. I think it's maybe 15kg, on a good day.

(This year I can't squat, deadlift or OHP a thing because my knees have no joint space or cartilage left.)

It is definitely training. Back when I was a farming lad, I could deadlift 180kg. I weighed about 60kg dripping wet.

A lot of this is down to core spinal strength. Decades of desk work and mine has atrophied dreadfully. Probably would struggle to deadlift 100kg now. Grip strength is also pathetic.

[Wowbagger]

My grip strength is very variable, depending upon whether it is an arthritis day or not. Sometimes a full kettle is close to my limit.

[Jakob]

If you're just starting to lift, lower weight, more reps is definitely the correct choice!.
Learn to lift correctly, get the body used to the load.
Thighs, 'core spine strength', etc are only part of the puzzle. Deadlifts/squats engages the whole posterior chain which is why they're such essential exercises and can have a great positive influence on your overall well being.
Bench press has far less impact as it's a much more isolated exercise.

They're also exercises that are easy to screw up, so coaching is fairly essential.

[chrisbainbridge]

I think the general view from the podcasts I listen to is that functional strength for running and exercise without bulking up is gained from 2 sessions a week.  The sessions are generally 1-3 sets of about 8 reps at 80% of 1RM (one rep max).  Sessions are done in the off season and reduce to 1 session a week in the event season

[L CC]

I keep forgetting you're all blokes.

To bulk up, I'd need to take steroids. 

[Wowbagger]

A vigorous session this morning. My pulse doesn't get very high, but that's probably the beta blockers. I did lots of different types of weight lifting, which I suspect all have their own specific names, but I don't know what they are. My trainer, Kieran, carefully avoided giving me anything which might set off my balance issues, and I was absolutely fine. So there was nothing involving lying back to any great degree.

I failed on the 3rd rep of an exercise in which I walk up and down with a 27.5kg weight in one hand, carrying it like a suitcase. My left-hand's grip just wasn't up to it for the final few steps. Otherwise, good stuff and looking forward to next week.

[Jakob]

I think the general view from the podcasts I listen to is that functional strength for running and exercise without bulking up is gained from 2 sessions a week.  The sessions are generally 1-3 sets of about 8 reps at 80% of 1RM (one rep max).  Sessions are done in the off season and reduce to 1 session a week in the event season

A classic strength building set is 5x5reps with the same weight. This is the most common and widely used. The term 'bulking up' is really only used for bodybuilders and I don't know much about it. I've always trained for strength. It takes a lot of work and food to bulk up. More so than just building strength, so really, for most people, just lifting is enough.

"Starting Strength" by Mark Rippletoe is one of the better resources. While people will argue about his more 'advanced' methods, it's still one of the best guides for starting out.

I've always squatted more than deadlifts, but did end up with a 1RM deadlift of 195kgs and squat of 140kg. (5x5 squat of 125kg). This was 6-7 years ago. Today I probably *could* squat 100kgs, but I'm not sure I'd want to

[Zed43]

Still want to try a stronglift 5x5 program over a winter period.  Need to find a good trainer to make sure I do the lifts properly ("good form" is the idiom I believe) though.

[Wowbagger]

My 6th session this morning.

I don't know what the technical terms are for the exercises I do. I know deadlifts. My deadlifts today consisted of 10 reps of 35kg, 8 of 40kg, 6 of 45kg and 4 of 50kg. 50kg is a cwt (hundredweight, or 8 stones, as near as dammit, to the old fogeys). I also used a multigym, and pulling down from a kneeling position I did 4*10 reps of 90lb (presumably this machine is USAnian and doesn't know what a kg is). Also, assorted other step-ups and other cardio stuff. I've had no recurrence of the dizziness but my balance is rubbish. I struggle to stand on one leg for any length of time at all.

I weigh 99kg, so those weights aren't that impressive for sweet young things. But for crusty old gits, probably not so bad. There must be some sort of formula for what weights you can reasonably be expected to aim for based on height, body weight and age. I'm 67 years old and 178cm tall.

[Jakob]

I weigh 99kg, so those weights aren't that impressive for sweet young things. But for crusty old gits, probably not so bad. There must be some sort of formula for what weights you can reasonably be expected to aim for based on height, body weight and age. I'm 67 years old and 178cm tall.

It's really way too early to start comparing to anything/anyone.
This is a lengthy article, but suggest that you will be at about 65% of someone in their peak...but if you look at one of the tables, says that at 220lbs, you should be able to deadlift 165lbs as a beginner. 65% of that is 50kgs, which is more or less where you're at.
Although I'd caveat that by you being a life long cyclist and should have strong glutes by default.

6 months of regular lifting will give you a much better indication.

[Wowbagger]

Still plugging away. I had another session this morning. I think I'm getting less knackered - or was today. That will be the cue for my man to give me heavier weights to lift...

[sojournermike]

Interesting thread Wow. I do suspect I ought to do some strength work at some point soon. I’m clearly at that age and haven’t really been to a gym since I was running (more seriously and much faster) in my 20s.

Now at 56 I probably should attempt to build muscle for ‘later’.

Thanks.