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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Middle-aged woman here – I work out typically six days a week, Including varying forms of vigorous aerobics, HIIT, and weight lifting…but always lighter weights with reps up to fatigue. Should I add a heavy weightlifting class?[/quote]

Yes. You should be able to do unassisted pull-ups and chin-ups.

A good goal squat is your body weight (in addition to the weight of your body).

A good goal deadlift is 150% of your bodyweight.

You will be fatigued when done; fear not!

Good form is critical. A class may or may not give you that. [/quote]

I would call all those “upper-limit goals” not “good” (which implies they’re easily within reach for everyone). A pull-up/chin-up is a very lofty goal for most women. I have been lifting heavy for 5 months and am still not even close to getting an unassisted chin-up/pull-up, and I am not overweight. I’m almost able to deadlift my body weight and can squat 70% of my body weight.

I love lifting, but it takes a long time to build that kind of muscle, especially at my age (late 40s), where I have to progress slowly as to not injure myself.
[/quote]

I am 50. It took me five years, in my 20s, to get to these goals; now I maintain them and occasionally build on one or another.

5 months is not a meaningful duration for measuring strength improvement; most of the progress in that time is neurological.[/quote]

Are these your max out weights? As in you can do this for one rep?  Because I ageee this seems like a lot lofty goal for most women.  And not a good goal for someone starting in their 40s unless they’re with a private trainer enforcing good form. [/quote]

I started in my early 30s completely out of shape. I am now 43 and can deadlift 2x my body weight, squat 1.5x my BW and bench my body weight. I can also do 7-10 chin-ups or pull ups and would have no problem walking around with 60s in my hands at 150lbs. And no, I don’t live in the gym. I have a full time job and a kid.  Those goals that were mentioned are not lofty at all. They should be easily achievable for a female who regularly works out following a program with progressive overload. [/quote]

I mean... these are "easily achievable" in the sense that with regular effort, many women can get there. But for someone who has not lifted at all, it's going to take years to get there. That's not what most people think of when they hear the word "easily."[/quote]

PP you are responding to. Yes, that is what I meant. You can get there with consistent effort and a smart plan. Many women spend enough time in the gym to  be able to achieve decent strength over time but because of the type of workouts  they do, nothing changes. I think the “lofty” goals that were originally mentioned took me about a year to achieve coming from a complete couch potato. My current strength took longer and at this point it is difficult for me to improve on it further, but in general women can become much stronger than they think and quicker than they realize. [/quote]

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