I've been doing strength training for the last few months with both bodyweight and dumbbells and am really loving it. It's amazing how fast you can go from feeling completely hopeless as a beginner to making significant improvements with almost every workout if you stick with it, are consistent, and don't get hurt. It has fixed my back pain, neck pain, wrist pain, hamstring tightness, and improved my posture. The desire to keep improving has also motivated me to eat a lot better.
One thing that has made it more enjoyable for me and helped me avoid injuries (I initially had some nagging shoulder issues) is to stop caring about the number of reps. Obsessing about hitting a certain number causes form breakdown, injury, a stunted range of motion, and discouragement when you can't reach your goal. It's far better to just do as many as you can on each set with good form and not focus too much on what number you hit. As long as you're pushing yourself on the last few reps, your muscles won't know the difference, and if you're consistent in your workouts and diet, the numbers will take care of themselves over time.
I’m about 3.5 years in. I just switched from a powerlifting routine to a bodybuilding one. I’m not going to say weightlifting makes me happy, but the notion of ‘zen’ sounds right; especially once I figured out my only competition was myself.
Heavily modified Rippetoe (strong lifts). It’s a 5 day plan focused on form, ie, power/fast concentric, slow count eccentric. My current major goals are 400lbs deadlift & muscle-ups on the fat pull-up bar.
Total agree -- I was temporarily disabled by injury earlier this year and was recently given the all-clear to start lifting again -- was feeling hopelessly atrophied + weak at first and dubious that I'd ever get back to where I was [nothing to write home about, but OK] --
Within six weeks, I was back to most of my original routine, after almost a year not lifting -- and as you say, my overall pain level has been much reduced and my posture improved
Muscle memory is real. I had a break of about 2 months because of having a baby. It took two weeks to get back to my old weights and that includes taking it easy after the DOMS :)
Sadly the extra kilos gained in that time will take longer to vanish.
Even for longer periods it works! (Except for DOMS if too long)
Besides, since force is a neurological stuff, you « memorize » lifted weight as you memorize playing guitar or riding a bike. It takes a short period of time to get started again, but the neural connections stay for sure.
The difference in end result? "Big" as in you'll look good, but not necessarily be strong (hypertrophy, bodybuilding). "Explosive" as in move weight fast, has many sports applications. "Strong" as in you'll end up looking like a bear but you can move ridiculous amounts of weight (albeit slowly).
Big means that you're training for hypertrophy (muscle growth). You gain as much muscle mass as possible, but don't care where. This results in an imbalance, your big muscles get really big but the smaller ones don't. They become the limiting factor in strength. Also, your endurance then sucks.
Explosive strength and strong is more subtle. You basically have two sorts of muscle fiber: one is for short explosive strength the other more endurance. Different training results in a different mix of these fibers (as does genetics!). It's a case of getting the right kind of fiber in the right muscles for your sporting goal.
There are some fantastic youtube videos from people who are experts (for me it's a hobby), I can recommend Shredded Sports Science for the theory and Athlean-X for a mix of both theory and practice.
Yeah definitely, I didn't mean to imply that the weight/rep ranges don't matter, just that the specific number you can do within that range on a particular set isn't so important as long as you're reaching failure. If you're doing the 5-8 range for strength and your form breaks down after 4 on the last set, just note "cool, I did 4 today" and stop, rather than trying to do more with bad form or feeling discouraged that you didn't reach an arbitrary number.
A big trap a lot of people fall into is worrying about whether they are training for strength vs hypertrophy before they are strong enough for it to really matter. Sure, those big body builder types you see won't be as strong as competitive power lifters, but they are a heck of a lot stronger than the average gym goer. Every huge guy is pretty strong, and every super strong guy is going to be pretty big.
It's not exactly the same topic, but Mark Rippetoe gets to the spirit of it "My opinion about barbell rows is as follows: fuck barbell rows. Really. Fuck them. Stop wasting time worrying about barbell rows and get your deadlift up to 500. By then you'll have your own opinion and you won't have to worry about mine."
Until you get to the point of at least a 350lb squat and 400lb deadlift, it's far more useful to just stick with a program you can stick with than worry about optimizing it based on what "professional" athlete you want to be like.
/r/fitness got heaps in to Starting Strength like 5 years ago where they recommended it to basically every beginner lifter and there were a bunch of before and afters from it of dudes t-rexing themselves when their primary (often only) goal was looking good.
It doesn't make sense to perform routines that don't aim to achieve the results you want and the routine you're most likely to stick with is the one that promises the results you want, has people who have done it and achieved the results you want, and is created by a guy who has the results you want.
Yeah, I know there are different takes on this. Going to failure or near-failure (I stop when I can't maintain proper form) has been working for me so far, but I think the point still holds that what matters is how much you've taxed your muscles, whether that's to failure or 90% of failure or 80% or 50%, not the precise number of reps you've done.
I think this is specific to person, age, other aspects of life e.g. level of stress and sleep quality that affects recovery. If you go to failure but you can train that main muscle group on the same week, I think you are fine as ideal set number for intermediate athletes are between 12-20 per muscle group (according to Dr. Mike Israetel @ Juggernaut Method).
Do you want to get strong? You want more in the 2 - 5 rep range for many sets. I followed the Sheiko method (which lays this out) for 2 - 3 years. In June I tested and had the following:
That will be maximum, ever, I suspect. In reality, it isn't hard but does take time and you have to push yourself. The hardest part is really eating. A typical day would like this,
1. Breakfast, a cup of espresso with milk, 6oz NY Strip, 1 cup of grits with butter, 16oz whole milk.
2. Lunch, 6oz NY Strip, 2 eggs, 16 oz whole milk
3. Snack, 2 - 4 pieces of fruit e.g, 3 apples with peanut butter.
5. Desert - a quarter slice of pie with 16oz of milk
I didn't take any supplements, just ate whole foods I cooked at home. Everything was made from scratch. The pies used lard we rendered at home from leaf fat (fat near the kidney).
Vegetarian lifter here. Getting quality protein is a bit more difficult, but if you're ovo-lacto vegetarian then egg whites and whey are great sources. You don't need to overdo it, just make sure you're getting enough. Once you're no longer a complete beginner, you might also want to consider supplementing with creatine, since you aren't getting much in your diet.
I would be the last person you want vegetarian advice from. If it weren't for my wife, I'd stick to potatoes, broccoli, and grilled asparagus. However, as you noticed I drink a lot of milk, a lot. A pint has 300 calories and 16g of protein. Additionally, add butter to anything you want. Grits butter, eggs, cook in butter etc... It adds a lot of calories (good in my opinion) which is what you want when lifting heavy.
How do you handle the fat? I gained most of my muscle weight eating like you do - lots of protein, fat and whole-grain carbs (oats, whole wheat bread, pasta, potatoes with skins, legumes). I gain fat too though.
I was also supplementing with whey (mainly casein) and creatine.
With the baby I've been eating a lot of crap sugars and put on 5kg of fat. I'm trying to drop 20kg of bodyfat now to get to down to 10-12% body fat. So far I've been able to drop without any real muscle loss as long as I still lift regularly.
I put on some fat with it, but due to the weights I was lifting for the last 6 - 12 months it didn't seem to be a concern. Remember what you see on TV and the movies aren't representations of strength, they are on special diets, have trainers etc...
I was strictly concerned with being strong, not being cut, so carrying around a little extra wasn't a big deal. The main thing, no one will think you are fat when you are strong, it is quite noticeable. Lastly, the meal I posted was at my strongest, lifting the heaviest. If I wasn't lifting those weights I would have gained quite a bit of fat.
If you are taking a few months off due to a baby, cut back on eating. Always think long-term. Two months off while you adjust to a newborn will do wonders when you get back into it. If you try to do it all, you'll be stressed and not enjoy lifting - or anything for that matter.
I am not fully veg but have reduced consumption of meat hugely and don't buy it for home anymore. What I have found is really good is retextured soy protein. I get a bag for about 2 pounds and it has 60g of protein in it.
I am in the same boat. Strength has increased significantly and I have also lost some fat. However, I wonder if that will continue. From what I've read, it's difficult to gain muscle and loose fat at the same time.
Fat metabolism comes from low glucose/insulin level. If you can decrease the insulin level or you can guard it to couple of hours in a day, you are fine.
Leucine also spikes the insulin level regardless the source, it is better to take it with fibres and a bit of fat, e.g. avocado.
If you still struggle, you might give a try to a constant glucose monitor (GCM) to see what crosses your efforts.
If it would be this simple, no programming would be needed. I'd recommend to look at 5-3-1 or Juggernaut Method. You need a regimen with variability to promote hypertrophy and strength with different focus at a time.
Any reasearch/evidence on size vs strength, please?
From what I've skimmed through, size vs strength looks like a myth (popular one though). It seemed to me that one can't get bigger without getting stronger (== handling heavier load) and vice versa. (Without pharma)
Definitely stronglift for beginners. Not sure about starting strength though. It has power cleans in the program, which takes a long time to get proficient, time that people could have just spent on the big 3 lifts.
It's a range, so 3 sets of between 8 and 12 reps (however many you can manage).
What bodyweight routine are you doing? The main thing to look at if you're working out consistently and aren't improving is your diet. Are you getting enough protein and calories? The general advice is to eat ~1 gram of protein per 0.7 lbs or so of bodyweight, and to have at least a 300 calorie surplus if you want to gain muscle.
Not getting enough sleep or being overly stressed out will also kill progress.
Thanks for the clearing that up. Looking over that page more I really don't have the equipment for a lot of those exercises so I'm going to look for something different.
As far as my sleep goes, it's very good. I'm also not stressed at all.
I have made some progress, it's just been very disappointing. When I started I couldn't do a single pull up and now, 10 months later, I can do two. I'm almost to the point where I can do a reasonable dip as well.
Yeah, pull ups and dips are very 'heavy' bodyweight exercises and very slow to improve at first. For me it was effective to do easier progressions in order to work up to them.
With pull ups, for example, you won't see much improvement from just doing sets of one or two since it's not enough volume, so it's better to do something easier like negatives (where you just do the lowering down part slowly) or just hangs if negatives are too hard. You can also target some of the supporting muscles that may be "blockers" with dumbbells--for me it was the brachialis and brachioradialis especially (the forearm muscles on both sides of the elbow), and also grip strength. I started out with 2 lousy form pull ups, and it took me over 2 months to get up to 5 fairly clean ones this way, but in just the last couple weeks I've gone from 5 to 8, so it seems like progress accelerates once you pass that threshold, at least in my case.
For dips, I found that first focusing on normal push ups and then on diamond push ups, which heavily target the triceps, was very effective.
The beauty of weight lifting is that you just have to do it. When I was seriously powerlifting my favorite exercise was the dead lift. After dealing with complex things all day, here was something so simple. Pick up this weight. I did that simple thing over and over for many years until I could pick up 500+ pounds.
A beginning book I always recommend is starting strength. But, depending on where your current fitness is at you may need to check with your doctor first and/or find a good body weight program to get started. Burpees, pushups, pull-ups, thrusters for 20 minutes will destroy even the most in shape athletes. It's really not something you need to over complicate.
After like 6 weeks of doing that and improving a lot, I bought some dumbbells and started throwing some lifting in to mix it up, target weak spots, and work on muscles that the bodyweight stuff doesn't hit as well. I've found that the combination of the two really accelerates progress and improves recovery too by changing up the movements.
This has been working well for me, but of course there are many ways to approach it. Personally, I really don't like the gym vibe, so working out outside in the sun (with bodyweight) made it easier to get started and stick with. You also don't need to buy anything, and you can build up a base level of strength that makes lifting weights feel more approachable.
not op, but I also started couple of months back. For the longest of times I didn't start because I didn't had any plan, and so it was just easy for me to ignore. Once, I set up the plan (eventually!), it became easier to just follow through with it. Here's the link to the sheet. Hope it helps you.
It's a very stupid name and the accompanying article is kind of meh but the program overall is a solid start. I'm using as a way to reshape my body - I'm fairly overweight with a gut - and it's worked well so far. Pick any beginner plan like this and you'll probably be OK. As a beginner you'll make huge gains in your first year and that makes the day to day a lot easier to deal with while you build the habit.
I modified the plan on a few exercises that I don't like and used bodybuilding.com's alternate exercise lists to pick ones I prefer. At month 6 I plan to switch focus slightly to keep things mixed up and will probably switch to a 5x5 for a month or so then back to a more traditional regiment based on the 6+ month recommendations in the article.
The biggest thing is to choose any of the recommended programs in these responses and then start going. Promise yourself a month, a month of trying really hard each day and see how it goes. After that you can re-evaluate if it is really for you but that month will help build a habit and you'll start seeing some strength gains.
I feel so much better and I'm seeing significant body modifications that I'm really happy with. Getting healthy any which way you choose is worth the effort!
Oh, I use Strong as my tracking app. I really suggest some form of tracking. Either an app or a notebook. For me being able to look back at my numbers over time is a huge motivator.
Also, others have mentioned getting a trainer. That's probably a good investment. I didn't but it was because my lifting buddy's wife is a trainer for athletic teams and helped me with my form the first month and she still works out with us from time to time. Her input was invaluable in helping me maintain my training. I had a bad back for a very long time and lifting has helped tremendously but only because she was able to instill proper form in me early!
If you're not familiar with how to lift at all, it may be worth a few sessions with an actual personal trainer at the local gym to get the basic movements down. In the beginning, the most important thing is just to get into a routine, lift properly (practice excellent form), eat properly (enough protein to build muscle), and avoid injury. You can follow a program like 5x5 stronglifts to do all that. Once you master the basics and hit your first plateau, then dynamic routines become more important. If you have an iPhone, there's a free app called Shred which is like an automated personal trainer and has an excellent library of dynamic routines.
It's straighforward, manageable, and (importantly) it introduces the idea of autoregulation early on. Autoregulation is an important tool for helping to prevent injury due to innappropriate fatigue management. It also contains good information related to nutrition and how to perform the basic barbell movements.
Rippetoe's Starting Strength is the best place to learn the barbell movements and will take care of your first 3-6 months of training.
From there, you have a wealth of options like his Practical Programming, Wendler's 5/3/1 books, and the Tactical Barbell books for combining strength and endurance training. The Barbell Medicine podcast and strongerbyscience.com are also great.
If you find yourself wanting to compete, Juggernaut Training and the Renaissance Training groups are great sources.
If you want something portable you can do at home, Pavel's Simple and Sinister is your best bet for kettlebell work, and Overcoming Gravity will teach you bodyweight work that only requires a pull-up bar.
Wendler’s programs are great but buyer beware, his books are really hard to understand unless you already understand his programming. There is a definite bootstrapping problem there that doesn’t exist with all authors.
For clearer writing and simpler programming, I would go for Tactical Barbell and Simple and Sinister over Wendler.
Doug Hepburn's programs (which can be found online with a minute of Googling) are also great for people looking at Wendler, but want something simple that can be run nearly indefinitely.
There is a fun program from the book "Huge in a Hurry" where sets are to perfect rep failure. The gist of the program is, for example, pick a weight you can 10 reps of. Now do 40 total reps stopping every set when you no longer do a perfect rep. Take as many sets as needed to get to 40. This was a great program for me early on, as it taught me about the focus on perfect form above all else.
But yeah, working out is life changing. I've been lifting in some form for over 20 years now, and try to exercise every single day.
Are you still trying to up your numbers or has your focus shifted? I'm going to be 50 next year and when I think about my goals it would probably be to get a bit stronger, improve my endurance, and to have a program that will work for a long time in a type of maintenance mode.
Great point, this is one of the reason I have not been to the gym in sometime. I do not want to figure out one more thing to track and see if I have improved at this and that. I understand logically that lifting weights is good for you so I would just like to go, lift some weights and get out. I like your idea of not really caring about number of reps of weight limits.
It should absolutely not be boring. There are 100s of different ways to work your body, and if a trainer can’t make a workout entertaining and exhausting and help you achieve real progress towards your goals... get a different trainer.
Just like some people find running very boring and others are obsessive runners, some people will find strength training boring. That's ok. Find some other physical activity that gets you in the zone and forget about the daily stresses of life - may be it is playing basketball, or tennis or whatever. I really started to love strength training once I got the hang of it. It gets less boring once you learn to be fully absorbed in it - focusing on correct form while lifting heavy weights and pushing yourself requires a lot of concentration and mind-body coordination, and I think that's what gets me into the "flow" state and generates the good feelings of accomplishment.
Personally -- when I work out I am focused on the moment and each muscle movement. If you want to get philosophical about it..there's no room to be bored because the "me" that experiences boredom is paying close attention to each movement. Not only does this avoid injury I find it as a point of growth, self-control and meditative. Same when running.
Not at all, but I'm also a distance runner so I'm probably not normal in that regard :P
My mind gets zapped by working every day at the computer, so for me doing something totally physical (and for bodyweight workouts being outside in the sun) is the perfect antidote. I now start feeling stir crazy if I miss a workout or two for some reason.
No, I hit a level of hyper focus when lifting. It's an activity that requires a significant amount of awareness and focus on what's happening right at that moment. So it works very well for me. I'm sure some people find it mind numbing but watching my weight totals grow over time is a great motivating factor for me to focus each session.
Yes I do, I am in that category. I have not found a way to make it entertaining enough. Its not like you can watch TV while lifting weights. May be find a good group of people to do it with.
If your programming is boring, switch it up to something you can stick with. There are a lot of options, and the one you stick with is the one that'll work best for you.
That said - there's a lot of ways to describe a heavy squat session, but boring isn't one I'd use.
Agreed. Full-body workouts should work better for me in theory. In practice though, I find them painfully boring, and they tire me in a weird way so that I'm completely useless for the rest of the day. I've decided to go with splits, and so far so good.
It may sound like broscience (because it is), but you gotta find what works for you.
I never listen to music when lifting and like to concentrate solely on the movement and I find that it's a very therapeutic experience, similar to meditating.
The key to not make it boring or drudgery is to set goals for yourself. And having a plan to work toward those goals. Without either it can become boring or meaningless for some folks (outside the obvious health benefits).
Something doesn't have to be entertaining to be good for you.
And you can make it interesting. Reading about how the body works, the biomechanics of the movements, etc. can make it more interesting.
Learning more about a subject tends to make it more interesting, even if you didn't begin with an interest.
When you're 70 with mobility issues and no longer have physical autonomy, you'll be wishing you'd invested the few hours per week of preventative medicine that would have vastly increased the likelihood that you would still have the strength and mobility to live a physically autonomous life with the ability to play with your grandkids. Not to mention the decades of benefits you would have reaped being in better shape than you ever dreamt was possible for you.
It's no more boring than being stuck at a traffic light for 2-3 minutes, or waiting for your bus/train to arrive.
Your mind tends to be focused on the task at hand when doing the movements. After each set, when you're resting, you can listen to a podcast or audio book.
Or, you know, just stand there and do nothing and let your mind wander: perhaps not doing something may actually be good for you. Perhaps you may wish to examine the benefits of being bored once in a while.
>the numbers will take care of themselves over time
Over time maybe a great overstatement depending on context. Context being sensible programming and genetics. Really mostly genetics. The extremely motivating newbie and even intermediate gains exhaust very rapidly. Lifting can become very monotonous and tedious grind after a few years. It helps to have adopt an analytical and zen attitude towards progress after that. Most advanced lifters will go through multi-year plateaus at some point, it takes an entirely different mind set to pursue the hobby then. Injury prevention also becomes significant considerations when you become sufficiently strong (and old), eventually it's about numbers and not health - training then is not a great health prescription for people. That said, a beginning strength regime is absolutely something everyone should pursue for longevity and quality of life improvements. Intermediate+ strength training will help most folks structure many parts of their life from routine to diet to work ethic. Anything more and like every hobby, it becomes a very time intensive pursuit that requires a lot of sacrifice.
All that is to say, strength training for most people will inevitably turn into a job, and like most jobs, make sure it's something you enjoy. For some people the joy is intrinsic and the process is easier, for others it's work, and and the level of fulfillment is correlated to what one makes of it.
Weightlifting's been the only constant of my life the last 3 years, becoming the first thing I do in a day 6 to 7 times a week. I can't recommend it enough as a habit that can draw you out of the deepest recesses of your mind. Not to mention the physical and aesthetic benefits :)
This is something I'm pretty sure I'm missing right now.
Since I got started in cross country running in high school, which included just the most modest of weight training, I've been interested in it. I'd often have gym memberships, and dabble with the various machines, trying to cover muscle groups.
Eventually, I joined fitocracy.com when it was young and full of active members. It was there that I learned about Starting Strength, and where the programming rewarded logging barbell activities much more than running or using a machine. Before long, I had bought the Starting Strength and began teaching myself the movements. I began with little or no weight, and using videos I took of myself to improve my form. I also paid more attention to dietary intake, and used If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) to design my daily goals for macronutrients.
The results were manifold. Of course I got stronger - barbell lifts done right are so much more efficient and effective than any chaotic routine, or even somewhat organized attempts with machines. I was visibly in better shape. But I was also naturally more confident, more in tune with the world around me. As the article mentions, I was seeing how my own decisions were affecting my life, and I would direct myself in other areas to zero in on decisions within my areas of control and concern. My energy increased and my focus improved on the job. I was able to find a healthy relationship that continues today.
However. I lost my way. Eventually the habit was interrupted and was never fully restored. Today, I'm distracted, procrastinating on a task I've procrastinated for too long already. I'm irritable and I don't want to waste my day at the office, but I'll go home, and I won't make good use of my time their either. I'll snack too often and grab unhealthy things.
Of course I'm not saying that this one habit will fix all of your problems, but it is a bit of a foundational habit, and it can leak into other areas of your life. And, of course, strength is helpful! You can move furniture and chop wood and have the bad posture on your office chair you were going to have anyway, but with a stronger back, you'll find yourself injured less often. So I recommend it, and I hope I can take my own advice!
mandatory plug for Starting Strength novice program if you want a can't-miss first 12 weeks of starting lifting. Regardless of what you do after it, it'll establish a base of strength and safe movement patterns to go down whatever body building, strength, powerlifting, cardio direction you want.
For all you middle-aged keyboard jockeys ready to grab a bar and start lifting, make sure you take the time to learn about proper form and stick to it while lifting. Our bodies are generally shit by middle age, so you're probably already experiencing joint degeneration and bone spurs. You should still lift, but do it wisely.
I just had shoulder surgery on Friday. The problem was more than likely caused by other things, but weightlifting made the issue obvious and forced me to fix it.
Also, FWIW, don't neglect cardio. I know lifters will tell you that lifting gives your heart a workout, and it does, but from personal experience I felt a lot better as a whole when I was cardiovascularly in shape. Lifting, for me, helps with things like posture, back pain, self image and weight control. It does not, IME, increase average daytime energy level, help in the bedroom, or make climbing a few flights of stairs feel effortless. Look to cardio training for that.
Edit:
"For most, the plateau is a form of purgatory."
I can't agree less. Sure, there are lots of folks who go to the gym and pursue literally endless gains until some form of injury comes along and derails them. Personally I find having some realistic goals to be a much better approach. I hit a 400 pound deadlift and decided that's enough. Why the hell would I want to lift more? I'll never use it, and those gains will just require even more maintenance.
> Also, FWIW, don't neglect cardio. I know lifters will tell you that lifting gives your heart a workout, and it does, but from personal experience I felt a lot better as a whole when I was cardiovascularly in shape.
This. The heart "workout" from weight training is not even in the same zip code as cardio workouts. Best to do both.
At the same time, don't be so obsessed about form you don't let yourself make any progress. Overload is a key part of "progressive overload" - if you're doing that, your form won't be 100% picture perfect all the time. Learn to know the difference between a rep that's a little off and a rep that's dangerously off, and accept that some ugly (but safe enough) reps are part of the process.
>Our bodies are generally shit by middle age, so you're probably already experiencing joint degeneration
I did ~no lifting for many nears and dove back in way too fast at 45 y/o. Got a little too ambitious in the squat rack and my knee has been sort of fucked up for about 6 months (slow recovery is also a fun part of middle age). Take it slow.
I like lifting weights. It reminds me of coding. Both are mostly solitary activities. At this point, I just enjoy the activity even if the physical benefits don't improve much.
Interesting to see this here. I got some internet coaching from Jordan when he was still affiliated with Starting Strength. I'm curious, if you don't mind, how did you find Barbell Medicine?
I've learned something recently that I wish I learned long ago:
That it feels really good to move.
A sedentary programmer I will no longer be!
I walk to a local yoga studio to practice for an hour every day now and have literally never been happier in my entire life.
I literally break out into a wide smile every single time I begin preparing to go to yoga... and trust me... I was never that kind of happy go lucky guy.
It's no surprise that moving makes you feel good.
Science has documented countless examples of exactly how it does that.
Endorphins are released as a direct result of moving.
Moving is my favorite nootropic.
It's easy to get stuck sitting in a chair day after day.
It's just as easy to keep the momentum of movement going if you can get the ball rolling.
I really wish I knew that earlier, but I am happy to know it now.
One thing I love about lifting is the stats. Being able to track my progress in the main lifts, and seeing the small progressive improvements add up to big changes overall is very rewarding.
I’m also the kind of person that started off saying, “I’d like to be able to do a body weight pull-up” which soon became, “I’d like to be able to do 4 body weight pull-ups” which eventually became... you definitely get addicted to the gains and even if you plateau in one lift or another, there’s always another muscle you can train.
Once you start moving real weight there’s also a euphoria to hitting those big PRs which you can work yourself up for and then it’s a blast when you finally hit them.
I lift 3x a week - push, pull, legs. I do 6 week cycles of 12 reps, 8 reps, 5 reps (for the main lifts). And at the end of each 5 rep cycle I test my 1 rep max on bench, deadlift, and squat. 14 weeks ago I just missed adding those up to 1,000 lbs (a big milestone) and fully expect to exceed 1,000 when I test again in 3 weeks.
I was never a weight lifter / body builder. Aside from a brief stint trying CrossFit I had basically never touched weights aside from a class in high school. If you looked at a picture of me 5 years ago I was a completely different person. It took 2 years of cardio and yoga just to work up the inner strength and basic flexibility to feel like I could safely approach weights.
I like that it’s the number one priority for one hour, 3 times a week. The rest of the week you never ever have to think about it. Well, you will feel it, but it takes no mental strain. Then you get in and get it done and feel awesome that you’re just a little bit better than last week, and go on with your day.
The most important thing is doing it right, doing it effectively, and most of all doing it safely. Getting injured will set you back hard.
Pay a trainer once a week to do one of the three workouts with you, critique your form, and tweak your program. Go for the big milestones when you have a pro watching you, and listen when they tell you stop. Best investment of time and money I’ve ever made.
100% agree - hiring a trainer was the best investment in my weightlifting journey. Sure, you can watch videos and try to nail proper form, but when you hit the gym floor solo, nobody is going to correct you.
If you're a beginner I recommend starting with 5 sets of 5 reps using dumbells, bars or cables. Use as much weight as you can without hurting yourself and MAINTAIN FORM.
Check your ego at the door and maintain form, otherwise you are fucked when you start lifting real weights. You will get hurt. You will learn the bad form and fuck up your shoulder or joints. Don't do it.
Those beginner gains are crazy fast, and in six months you will be totally changed. You will be stronger. Push yourself.
I have tried almost every form of exercise, but the only thing that has truly hooked me so far is circuit/interval training (for both cardio and resistance). I have done almost 400 sessions so far, almost without fail at 5 days per week (which is the real testament to how addicting it is).
Actually I find the cardio classes to be more interesting and challenging than the resistance / weight lifting classes. Although the focus is cardio, they do not neglect training your muscles, they just tend to rely more on body weight than barbells (burpees, jump squats, sprawls, etc) with the occasionally machine thrown in (rowers, bikes).
I have not lost much weight (that requires a better diet) or gained a huge amount of muscle but my body feels way more tuned. The classes are pretty intense and burning 1000 calories/hour is common. My heart rate used to max out at 180 and my resting heart rate was 80-90. Now my max heart rate is 160 and my resting gets as low as 50. I used to struggle to do 50 push-ups now I can do 100 without much struggle.
The real benefit though is that I feel healthy and less afraid of things like heart disease.
Congratulations on your progress, but those numbers don't look quite right. Most people can't sustain 1000 kcal/hr for a full hour, especially not when doing circuit training. Consumer fitness tracker devices commonly overestimate calorie consumption by a significant amount.
Max heart rate doesn't really decrease with fitness unless there's some weird pathology going on. As fitness increases you can generate more power at the same heart rate, but max heart rate remains roughly the same.
If you're a beginner in this thread focus on going to the gym/your favorite workout environment first. Don't listen to all the people giving rep counts. If you go everyday for a month and do 1 effortful rep its better than going 2 times a week--getting sore and forgetting about it after soreness goes away. Also listen to your body, we are all different. The similarities--id even suggest only focusing on body weight stuff for a year or two and the only weight you lift is a deadlift(just the bar--about 45lbs in most gyms) or air squat.
Most people will never get to the stage of being bulky, especially for a woman due to the lower testosterone levels. Those big dudes and gals you see on the internet are on steroids.
Doing sport is what I started to recommend recently to all my friends who are 30+ based on my experience. It improved my life, my body, happiness, energy, sexual drive and I feel and look better than 10 years ago. For a consultant and engineering lead it had an additional benefit to look fit and dynamic for my clients and co-workers :)
Working full time and (if you want to do more) studying or coding at home becomes hardy sustainable and a problem in 30s. It is in our interest to prioritize the health of our only body, the holder of our brains, a thing we so heavily rely on for basically every activity.
It is so amazing how our bodies can reshape and adopt to physical activities we do! You can pick sport to shape your body in a desired way. My example: I am quite small, sturdy, with tendency to become fat if I do not do enough sport. I did bjj + gym for a few years - I looked like “squared”, the mixture of wide shoulders, muscles, and fat - a bit like Fedor Emelianenko. A few months ago I fully switched to running (2-3 times a week 10-15 km) plus endurance 1-2 times a week of bodyweight exercises. Within 2 months my body adopted to my new activities - I became slimmer, lighter, with stronger legs.
Great zen when people who aren't strong enough to lift the weights they are shockingly aren't strong enough to put them down properly. If you can't put it down, don't pick it up is my advice.
Strength training has changed my life. I did martial arts a bit over the years, but this has made more difference (for so much less effort) than anything else I've done.
I deeply despise the picture that goes with this article. It's superficial, I guess, but the idea dragging a fake barbell to the top of some photogenic rocks and waiting for the perfect lighting for a photo op is antithetical to everything positive in the article and perfectly captures the off-putting assumptions about fitness that keep many of my friends out of the gym.
Also I thought we were past using the word "Zen" as a label for any kind of temporary abatement of stress or neuroticism. Not that we knew better, of course, but that it was thankfully out of fashion. I'm sad to see that is no longer the case.
Anyone have a recommendation for a good protein shake? Most of them taste horrible. I found a strawberry one but can no longer remember the brand as we recycled the jar.
There's a lot of good advice in this thread. One thing I'd like to suggest to anyone new to lifting is: get a trainer.
I spent a lot of years trying to get in shape, but never getting there, because I would hurt myself. I finally decided to get a trainer a few years ago for other reasons[1], but the biggest benefit has been a total lack of injury. Injuries often come from bad form, not working on small stabilizer muscles and/or over-doing it - a decent trainer will be able to correct for these cases. I'm almost 40 but I'm in as-good or better shape than I was in my late-teens because I've been consistent and working with someone who knows how to get good results.
A trainer does add to the expense, but at least for me, I'd rather pay more for a workout that I actually do regularly, than paying for a gym membership I can't use half the time because I'm injured.
[1] The other nice thing about a trainer is that they provide some accountability. It's much easier for me to blow off a workout day if I'm not also screwing up someone else's schedule/income.
I started weight lifting in my Air Force days, about 35 years ago. I've kept at it regularly since then and am convinced it's good for overall health.
About a year ago, I got a shoulder injury doing bench press. (Not the first time, but this one was from a lighter weight and it lasted longer.) I saw an older gentleman in the gym this week and thought I'd ask him how he keeps from getting injured.
The older gent (his name is Ralph) said he recommends lots of warmups. He was benching pretty good, about half of what I was, I think I do ok for a mid-50s weightlifter. Ralph looked pretty fit, but his hair was totally silver. I was floored when he mentioned he has a son that's 61!
I remain committed. I think it's really good for health.
I did this with a coach for about a year. After that I installed a squat rack in my backyard and train on my own (with occasional one-on-one coaching sessions every six months or so to make sure technique hasn't gone to hell).
There's nothing like gaining strength. It doesn't have to be monster strength either. Most people can't lift 250 lbs off the floor. Going from struggling to lift a 60 lb bag of dog food with two arms to carrying one bag in each hand is massive improvement for 95% of people. The funny thing is that this isn't a crazy goal at all and it is attainable within a year for almost anyone.
One of my favorite things to do once I got to 250 lb deadlifts was to go to the regular gym every so often, pick up a 120 lb dumbbell with each hand and go do standing rows. I don't look like a bodybuilder at all. All the big huge guys doing 70 lb dumbbells could not understand what was going on. I'd literally grab 240 lbs of dumbbells and go to the bench to do a bunch of reps. A few asked what the hell was going on.
There's a difference between strength training and bodybuilding. It is my opinion that, for the average person, strength training is what brings more benefits, particularly as you get older. Bodybuilding can look good (in terms of body shape) but I am not sure it carries with it the same benefits. This is just my opinion, never really researched the topic beyond the basics.
As others have said: If you are going to do this, get a coach. It is critical to ensure you are using proper technique. Without this you could get stuck and struggle to make progress, get hurt or both.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 164 ms ] threadOne thing that has made it more enjoyable for me and helped me avoid injuries (I initially had some nagging shoulder issues) is to stop caring about the number of reps. Obsessing about hitting a certain number causes form breakdown, injury, a stunted range of motion, and discouragement when you can't reach your goal. It's far better to just do as many as you can on each set with good form and not focus too much on what number you hit. As long as you're pushing yourself on the last few reps, your muscles won't know the difference, and if you're consistent in your workouts and diet, the numbers will take care of themselves over time.
Within six weeks, I was back to most of my original routine, after almost a year not lifting -- and as you say, my overall pain level has been much reduced and my posture improved
Sadly the extra kilos gained in that time will take longer to vanish.
Besides, since force is a neurological stuff, you « memorize » lifted weight as you memorize playing guitar or riding a bike. It takes a short period of time to get started again, but the neural connections stay for sure.
Do you want to get big? Then train heavy enough that you can do 10-15 reps with good form.
Do you want explosive strength for sports? Then look for around 15-20 reps but do the pushing part explosively.
Do you want to get strong? Lift heavy. Do 5 sets of a weight you can lift for 5-8 reps.
Going for endurance? Then you're looking for weights that take you to 30-50 reps.
Adjust the weights if you're not in your rep range, and don't cheat. Rest longer between sets if they start dropping off.
Explosive strength and strong is more subtle. You basically have two sorts of muscle fiber: one is for short explosive strength the other more endurance. Different training results in a different mix of these fibers (as does genetics!). It's a case of getting the right kind of fiber in the right muscles for your sporting goal.
There are some fantastic youtube videos from people who are experts (for me it's a hobby), I can recommend Shredded Sports Science for the theory and Athlean-X for a mix of both theory and practice.
It's not exactly the same topic, but Mark Rippetoe gets to the spirit of it "My opinion about barbell rows is as follows: fuck barbell rows. Really. Fuck them. Stop wasting time worrying about barbell rows and get your deadlift up to 500. By then you'll have your own opinion and you won't have to worry about mine."
Until you get to the point of at least a 350lb squat and 400lb deadlift, it's far more useful to just stick with a program you can stick with than worry about optimizing it based on what "professional" athlete you want to be like.
It doesn't make sense to perform routines that don't aim to achieve the results you want and the routine you're most likely to stick with is the one that promises the results you want, has people who have done it and achieved the results you want, and is created by a guy who has the results you want.
1. Squat - 505lbs 2. Bench - 355lbs 3. Deadlift - 540lbs
Also, eat big!
1. Breakfast, a cup of espresso with milk, 6oz NY Strip, 1 cup of grits with butter, 16oz whole milk.
2. Lunch, 6oz NY Strip, 2 eggs, 16 oz whole milk
3. Snack, 2 - 4 pieces of fruit e.g, 3 apples with peanut butter.
4. Dinner, 2 - 3 pieces of fried/grilled chicken, collard greens, sweet potatoes.
5. Desert - a quarter slice of pie with 16oz of milk
I didn't take any supplements, just ate whole foods I cooked at home. Everything was made from scratch. The pies used lard we rendered at home from leaf fat (fat near the kidney).
For a deeper dive, I'd recommend this excellent article: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/vegetarian-and-vegan-athle...
I was also supplementing with whey (mainly casein) and creatine.
With the baby I've been eating a lot of crap sugars and put on 5kg of fat. I'm trying to drop 20kg of bodyfat now to get to down to 10-12% body fat. So far I've been able to drop without any real muscle loss as long as I still lift regularly.
I was strictly concerned with being strong, not being cut, so carrying around a little extra wasn't a big deal. The main thing, no one will think you are fat when you are strong, it is quite noticeable. Lastly, the meal I posted was at my strongest, lifting the heaviest. If I wasn't lifting those weights I would have gained quite a bit of fat.
If you are taking a few months off due to a baby, cut back on eating. Always think long-term. Two months off while you adjust to a newborn will do wonders when you get back into it. If you try to do it all, you'll be stressed and not enjoy lifting - or anything for that matter.
It's a bit harder for vegans, but still doable. Look up Clarence Kennedy, the vegan Irish weightlifter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHrysja5lYw
Also another one of his videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqg6aJOI
Leucine also spikes the insulin level regardless the source, it is better to take it with fibres and a bit of fat, e.g. avocado.
If you still struggle, you might give a try to a constant glucose monitor (GCM) to see what crosses your efforts.
I've been doing a bodyweight routine I got from Reddit for almost a year and I've seen very little progress. I want to try something different.
What bodyweight routine are you doing? The main thing to look at if you're working out consistently and aren't improving is your diet. Are you getting enough protein and calories? The general advice is to eat ~1 gram of protein per 0.7 lbs or so of bodyweight, and to have at least a 300 calorie surplus if you want to gain muscle.
Not getting enough sleep or being overly stressed out will also kill progress.
As far as my sleep goes, it's very good. I'm also not stressed at all.
I have made some progress, it's just been very disappointing. When I started I couldn't do a single pull up and now, 10 months later, I can do two. I'm almost to the point where I can do a reasonable dip as well.
With pull ups, for example, you won't see much improvement from just doing sets of one or two since it's not enough volume, so it's better to do something easier like negatives (where you just do the lowering down part slowly) or just hangs if negatives are too hard. You can also target some of the supporting muscles that may be "blockers" with dumbbells--for me it was the brachialis and brachioradialis especially (the forearm muscles on both sides of the elbow), and also grip strength. I started out with 2 lousy form pull ups, and it took me over 2 months to get up to 5 fairly clean ones this way, but in just the last couple weeks I've gone from 5 to 8, so it seems like progress accelerates once you pass that threshold, at least in my case.
For dips, I found that first focusing on normal push ups and then on diamond push ups, which heavily target the triceps, was very effective.
A beginning book I always recommend is starting strength. But, depending on where your current fitness is at you may need to check with your doctor first and/or find a good body weight program to get started. Burpees, pushups, pull-ups, thrusters for 20 minutes will destroy even the most in shape athletes. It's really not something you need to over complicate.
After like 6 weeks of doing that and improving a lot, I bought some dumbbells and started throwing some lifting in to mix it up, target weak spots, and work on muscles that the bodyweight stuff doesn't hit as well. I've found that the combination of the two really accelerates progress and improves recovery too by changing up the movements.
This has been working well for me, but of course there are many ways to approach it. Personally, I really don't like the gym vibe, so working out outside in the sun (with bodyweight) made it easier to get started and stick with. You also don't need to buy anything, and you can build up a base level of strength that makes lifting weights feel more approachable.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PKNDlcnpUCAhjur_EEmlJp1PNsD...
It's a very stupid name and the accompanying article is kind of meh but the program overall is a solid start. I'm using as a way to reshape my body - I'm fairly overweight with a gut - and it's worked well so far. Pick any beginner plan like this and you'll probably be OK. As a beginner you'll make huge gains in your first year and that makes the day to day a lot easier to deal with while you build the habit.
I modified the plan on a few exercises that I don't like and used bodybuilding.com's alternate exercise lists to pick ones I prefer. At month 6 I plan to switch focus slightly to keep things mixed up and will probably switch to a 5x5 for a month or so then back to a more traditional regiment based on the 6+ month recommendations in the article.
The biggest thing is to choose any of the recommended programs in these responses and then start going. Promise yourself a month, a month of trying really hard each day and see how it goes. After that you can re-evaluate if it is really for you but that month will help build a habit and you'll start seeing some strength gains.
I feel so much better and I'm seeing significant body modifications that I'm really happy with. Getting healthy any which way you choose is worth the effort!
It's straighforward, manageable, and (importantly) it introduces the idea of autoregulation early on. Autoregulation is an important tool for helping to prevent injury due to innappropriate fatigue management. It also contains good information related to nutrition and how to perform the basic barbell movements.
From there, you have a wealth of options like his Practical Programming, Wendler's 5/3/1 books, and the Tactical Barbell books for combining strength and endurance training. The Barbell Medicine podcast and strongerbyscience.com are also great.
If you find yourself wanting to compete, Juggernaut Training and the Renaissance Training groups are great sources.
If you want something portable you can do at home, Pavel's Simple and Sinister is your best bet for kettlebell work, and Overcoming Gravity will teach you bodyweight work that only requires a pull-up bar.
For clearer writing and simpler programming, I would go for Tactical Barbell and Simple and Sinister over Wendler.
Doug Hepburn's programs (which can be found online with a minute of Googling) are also great for people looking at Wendler, but want something simple that can be run nearly indefinitely.
But yeah, working out is life changing. I've been lifting in some form for over 20 years now, and try to exercise every single day.
http://chadwaterbury.com/huge-in-a-hurry-clarified/ (Author's Update)
My mind gets zapped by working every day at the computer, so for me doing something totally physical (and for bodyweight workouts being outside in the sun) is the perfect antidote. I now start feeling stir crazy if I miss a workout or two for some reason.
That said - there's a lot of ways to describe a heavy squat session, but boring isn't one I'd use.
It may sound like broscience (because it is), but you gotta find what works for you.
And you can make it interesting. Reading about how the body works, the biomechanics of the movements, etc. can make it more interesting.
Learning more about a subject tends to make it more interesting, even if you didn't begin with an interest.
When you're 70 with mobility issues and no longer have physical autonomy, you'll be wishing you'd invested the few hours per week of preventative medicine that would have vastly increased the likelihood that you would still have the strength and mobility to live a physically autonomous life with the ability to play with your grandkids. Not to mention the decades of benefits you would have reaped being in better shape than you ever dreamt was possible for you.
Your mind tends to be focused on the task at hand when doing the movements. After each set, when you're resting, you can listen to a podcast or audio book.
Or, you know, just stand there and do nothing and let your mind wander: perhaps not doing something may actually be good for you. Perhaps you may wish to examine the benefits of being bored once in a while.
* https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/hide-and-seek/201407...
Over time maybe a great overstatement depending on context. Context being sensible programming and genetics. Really mostly genetics. The extremely motivating newbie and even intermediate gains exhaust very rapidly. Lifting can become very monotonous and tedious grind after a few years. It helps to have adopt an analytical and zen attitude towards progress after that. Most advanced lifters will go through multi-year plateaus at some point, it takes an entirely different mind set to pursue the hobby then. Injury prevention also becomes significant considerations when you become sufficiently strong (and old), eventually it's about numbers and not health - training then is not a great health prescription for people. That said, a beginning strength regime is absolutely something everyone should pursue for longevity and quality of life improvements. Intermediate+ strength training will help most folks structure many parts of their life from routine to diet to work ethic. Anything more and like every hobby, it becomes a very time intensive pursuit that requires a lot of sacrifice.
All that is to say, strength training for most people will inevitably turn into a job, and like most jobs, make sure it's something you enjoy. For some people the joy is intrinsic and the process is easier, for others it's work, and and the level of fulfillment is correlated to what one makes of it.
Since I got started in cross country running in high school, which included just the most modest of weight training, I've been interested in it. I'd often have gym memberships, and dabble with the various machines, trying to cover muscle groups.
Eventually, I joined fitocracy.com when it was young and full of active members. It was there that I learned about Starting Strength, and where the programming rewarded logging barbell activities much more than running or using a machine. Before long, I had bought the Starting Strength and began teaching myself the movements. I began with little or no weight, and using videos I took of myself to improve my form. I also paid more attention to dietary intake, and used If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) to design my daily goals for macronutrients.
The results were manifold. Of course I got stronger - barbell lifts done right are so much more efficient and effective than any chaotic routine, or even somewhat organized attempts with machines. I was visibly in better shape. But I was also naturally more confident, more in tune with the world around me. As the article mentions, I was seeing how my own decisions were affecting my life, and I would direct myself in other areas to zero in on decisions within my areas of control and concern. My energy increased and my focus improved on the job. I was able to find a healthy relationship that continues today.
However. I lost my way. Eventually the habit was interrupted and was never fully restored. Today, I'm distracted, procrastinating on a task I've procrastinated for too long already. I'm irritable and I don't want to waste my day at the office, but I'll go home, and I won't make good use of my time their either. I'll snack too often and grab unhealthy things.
Of course I'm not saying that this one habit will fix all of your problems, but it is a bit of a foundational habit, and it can leak into other areas of your life. And, of course, strength is helpful! You can move furniture and chop wood and have the bad posture on your office chair you were going to have anyway, but with a stronger back, you'll find yourself injured less often. So I recommend it, and I hope I can take my own advice!
I just had shoulder surgery on Friday. The problem was more than likely caused by other things, but weightlifting made the issue obvious and forced me to fix it.
Also, FWIW, don't neglect cardio. I know lifters will tell you that lifting gives your heart a workout, and it does, but from personal experience I felt a lot better as a whole when I was cardiovascularly in shape. Lifting, for me, helps with things like posture, back pain, self image and weight control. It does not, IME, increase average daytime energy level, help in the bedroom, or make climbing a few flights of stairs feel effortless. Look to cardio training for that.
Edit:
"For most, the plateau is a form of purgatory."
I can't agree less. Sure, there are lots of folks who go to the gym and pursue literally endless gains until some form of injury comes along and derails them. Personally I find having some realistic goals to be a much better approach. I hit a 400 pound deadlift and decided that's enough. Why the hell would I want to lift more? I'll never use it, and those gains will just require even more maintenance.
This. The heart "workout" from weight training is not even in the same zip code as cardio workouts. Best to do both.
I did ~no lifting for many nears and dove back in way too fast at 45 y/o. Got a little too ambitious in the squat rack and my knee has been sort of fucked up for about 6 months (slow recovery is also a fun part of middle age). Take it slow.
If you want to nerd out lifting theory, I suggest https://www.barbellmedicine.com/ .
As an academic, I like the way the doctors approach terminology of lifting and describe evidence-based reasoning for recommendations.
That it feels really good to move.
A sedentary programmer I will no longer be!
I walk to a local yoga studio to practice for an hour every day now and have literally never been happier in my entire life.
I literally break out into a wide smile every single time I begin preparing to go to yoga... and trust me... I was never that kind of happy go lucky guy.
It's no surprise that moving makes you feel good.
Science has documented countless examples of exactly how it does that.
Endorphins are released as a direct result of moving.
Moving is my favorite nootropic.
It's easy to get stuck sitting in a chair day after day.
It's just as easy to keep the momentum of movement going if you can get the ball rolling.
I really wish I knew that earlier, but I am happy to know it now.
Get out there and move around HN!
I’m also the kind of person that started off saying, “I’d like to be able to do a body weight pull-up” which soon became, “I’d like to be able to do 4 body weight pull-ups” which eventually became... you definitely get addicted to the gains and even if you plateau in one lift or another, there’s always another muscle you can train.
Once you start moving real weight there’s also a euphoria to hitting those big PRs which you can work yourself up for and then it’s a blast when you finally hit them.
I lift 3x a week - push, pull, legs. I do 6 week cycles of 12 reps, 8 reps, 5 reps (for the main lifts). And at the end of each 5 rep cycle I test my 1 rep max on bench, deadlift, and squat. 14 weeks ago I just missed adding those up to 1,000 lbs (a big milestone) and fully expect to exceed 1,000 when I test again in 3 weeks.
I was never a weight lifter / body builder. Aside from a brief stint trying CrossFit I had basically never touched weights aside from a class in high school. If you looked at a picture of me 5 years ago I was a completely different person. It took 2 years of cardio and yoga just to work up the inner strength and basic flexibility to feel like I could safely approach weights.
I like that it’s the number one priority for one hour, 3 times a week. The rest of the week you never ever have to think about it. Well, you will feel it, but it takes no mental strain. Then you get in and get it done and feel awesome that you’re just a little bit better than last week, and go on with your day.
The most important thing is doing it right, doing it effectively, and most of all doing it safely. Getting injured will set you back hard.
Pay a trainer once a week to do one of the three workouts with you, critique your form, and tweak your program. Go for the big milestones when you have a pro watching you, and listen when they tell you stop. Best investment of time and money I’ve ever made.
Check your ego at the door and maintain form, otherwise you are fucked when you start lifting real weights. You will get hurt. You will learn the bad form and fuck up your shoulder or joints. Don't do it.
Those beginner gains are crazy fast, and in six months you will be totally changed. You will be stronger. Push yourself.
I have tried almost every form of exercise, but the only thing that has truly hooked me so far is circuit/interval training (for both cardio and resistance). I have done almost 400 sessions so far, almost without fail at 5 days per week (which is the real testament to how addicting it is).
Actually I find the cardio classes to be more interesting and challenging than the resistance / weight lifting classes. Although the focus is cardio, they do not neglect training your muscles, they just tend to rely more on body weight than barbells (burpees, jump squats, sprawls, etc) with the occasionally machine thrown in (rowers, bikes).
I have not lost much weight (that requires a better diet) or gained a huge amount of muscle but my body feels way more tuned. The classes are pretty intense and burning 1000 calories/hour is common. My heart rate used to max out at 180 and my resting heart rate was 80-90. Now my max heart rate is 160 and my resting gets as low as 50. I used to struggle to do 50 push-ups now I can do 100 without much struggle.
The real benefit though is that I feel healthy and less afraid of things like heart disease.
Max heart rate doesn't really decrease with fitness unless there's some weird pathology going on. As fitness increases you can generate more power at the same heart rate, but max heart rate remains roughly the same.
https://youtu.be/wlLpCh-lE54?t=71
(for the record, I also sometimes pick heavy things and put them back down, but it is an inherently silly activity :D )
'I need to shape up - fast!'
'Well are you looking to just lose weight or do you want to have increase strength and flexibility as well?'
'I want to look good naked.'
Working full time and (if you want to do more) studying or coding at home becomes hardy sustainable and a problem in 30s. It is in our interest to prioritize the health of our only body, the holder of our brains, a thing we so heavily rely on for basically every activity.
It is so amazing how our bodies can reshape and adopt to physical activities we do! You can pick sport to shape your body in a desired way. My example: I am quite small, sturdy, with tendency to become fat if I do not do enough sport. I did bjj + gym for a few years - I looked like “squared”, the mixture of wide shoulders, muscles, and fat - a bit like Fedor Emelianenko. A few months ago I fully switched to running (2-3 times a week 10-15 km) plus endurance 1-2 times a week of bodyweight exercises. Within 2 months my body adopted to my new activities - I became slimmer, lighter, with stronger legs.
Also I thought we were past using the word "Zen" as a label for any kind of temporary abatement of stress or neuroticism. Not that we knew better, of course, but that it was thankfully out of fashion. I'm sad to see that is no longer the case.
I spent a lot of years trying to get in shape, but never getting there, because I would hurt myself. I finally decided to get a trainer a few years ago for other reasons[1], but the biggest benefit has been a total lack of injury. Injuries often come from bad form, not working on small stabilizer muscles and/or over-doing it - a decent trainer will be able to correct for these cases. I'm almost 40 but I'm in as-good or better shape than I was in my late-teens because I've been consistent and working with someone who knows how to get good results.
A trainer does add to the expense, but at least for me, I'd rather pay more for a workout that I actually do regularly, than paying for a gym membership I can't use half the time because I'm injured.
[1] The other nice thing about a trainer is that they provide some accountability. It's much easier for me to blow off a workout day if I'm not also screwing up someone else's schedule/income.
About a year ago, I got a shoulder injury doing bench press. (Not the first time, but this one was from a lighter weight and it lasted longer.) I saw an older gentleman in the gym this week and thought I'd ask him how he keeps from getting injured.
The older gent (his name is Ralph) said he recommends lots of warmups. He was benching pretty good, about half of what I was, I think I do ok for a mid-50s weightlifter. Ralph looked pretty fit, but his hair was totally silver. I was floored when he mentioned he has a son that's 61!
I remain committed. I think it's really good for health.
I did this with a coach for about a year. After that I installed a squat rack in my backyard and train on my own (with occasional one-on-one coaching sessions every six months or so to make sure technique hasn't gone to hell).
There's nothing like gaining strength. It doesn't have to be monster strength either. Most people can't lift 250 lbs off the floor. Going from struggling to lift a 60 lb bag of dog food with two arms to carrying one bag in each hand is massive improvement for 95% of people. The funny thing is that this isn't a crazy goal at all and it is attainable within a year for almost anyone.
One of my favorite things to do once I got to 250 lb deadlifts was to go to the regular gym every so often, pick up a 120 lb dumbbell with each hand and go do standing rows. I don't look like a bodybuilder at all. All the big huge guys doing 70 lb dumbbells could not understand what was going on. I'd literally grab 240 lbs of dumbbells and go to the bench to do a bunch of reps. A few asked what the hell was going on.
There's a difference between strength training and bodybuilding. It is my opinion that, for the average person, strength training is what brings more benefits, particularly as you get older. Bodybuilding can look good (in terms of body shape) but I am not sure it carries with it the same benefits. This is just my opinion, never really researched the topic beyond the basics.
As others have said: If you are going to do this, get a coach. It is critical to ensure you are using proper technique. Without this you could get stuck and struggle to make progress, get hurt or both.
I wonder what people will do in 25 or 50 years for recreation that we today consider work.
"To minimise injury risk, practitioners should aim to maintain the acute:chronic workload ratio within a range of approximately 0.8–1.3."
Figure 6, https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/50/5/273