Yes! Heavier weights/less reps with progressive overload.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

Thise are pretty much body weight exercises. I am 5'7 and had worked out for years, heavy weights, etc and could only do unassisted pull ups when my weight was under 135.

Anonymous wrote:Heavier weights help build bone density, which is important for most women after menopause.

Yes - this is why! There was an incredible study done w/ older woman (I want to say 65+) that had never lifted weights and began a program of weight lifting. The results on bone health were incredible.

But also agree with others that you have to make sure your form is correct, so not a bad idea to pay for a few personal training sessions if you think you need some help in that department.

I'm in my mid-40s, and was a cardio slave. Have really bumped up my weights (my heaviest is probably 20lbs for squats, with 10-15 lbs for most else). I've seen terrific changes in terms of body shape.

There is a technique to lifting heavy - light weights you can swing them around. If you don't follow the technique you could hurt yourself with a strain especially at the back or joints.

Go to a friendly gym and ask someone that lifts heavy if they can show the proper technique.

Some dudes avoid the shoulder press because they get injured - they don't do it right. Some dudes don't protect their back when rolling to do a dumb bell bench press.

One way to get round heavy is to use light/medium weights and muscles stretched before the push/pull begins. Stretching is a very unused technique because you don't look cool with small weights. Girls(and boys) are impressed when you have large stacks moving.

Anonymous wrote: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?

Yes fool

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

Also farmer's carry approx 80% of your weight. The amount decreases as you age but it's one indicator of longevity.

I'm sorry, but 150 lb. women are not walking around the gym with a 60 lb. dumbbell in each hand for any distance.

That’s the problem they aren’t but should be if they don’t want to a frail elderly woman.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

Also farmer's carry approx 80% of your weight. The amount decreases as you age but it's one indicator of longevity.

I'm sorry, but 150 lb. women are not walking around the gym with a 60 lb. dumbbell in each hand for any distance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

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.

Weights are great at your age but don’t go too heavy if you have pelvic floor weakness. I was cautioned not to lift heavy as I have a mild prolapse from child birth and it will worsen with heavy weight as it puts downward pressure on. It’s true, I can feel it when I lift too heavy but usually can’t feel it at all.

I do both kinds--heavy weight lifting classes where the goal is more weight as you go and barre type classes where the weights are far from the body so you only need a bit of weight to fatigue. I think they are all good for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

Also farmer's carry approx 80% of your weight. The amount decreases as you age but it's one indicator of longevity.

So "heavy" and "light" weight is all relative. Saying...doing light weight and full range of motion doesn't help...and actually you should always be doing full range of motion regardless of the weight unless you are deliberately doing half reps. If you are lifting weights, i assume you want to either build muscle and/or strength. In order to do that, as one poster mentioned, you need to progressively overload the muscle....meaning each week or two you should be either increasing reps, sets, or weight doing the same exercise. There are so many exercises you can chose and, with those exercises, there are so many different combinations of sets and rep schemes. It's hard to dive into all of that, but, to answer your question, you should do enough reps until you only have about 1 or 2 reps left in the tank. Don't go to complete failure every time and don't stop unless you are near failure. By failure, I mean technical failure. Always use great technique and full range of motion. Once your form starts to break down, stop. For beginners, it's recommended to do higher reps per set so you get used to the motion. Once you get the hang of everything, lower reps are best for building strength and higher reps are better for building muscle. Some say you can go up 30 reps per exercise but I think that's ridiculous. I would stay with 10-12 reps per exercise for now and use a weight so that you only have one or two more reps in reserve when you get to your target number of reps. For example, say my exercise is shoulder presses and I want to do 12. I want to use a weight that when I get to 12, I could only do 13 or 14 reps max! If I can do 15 or 16 reps, increase the weight. If you can only do 10 or 11. That's ok. You can either decrease the weight or keep using that weight until you get to 12. Now whether or not that weight that you are using is "heavy" or "light" is different for everyone. Once you get comfortable lifting...say after a few months. you can start changing up the reps and using even heavier weight than what you were currently using and only doing 6-8 reps. But if you do chest press, row, shoulder press, chin ups/pull downs, squat/lunge, hinge/deadlift, some arms for 3 sets of 10-12 reps each, say 3 times a week for 3-4 months, you'll learn alot about your body and you will definitely increase strength and add muscle. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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.

This is the best advice.