Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For general health and fitness, it doesn't really matter if you are doing sets of 15-20 (with relatively light weights) or sets of 5-7 (with relatively heavy weights). But to build strength, you do need to be using weights that are heavy enough to really challenge you. You don't have (and probably shouldn't) go to exhaustion, where you literally couldn't do another repetition if your life depended on it. But the last rep of the set should feel quite difficult and give you the sense that you couldn't do more than a few more.

Also, it's generally more efficient to do exercises that engage multiple large muscles, such as rows, deadlifts, and squats. You will naturally use heavier weights for those than for exercises like shoulder curls and bicep curls.

For instance, according to https://exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/DeadliftStandards60LB, an untrained, 97 pound woman in her 60s should (on average) be able to deadlift 30 pounds. Unless you are a frail, small, elderly woman, deadlifting with 10 pound dumbbells won't help. (And the standard for a "novice" 130 pound woman in her 40s is 115 lbs.

These deadlift amounts aren’t with dumbbells are they? I would pull a back back muscle if I lifted that! I usually do 15lbs for each dumbbell (30lbs total) and do it nice and slow, and feel it in hamstrings and glutes.

NP: I lift weights regularly - 57F - Goal is overall fitness, decreased body fat %, bone strength. I deadlift 70lbs currently and I try to bump it up 5lbs every other time I go which is 3x's a week. I use a 45lb barbell plus plates.

Thank you because I am about the same. Not sure where mid 40s woman should be able to deadlift 115 pounds came from. I am mid 50s and work out twice a week with a trainer and have for two years. Not even deadlifting 100 pounds yet.

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has been sidelined with several overuse injuries since age 40, be careful with heavy weights. It is important to use correct form and to gradually work your way toward more weight. And for some of us (I am petite and barely over 100 pounds), I think it is just better to stick with a steady routine using bodyweight exercise, bands, and light weights.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For general health and fitness, it doesn't really matter if you are doing sets of 15-20 (with relatively light weights) or sets of 5-7 (with relatively heavy weights). But to build strength, you do need to be using weights that are heavy enough to really challenge you. You don't have (and probably shouldn't) go to exhaustion, where you literally couldn't do another repetition if your life depended on it. But the last rep of the set should feel quite difficult and give you the sense that you couldn't do more than a few more.

Also, it's generally more efficient to do exercises that engage multiple large muscles, such as rows, deadlifts, and squats. You will naturally use heavier weights for those than for exercises like shoulder curls and bicep curls.

For instance, according to https://exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/DeadliftStandards60LB, an untrained, 97 pound woman in her 60s should (on average) be able to deadlift 30 pounds. Unless you are a frail, small, elderly woman, deadlifting with 10 pound dumbbells won't help. (And the standard for a "novice" 130 pound woman in her 40s is 115 lbs.

These deadlift amounts aren’t with dumbbells are they? I would pull a back back muscle if I lifted that! I usually do 15lbs for each dumbbell (30lbs total) and do it nice and slow, and feel it in hamstrings and glutes.

NP: I lift weights regularly - 57F - Goal is overall fitness, decreased body fat %, bone strength. I deadlift 70lbs currently and I try to bump it up 5lbs every other time I go which is 3x's a week. I use a 45lb barbell plus plates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The heavy weight thing is a trend. Focus on consistency with working out, vary your routine and have a trainer set up a new program for you every few weeks.

I am a women in my early 50s and have been lifting heavy weights in the basic compound lifts--squats, deadlifts, bench--and doing push-ups and pull-ups since I was 25. It is not a trend.

You don't need "new programs" every few weeks.

If you are a person of normal health, you can deadlift WAY more than 15 lbs per dumbbell and you are leaving health benefits on the table piddling around with weights that are too light for you.

There is a difference between Olympic style weightlifting trend and using an appropriately challenging weight. The big ass barbell lifts people are doing now are a trend. You do actually need to vary your workout every so often to not plateau. And if you’re new to lifting it’s safest to have someone set you up with a program rather than wing it.

The PP you are responding to is describing powerlifting, not Olympic style weightlifting.

If you want to avoid plateauing with powerlifting (or Olympic weightlifting), you do so by consistently increasing the weight. You don't need to do a completely different workout.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The heavy weight thing is a trend. Focus on consistency with working out, vary your routine and have a trainer set up a new program for you every few weeks.

I am a women in my early 50s and have been lifting heavy weights in the basic compound lifts--squats, deadlifts, bench--and doing push-ups and pull-ups since I was 25. It is not a trend.

You don't need "new programs" every few weeks.

If you are a person of normal health, you can deadlift WAY more than 15 lbs per dumbbell and you are leaving health benefits on the table piddling around with weights that are too light for you.

There is a difference between Olympic style weightlifting trend and using an appropriately challenging weight. The big ass barbell lifts people are doing now are a trend. You do actually need to vary your workout every so often to not plateau. And if you’re new to lifting it’s safest to have someone set you up with a program rather than wing it.