Anonymous wrote:Twice a week won’t do much. You need 4-5x a week. Your strength will develop much quicker with that level of volume. At 2x a week you are either not hitting every muscle group or only doing 1 excersie per which isn’t going to effectively create hypertrophy or stimulate muscle growth. This is shown in your very slow rate of improvement. 2.5 lbs on a press in 18 months is shockingly little growth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You didn't say how many sets and reps you are doing, but try to drop the reps down to 6-8 and sets at 3. Your last set you should be at failure at 6. And like PP said, increase the number of days you are lifting.

Are you following a plan for each muscle group?

I'm 56 Menopausal and restarting strength training. I do:
Day 1 Back and Biceps
Day 2 Shoulders & Triceps
Day 3 Active rest - 30 min treadmill and 30 sec sprints 4x
Day 4 Legs
Day 5 Chest & Shoulders
Day 6 & 7 Active rest

I do Abs after every workout and walk 45mins

Try to find a plan that works for you. Have your exercise mapped out and record your progress.
Keep going!!

I don't think this workout is really appropriate for...anyone. If it works for you, that's great but to build muscle and/or strength, science says MOST people need 10-12 sets per muscle group per week if you are an intermediate lifter. More sets if you are an experienced lifter and less if you are a beginner. I will guess OP is an intermediate lifter. If I were OP, I would lift 4 days a week. Something like

M: Chest, Back, and Legs 6-7 sets each. plus core mobility
Tu: Shoulders and Arms: 6-7 sets each plus core mobility
Wed: Rest
Th: Same as Monday (feel free to change the exercises) plus core mobility
Fri: Shoulders and Arms but shoulders and arms get work from doing chest and back so this can be similar to Tues or you can do 3 sets of each and add in more core or mobility.
Sat and Sun: Rest

As for effort, every set should be until you only have 2-3 reps in reserve. I go until I have 1-2 reps in reserve because I can't really tell when I have 3. : )

I'm 53 as well and as I get older I feel like single leg and single arm exercises are very important to include so, for example, Monday might be all 2 arm or 2 legged exercises and Thurs might be all singles. Monday maybe be traditional chest press, chest flies, or dips, pull ups, two are rows, goblet squats, barbell dead lifts, leg curls...and then Thursday would be single are presses, single arm rows, single arm lat pull downs, split squats, single leg RDLs, etc.

Lastly, I'm going to say that...as long as your effort is that every exercise is to 2-3 reps before failure and you are consistent, you are fine. Often adding weight to the exercise and muscle depends on nutrition, calories, sleep, etc. For example, if you are in a caloric deficit, it's very difficult to add size and strength; however, you should be cutting fat. But keep on lifting! Good luck.

^ workout is definitely a beginner schedule. No one lifting heavy would chest, back, legs in one day much less one workout!! It seems more of a tik tok "how to get hurt" meme! LOL. Not to mention the hours it would take to complete the appropriate number of sets!

The top workout (back/biceps etc) is a tried and true routine supported by professionals. Adjust your weights over time and you will see results!

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. Overhead shoulder work is really terribly menopause.

Shoulders are not where you want to be lifting heavy you can do better work with body weight for shoulders

I wouldn't bother with micro muscles like biceps and triceps. Get them with back and chest. And definitely legs!

Creatine is your best friend for a recovery. Definitely get a micronized creatine into your diet

There are some really great influencers on tiktok who go over all the weight training you should be doing in menopause

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You didn't say how many sets and reps you are doing, but try to drop the reps down to 6-8 and sets at 3. Your last set you should be at failure at 6. And like PP said, increase the number of days you are lifting.

Are you following a plan for each muscle group?

I'm 56 Menopausal and restarting strength training. I do:
Day 1 Back and Biceps
Day 2 Shoulders & Triceps
Day 3 Active rest - 30 min treadmill and 30 sec sprints 4x
Day 4 Legs
Day 5 Chest & Shoulders
Day 6 & 7 Active rest

I do Abs after every workout and walk 45mins

Try to find a plan that works for you. Have your exercise mapped out and record your progress.
Keep going!!

I don't think this workout is really appropriate for...anyone. If it works for you, that's great but to build muscle and/or strength, science says MOST people need 10-12 sets per muscle group per week if you are an intermediate lifter. More sets if you are an experienced lifter and less if you are a beginner. I will guess OP is an intermediate lifter. If I were OP, I would lift 4 days a week. Something like

M: Chest, Back, and Legs 6-7 sets each. plus core mobility
Tu: Shoulders and Arms: 6-7 sets each plus core mobility
Wed: Rest
Th: Same as Monday (feel free to change the exercises) plus core mobility
Fri: Shoulders and Arms but shoulders and arms get work from doing chest and back so this can be similar to Tues or you can do 3 sets of each and add in more core or mobility.
Sat and Sun: Rest

As for effort, every set should be until you only have 2-3 reps in reserve. I go until I have 1-2 reps in reserve because I can't really tell when I have 3. : )

I'm 53 as well and as I get older I feel like single leg and single arm exercises are very important to include so, for example, Monday might be all 2 arm or 2 legged exercises and Thurs might be all singles. Monday maybe be traditional chest press, chest flies, or dips, pull ups, two are rows, goblet squats, barbell dead lifts, leg curls...and then Thursday would be single are presses, single arm rows, single arm lat pull downs, split squats, single leg RDLs, etc.

Lastly, I'm going to say that...as long as your effort is that every exercise is to 2-3 reps before failure and you are consistent, you are fine. Often adding weight to the exercise and muscle depends on nutrition, calories, sleep, etc. For example, if you are in a caloric deficit, it's very difficult to add size and strength; however, you should be cutting fat. But keep on lifting! Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take a ton of Vitamin D. How do you get up to the required protein? I have a really hard time with it, even though I eat protein (chicken or fish, sometimes red meat) twice a day.

I am not protein focused, but I track my daily food intake and always get over 100g protein. I have yogurt/berries/walnuts for breakfast, and add milk and collagen powder to my coffee; sometimes I have a couple hard boiled eggs for mid morning snack; for lunch I have a salad with grilled chicken, nuts (lots of veggies, too); for snack I have veggies and hummus; for dinner it’s salmon and veggies and a little rice or such. I have other foods, too, but I named typical ones I eat which get me to over 100g of daily protein, usually around 120g total.

Thanks. I can't eat nuts or yogurt unfortunately. The rest of your diet sounds like mine. What does the collagen powder do for you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take a ton of Vitamin D. How do you get up to the required protein? I have a really hard time with it, even though I eat protein (chicken or fish, sometimes red meat) twice a day.

I am not protein focused, but I track my daily food intake and always get over 100g protein. I have yogurt/berries/walnuts for breakfast, and add milk and collagen powder to my coffee; sometimes I have a couple hard boiled eggs for mid morning snack; for lunch I have a salad with grilled chicken, nuts (lots of veggies, too); for snack I have veggies and hummus; for dinner it’s salmon and veggies and a little rice or such. I have other foods, too, but I named typical ones I eat which get me to over 100g of daily protein, usually around 120g total.

Thanks. I can't eat nuts or yogurt unfortunately. The rest of your diet sounds like mine. What does the collagen powder do for you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take a ton of Vitamin D. How do you get up to the required protein? I have a really hard time with it, even though I eat protein (chicken or fish, sometimes red meat) twice a day.

I am not protein focused, but I track my daily food intake and always get over 100g protein. I have yogurt/berries/walnuts for breakfast, and add milk and collagen powder to my coffee; sometimes I have a couple hard boiled eggs for mid morning snack; for lunch I have a salad with grilled chicken, nuts (lots of veggies, too); for snack I have veggies and hummus; for dinner it’s salmon and veggies and a little rice or such. I have other foods, too, but I named typical ones I eat which get me to over 100g of daily protein, usually around 120g total.

Anonymous wrote:I take a ton of Vitamin D. How do you get up to the required protein? I have a really hard time with it, even though I eat protein (chicken or fish, sometimes red meat) twice a day.