I totally agree with the recommendation for including those kind of full body exercises. (I'd add pullups, which you can do anywhere.) But VERY few people will ever deadlift 2.5 times their weight. That might be a reasonable target for a young man lifting regularly for a few years, but for women, older men, or anyone who doesn't want to make lifting a major part of their life, the amount will be WAY lower - and that's fine! (I'm male, and when I was in my 40s, lifting several times a week for several years, I got to about 1.75 times my weight, which was a significant accomplishment for me.)

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m no expert, and many people on DCUM disagree with me, but to me it means full body, progressive resistance, barbell exercises like barbell squats, barbell deadlifts, barbell bench, barbell overhead press, and barbell rows.

Lifting 2.5 times your bodyweight for deadlifts is a really different thing physiologically than a set of “heavy” lat raises with 15 pound dumbbells that you can only do 8 of.

I fooled around with various schemes I’d 8-12 reps and no deadlifts or squats for 30 years off and on without getting stronger. Once I switched to focus on the big lifts for sets of 3-5, I got stronger than I ever imagined I could be, and my body really changed.

I totally agree with the recommendation for including those kind of full body exercises. (I'd add pullups, which you can do anywhere.) But VERY few people will ever deadlift 2.5 times their weight. That might be a reasonable target for a young man lifting regularly for a few years, but for women, older men, or anyone who doesn't want to make lifting a major part of their life, the amount will be WAY lower - and that's fine! (I'm male, and when I was in my 40s, lifting several times a week for several years, I got to about 1.75 times my weight, which was a significant accomplishment for me.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deadlifts and suitcase squats are good to start with

Please don't start with deadlifts unless you want back surgery

Interesting, my back issues actually went away once I started deadlifting.

If you have proper for deadlifts are great for strengthening core, glutes and hamstrings. All of which reduce back issues.

Anonymous wrote:Please share resources for an out of shape person wanting to build toward heavy lifting.

Anonymous wrote:Please share resources for an out of shape person wanting to build toward heavy lifting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

Why is your bench so high abc squat so low. Something doesn’t sound right

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

I don’t “imagine it”. It’s absolutely hard on your joints and can spike your blood pressure. I don’t want anyone reading this to discover they have high blood pressure because they stroke out from the bro advice here. No middle aged beginner should begin weightlifting with a 5x5 program.

Bless your heart. With proper form and load management, lifting heavy (including 5x5 programming) is not hard on your joints. And lifting dramatically reduces your risk of stroke and cardiac events.

You’re dangerously uninformed. Lifting heavy with high blood pressure increases your chance of having a stroke WHILE you are lifting. Really, keep your bro science to yourself.

Resistance training specifically reduces your overall risk of cardiac events and stroke by 40-70%.
https://srtimes.co.uk/lifting-weights-weekly-could-reduce-stroke-risk-by-70-per-cent/?amp=1

And yes, if you are going to have a stroke, then it may well happen after lifting something heavy, but heavy weight training specifically reduces your risk of ischemic stroke brought on by exertion.
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/173/3/330/129869

But sure, if you have untreated high blood pressure or a history of aneurism, you probably don’t want to lift heavy.

DP - the first link is to a non-peer-reviewed article in newspaper, which references resistance training, not heavy lifting.

The second link includes the following quote: “We did not have sufficient statistical power to assess whether the risk of ischemic stroke associated with lifting 50 pounds or more was altered by habitual physical activity.” Also, it’s methodological garbage: retrospective self-report in stroke patients. That’s the best you could find?

LOL. Said the person making claims and presenting absolutely no evidence for them whatsoever. Bless your heart. Keep trying!

Nope! I am none of the PPs earlier in this thread. My first post was this one.

It’s telling that you can’t mount any kind of substantive response; you just resort to personal attacks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

I don’t “imagine it”. It’s absolutely hard on your joints and can spike your blood pressure. I don’t want anyone reading this to discover they have high blood pressure because they stroke out from the bro advice here. No middle aged beginner should begin weightlifting with a 5x5 program.

Bless your heart. With proper form and load management, lifting heavy (including 5x5 programming) is not hard on your joints. And lifting dramatically reduces your risk of stroke and cardiac events.

You’re dangerously uninformed. Lifting heavy with high blood pressure increases your chance of having a stroke WHILE you are lifting. Really, keep your bro science to yourself.

Resistance training specifically reduces your overall risk of cardiac events and stroke by 40-70%.
https://srtimes.co.uk/lifting-weights-weekly-could-reduce-stroke-risk-by-70-per-cent/?amp=1

And yes, if you are going to have a stroke, then it may well happen after lifting something heavy, but heavy weight training specifically reduces your risk of ischemic stroke brought on by exertion.
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/173/3/330/129869

But sure, if you have untreated high blood pressure or a history of aneurism, you probably don’t want to lift heavy.

DP - the first link is to a non-peer-reviewed article in newspaper, which references resistance training, not heavy lifting.

The second link includes the following quote: “We did not have sufficient statistical power to assess whether the risk of ischemic stroke associated with lifting 50 pounds or more was altered by habitual physical activity.” Also, it’s methodological garbage: retrospective self-report in stroke patients. That’s the best you could find?

LOL. Said the person making claims and presenting absolutely no evidence for them whatsoever. Bless your heart. Keep trying!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

I don’t “imagine it”. It’s absolutely hard on your joints and can spike your blood pressure. I don’t want anyone reading this to discover they have high blood pressure because they stroke out from the bro advice here. No middle aged beginner should begin weightlifting with a 5x5 program.

Bless your heart. With proper form and load management, lifting heavy (including 5x5 programming) is not hard on your joints. And lifting dramatically reduces your risk of stroke and cardiac events.

You’re dangerously uninformed. Lifting heavy with high blood pressure increases your chance of having a stroke WHILE you are lifting. Really, keep your bro science to yourself.

Resistance training specifically reduces your overall risk of cardiac events and stroke by 40-70%.
https://srtimes.co.uk/lifting-weights-weekly-could-reduce-stroke-risk-by-70-per-cent/?amp=1

And yes, if you are going to have a stroke, then it may well happen after lifting something heavy, but heavy weight training specifically reduces your risk of ischemic stroke brought on by exertion.
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/173/3/330/129869

But sure, if you have untreated high blood pressure or a history of aneurism, you probably don’t want to lift heavy.

DP - the first link is to a non-peer-reviewed article in newspaper, which references resistance training, not heavy lifting.

The second link includes the following quote: “We did not have sufficient statistical power to assess whether the risk of ischemic stroke associated with lifting 50 pounds or more was altered by habitual physical activity.” Also, it’s methodological garbage: retrospective self-report in stroke patients. That’s the best you could find?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

I don’t “imagine it”. It’s absolutely hard on your joints and can spike your blood pressure. I don’t want anyone reading this to discover they have high blood pressure because they stroke out from the bro advice here. No middle aged beginner should begin weightlifting with a 5x5 program.

Bless your heart. With proper form and load management, lifting heavy (including 5x5 programming) is not hard on your joints. And lifting dramatically reduces your risk of stroke and cardiac events.

You’re dangerously uninformed. Lifting heavy with high blood pressure increases your chance of having a stroke WHILE you are lifting. Really, keep your bro science to yourself.

Resistance training specifically reduces your overall risk of cardiac events and stroke by 40-70%.
https://srtimes.co.uk/lifting-weights-weekly-could-reduce-stroke-risk-by-70-per-cent/?amp=1

And yes, if you are going to have a stroke, then it may well happen after lifting something heavy, but heavy weight training specifically reduces your risk of ischemic stroke brought on by exertion.
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/173/3/330/129869

But sure, if you have untreated high blood pressure or a history of aneurism, you probably don’t want to lift heavy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

I don’t “imagine it”. It’s absolutely hard on your joints and can spike your blood pressure. I don’t want anyone reading this to discover they have high blood pressure because they stroke out from the bro advice here. No middle aged beginner should begin weightlifting with a 5x5 program.

Bless your heart. With proper form and load management, lifting heavy (including 5x5 programming) is not hard on your joints. And lifting dramatically reduces your risk of stroke and cardiac events.

You’re dangerously uninformed. Lifting heavy with high blood pressure increases your chance of having a stroke WHILE you are lifting. Really, keep your bro science to yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle age would be a terrible time to start lifting 5x5. OP, ignore these guys. Check out IIFYMwomen.org or Sohee Lee

I wonder why you imagine that to be true.

I mean, you won’t get as strong as quickly as if you started younger, but it’s great for health.

I started at 50 as a lifelong runner with bad knees, and at 190 pounds I got up to 250 bench, 300 squat and 400 deadlift. Not impressive but my back and knees felt much better.

I don’t “imagine it”. It’s absolutely hard on your joints and can spike your blood pressure. I don’t want anyone reading this to discover they have high blood pressure because they stroke out from the bro advice here. No middle aged beginner should begin weightlifting with a 5x5 program.

Bless your heart. With proper form and load management, lifting heavy (including 5x5 programming) is not hard on your joints. And lifting dramatically reduces your risk of stroke and cardiac events.