Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

[whatsupwthat]

G'day. I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask for advice, but I thought I would shoot my shot.
I am wanting to try to build strength, just everywhere, in general. However, I have a leg injury that impedes a lot of my choices (My knee likes to dislocate, might need surgery ). Is there much I can do in the safety and comfort of my living room? I am a short foid with no understanding of the muscle men's ways. Before my injury my workouts just consisted of a lot of biking and running, so I don't understand a lot of the terminology in this thread. I've asked my boyfriend but he works long days so he isn't really able to help between work and sleep outside of translating pounds to kilograms and showing me what a deadlift is. I think I could get him to show me any workouts you guys mention, he was a big gym nut before he moved in with me and started working. Thanks in advance.

What's your setup like at home? Do you have any sorts of weights to work with or a bench, or were you thinking more of doing bodyweight exercises? Also considering your knee problems I'd definitely be hesitant of doing any exercises outside of isometric or eccentric work. But you should be able to still work out without needing to put too much strain on them. Isometric means that your muscles are working but without the joint moving, and eccentric means that you're slowly descending with a weight instead of lifting it.

 

[Hefty Fine]

What's your setup like at home? Do you have any sorts of weights to work with or a bench, or were you thinking more of doing bodyweight exercises? Also considering your knee problems I'd definitely be hesitant of doing any exercises outside of isometric or eccentric work. But you should be able to still work out without needing to put too much strain on them. Isometric means that your muscles are working but without the joint moving, and eccentric means that you're slowly descending with a weight instead of lifting it.

I have pissy little woman weights (1kg - 2.5kg dumbbells, 4kg kettlebell) and resistance bands. Closest I have to a bench is my coffee table. I was thinking a bit of both for everything but my legs. My physio has more or less banned me from using any weighted exercises for my legs. He said my body will work harder if it is just my body weight with them. I'm thinking if I get some workouts written down that I can do sitting/laying I will be able to do them if I do end up having surgery. Might stop me going bored out of my mind lol.

 

[666NASTYFUCKINGFREAK666]

Bench press/overhead press is the closest a man can get to the feeling of a female orgasm

 

[whatsupwthat]

I have pissy little woman weights (1kg - 2.5kg dumbbells, 4kg kettlebell) and resistance bands. Closest I have to a bench is my coffee table. I was thinking a bit of both for everything but my legs. My physio has more or less banned me from using any weighted exercises for my legs. He said my body will work harder if it is just my body weight with them. I'm thinking if I get some workouts written down that I can do sitting/laying I will be able to do them if I do end up having surgery. Might stop me going bored out of my mind lol.

Since you have resistance bands you could probably do some setup where you only lift the femur and workout the upper leg/hip muscles without putting any strain on your knee. Most arm, chest and shoulder exercises you can do standing/laying down without any issues, I can just imagine that it'll be tricky to setup exercises for your back muscles.

 

[Hefty Fine]

Since you have resistance bands you could probably do some setup where you only lift the femur and workout the upper leg/hip muscles without putting any strain on your knee. Most arm, chest and shoulder exercises you can do standing/laying down without any issues, I can just imagine that it'll be tricky to setup exercises for your back muscles.

I'll give it a try, thank you. I could see if my BF would want to go to the gym again. I feel like they would have machines I could sit down and try. Gym wont help if I do end up with surgery though, but it might help with working out what I can and can't do. Do you have any workouts you could recommend for a beginner?

 

[close]

I am wanting to try to build strength

Move heavy things as many times as you can in a controlled manner. You want to aim for 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps. If you can do more than that, move a heavier thing. If you can't do that, move a less heavy thing. A rep is on repetition of a motion, for example for a squat (which you can't do), it's going from standing up straight, to having your ass on the floor, back to standing up straight again. A set is a collection of reps, with a rest period after, so 3x8 would be eight squats, rest a bit, eight squats, rest a bit, eight more squats.

To figure out a training plan, look up Trainer Winny on youtube. His [body part] simplified playlist is a 0-100% overview of everything you could possibly want to do. Watch his "your first 30 days in the gym" video for a simple ready made training plan that you can modify to account for your weaknesses. For each exercise he mentions, search youtube for "[exercise name] form" and watch someone who knows what they're doing do it right and hopefully point out what not to do.

Eat right, sleep right, go to the gym regularly, and lift heavier things.

my workouts just consisted of a lot of biking and running

That's cardio, not strength training. Cardio trains your heart, which lets you be active for longer without becoming exhausted. It has almost nothing to do with strength. A fatty can stand up which is half a squat's worth of 400lbs, but they couldn't run anywhere. A Tour de France champion can do that, but would have trouble benching their own bicycle.

 

[AndyWarskiIsFourThings]

Move heavy things as many times as you can in a controlled manner. You want to aim for 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps. If you can do more than that, move a heavier thing. If you can't do that, move a less heavy thing. A rep is on repetition of a motion, for example for a squat (which you can't do), it's going from standing up straight, to having your ass on the floor, back to standing up straight again. A set is a collection of reps, with a rest period after, so 3x8 would be eight squats, rest a bit, eight squats, rest a bit, eight more squats.

To figure out a training plan, look up Trainer Winny on youtube. His [body part] simplified playlist is a 0-100% overview of everything you could possibly want to do. Watch his "your first 30 days in the gym" video for a simple ready made training plan that you can modify to account for your weaknesses. For each exercise he mentions, search youtube for "[exercise name] form" and watch someone who knows what they're doing do it right and hopefully point out what not to do.

Eat right, sleep right, go to the gym regularly, and lift heavier things.

That's cardio, not strength training. Cardio trains your heart, which lets you be active for longer without becoming exhausted. It has almost nothing to do with strength. A fatty can stand up which is half a squat's worth of 400lbs, but they couldn't run anywhere. A Tour de France champion can do that, but would have trouble benching their own bicycle.

Pretty solid advice. I've not looked into Trainer Winny, however, if you don't resonate with him or her, take a look at Starting Strength. (yes, I am a shill)

Starting Strength Info

He goes over exercises, sets and reps, equipment, training frequency, diet concept for gaining and losing weight (calorie in calorie out), injury rehabilitation, etc. He assumes you're a newbie. Don't worry if you don't understand the terms I just said.

SS Resources

There is a book, website (with a forum), podcast, and YouTube channel all about the program.

Summary (website): About the program (website)
Website: Starting Strength Website
Forum: Starting Strength Forum
YouTube: Starting Strength YouTube (2000+ free videos)
Book: Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training

Playlists
Anything you could ever want to know about strength training in video form,
All: Starting Strength YT Playlists

A Good Place to Start

How to do the lifts Playlist

Be Careful With Bodybuilding Communities Especially with Training Advice

Also, generally speaking, you can never really go wrong with people from the strength training community (this includes powerlifters). Bodybuilder communities tend to attract con-men, digital marketers, and dishonest businessman who don't disclose conflict of interests or if they're taking drugs and how much.

Bodybuilding is More Like the Advertising, Marketing Industry Than The Health & Wellness Industry

Much of the bodybuilding (especially online) community are on tons of drugs but will present a lifestyle that is plausible enough to fool layman into lending credibility. This is because they're usually hawking some generic, template training program or some online coaching. Because of this, bodybuilders will trash strength trainers for "looking like dogshit", in order to shame newcomers into believing their training scheme is superior, when it's not, and is simply fueled by massive amounts of drugs, deceptive lighting and editing, genetics, and a LARGE Ad budget.

Some Influencers Make Things Complicated on Purpose to Make You Dependent on Them

This is a common strategy employed by fitness influencers. Most of this stuff is extremely simple and repetitive. However, many fitness influencers want to you to become neurotic and paranoid about not doing the optimal thing so that you become dependent on them and their advice. The bodybuilding space tends get caught up in this more frequently than the strength folk.

Note: Most of my criticism against bodybuilders is against their ways of training. I've sometimes received some insight on a supplement stack or nutrition that I've found useful. But those are few and far between, plus, I don't want to give a whole bunch of unnecessary info to a newbie. That would be "majoring in the minor", which many newbies tend to get hung up on.

 

[close]

It's worth pointing out that Trainer Winny is a bodybuilder and first and foremost plans for aesthetics, but I like his no-nonsense simplified style of explaining things, and you don't get a big muscle without it also being strong, so it's a good enough entry point.

 

[whatsupwthat]

Bench press/overhead press is the closest a man can get to the feeling of a female orgasm

Don't ask me how I know this, but pronated hamstring curls and other exercises that heavily engage your core can induce "coregasms" which aren't exactly like female orgasms, but it's pretty damn similar.

 

[Hefty Fine]

Thank you all again for all of the advice. I will look into both of those youtubers (though I will definitely eat up that book, love my reading.) I don't think I will fall into any of the advertising traps you mentioned. I just want to be healthy and able to move things around and feel more confident. Fucking up an important body part tends to kill both of those things.

Personally, I think body builder chicks look like men. I would assume from the steroids more than the gainz, so I would rather not go mental on that. At least strong women just look like Maori chicks. Less worry on getting sucked into the ripped look for me, lol. Most of the fitness trainer sorts I have seen online aren't very good looking to me, either. They have the body of a rooster. All upper body, no legs. Or the inverse for the women. It's one of the main reasons I asked here over following someone online. At least you blokes wont fuck around with being fluffy or tell me to just "train my ass and thighs, nothing else matters for a chick". You're all top blokes for that.

 

[Zhores Medvedev]

I was at the pool, as I like to swim for cardio and got my first ever complement on my physique from a random stranger. I follow a lot of the advice from this thread, thank you all

 

[close]

At least you blokes wont fuck around with being fluffy or tell me to just "train my ass and thighs, nothing else matters for a chick". You're all top blokes for that.

It's dependent on the person. My goal is to be able to lift my partner and impress my future children with how strong Daddy is, maybe give them something to look up to, or benchmark other men against. For that, a somewhat bodybuilding approach to strength training makes sense. Some people want to climb rocks or bike really far, or fuck well, or whatever. They're all different training regimes.

You started off in here saying you wanted to try to build strength, but didn't mention a purpose, a goal, and now you're talking about other women looking "like men", and other other women not being "very good looking", so I guess your original post deceived me - you're not looking to build strength, you're looking to bodybuild. You want to achieve some sort of look, and you weren't forthcoming about that.

Tell us your goals, and be honest about them, and we can point you in the right direction.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a chick having the attitude "I am only going to train my ass and thighs so men find me sexually appealing, and a slight calorie surplus so I'm squishy to hug".

 

[Hefty Fine]

It's dependent on the person. My goal is to be able to lift my partner and impress my future children with how strong Daddy is, maybe give them something to look up to, or benchmark other men against. For that, a somewhat bodybuilding approach to strength training makes sense. Some people want to climb rocks or bike really far, or fuck well, or whatever. They're all different training regimes.

You started off in here saying you wanted to try to build strength, but didn't mention a purpose, a goal, and now you're talking about other women looking "like men", and other other women not being "very good looking", so I guess your original post deceived me - you're not looking to build strength, you're looking to bodybuild. You want to achieve some sort of look, and you weren't forthcoming about that.

Tell us your goals, and be honest about them, and we can point you in the right direction.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a chick having the attitude "I am only going to train my ass and thighs so men find me sexually appealing, and a slight calorie surplus so I'm squishy to hug".

I'm sorry if I came across poorly. I might be a bit too used to the beauty parlour. My goal is to be healthy and able to lift things. I come from a farming background so all I look for is practicality. I don't really care how I look, I just want to be able to DO things. So when I have little one's I can confidently run them around and play with them, without worry of not being able to push their pram or be unable to go on a hike with them. So I can clean up after them without my leg giving out because my arms can't pick up the slack. I just want to be okay for when I have kids. I've known women who had leg problems similar to mine who had them get worse with pregnancy and childbirth. I don't want to be hurt when they're so young. I personally just respect practical needs more than aesthetic. I think your goal is beautiful, it's the same my boyfriend has. I just want to be able to keep up with him and our future kids. I'm sorry, again, if I came across poorly. I don't mean to offend, I'm just glad I wasn't pushed aside and told to just work on sex appeal. It is all I have heard with my other attempts to get into fitness when I talk to peers or approach people.

 

[dick brain]

Thank you all again for all of the advice. I will look into both of those youtubers (though I will definitely eat up that book, love my reading.) I don't think I will fall into any of the advertising traps you mentioned. I just want to be healthy and able to move things around and feel more confident. Fucking up an important body part tends to kill both of those things.

Personally, I think body builder chicks look like men. I would assume from the steroids more than the gainz, so I would rather not go mental on that. At least strong women just look like Maori chicks. Less worry on getting sucked into the ripped look for me, lol. Most of the fitness trainer sorts I have seen online aren't very good looking to me, either. They have the body of a rooster. All upper body, no legs. Or the inverse for the women. It's one of the main reasons I asked here over following someone online. At least you blokes wont fuck around with being fluffy or tell me to just "train my ass and thighs, nothing else matters for a chick". You're all top blokes for that.

Just gonna give my usual disclaimer that the most important things are 1) form (doing the movements correctly so you don't injure yourself) and 2) consistency. It's worth getting into the weeds on form, but don't get bogged down with the details on the other stuff; do whatever you can regularly accommodate.

And yeah you're not gonna get "too big" without taking gear. It doesn't happen. The reason body builders look unnatural is because what they're doing is unnatural, i.e. blasting synthetic hormones and eating industrial dye. If you do what your body was made to do you'll look how you're supposed to look.

 

[Hunnenschlachter]

It’s training for endurance vs strength. Deadlifting 300kg won’t impress anyone on a battlefield if you’re gassing out after short run.

Then you should run. I don't get the crossfit/military idea of combining the two for a workout that will give you less progress in both. Doing burpees will increase your cardio less than a run, and increase your strength less than bench. And it will increase your muscular endurance less than basic push-ups.

 

[close]

Incoming extremely gay microquoted reply.

My goal is to be healthy

Any exercise at all along with a sensible diet will do that. I don't mean starving yourself or only eating meat, I mean the simple stuff like "maybe don't eat four cakes in one sitting". If you cook your own meals from raw ingredients six days a week, you're doing it right.

and able to lift things

Depends what "things" you mean, and what you mean by "lift". You mention some stuff later but I'm not sure it qualifies.

When you strength train, think of the kind of motions/muscle groups you would use to "lift" "things", and do exercises that hit those same beats. There's that video that popped off a while back on YouTube of that rock climber who showed up to a grip strength competition and bodied a shitload of ultra huge jacked megadudes. He'd been training the same kind of motions needed for the competition as a hobby for years.

You don't have to tell us, just think it over. You wanna walk home with the weekly shop? Weigh it one time, and then practice farmers carries. You wanna help your boyfriend move the sofa when you move house? Try squats.

I don't really care how I look

But you made it very clear that you care how others look. I don't want to sit here and recommend you do this or that to reach your goals, ignoring that you put an emphasis on aesthetics, only for you to reach the goals and hate the way you look because of it.

So when I have little one's I can confidently run them around and play with them, without worry of not being able to push their pram or be unable to go on a hike with them

Based.

Playing with kids is basically all cardio. Unless you go crazy with it, the stuff you need for a day out at the park with a kid is not that heavy, even if you're going up a hill with the pram. Train endurance for this. Rowing machine, stationary bicycle, not treadmill 'cause your legs are fucked, swimming, non-stationary real bicycle. You can even do something as simple as putting some water bottles in a backpack and climbing then descending the stairs in your house for a half hour. Put on a podcast or something.

Also, kids tire out quick, relatively speaking. They're not very efficient with their movements. If you go on a hike with them, they'll bound up the hill laughing at silly old mom for being slow, then run back down to you because running downhill is fun, then run back up again. Enjoy shouting after them to not go too far.

I don't want to be hurt when they're so young.

I get this fear. It's not all that bad if you are, though. Kids I grew up with that had a loving cripple for a parent were usually very well adjusted, more so than others. They cared deeply for their parents, and helping out around the house was second nature to them because they knew their mom simply couldn't (but would if she could). If you're gonna be hurt while they're young, that's just how it's going to be. Show them love as best you can in ways that aren't racing them to the park.

I just want to be able to keep up with him and our future kids

And this ties in to the point above - I don't know how well you pick your men, but if my partner had something happen to her (heaven forbid) and wasn't able to physically do as much for our child as she otherwise could, I know that's my place to step up and fill the gaps. We're a team, which means covering each others' backs, among other things.

At the end of the day, we all have a physical limit somewhere. We're all gonna run out of juice, we could all break our spines and be bedridden, we're all gonna die some day. There's no use dooming about it, just play the cards you've been dealt as best you can, and move on towards tomorrow without regrets. (That means exercise while you can).

I'm sorry, again, if I came across poorly. I don't mean to offend

There's no need for apologies, and it's impossible to offend me - look where I am. This is just how I talk.

 

[Hefty Fine]

Thank you, I'm sorry for any awkwardness on my part. It's a bit intimidating to ask a sensitive question in a male dominated space (I usually have poor luck with it). I wasn't really sure how it would go down, but I'm appreciative for all of your advice and patience.

On the aesthetics part, I personally don't care how people look. I realize I'm pretty poor at conveying that, I meant it more as I don't want those extremes. I'm not really sure how to ask what I am wanting for myself because I don't understand the topic at all. So I thought listing the extremes I have seen would help convey what I want to avoid. I apologise again if that came across as rude. I just want to look like a mum at the end of the day, with one to two little ones hanging off me. I will need a little bit of meat on my bones to have that, I think.
I've gotten very lucky with my partner, he works himself a concerning amount to help support me through this long injury. The biggest reason I asked the thread over him was so he would have less to worry about. He loves working out, but he is a bit concerned with me doing it due to the nature of the injury. I was hoping getting all of your advice together and going through it with him might help with his concerns by giving him more of a foundation to work with. Seeing as he has strong men as his inspiration, a lot of his work outs would kill me, lol.

Thank you all, again, for the advice. I appreciate it a lot. It's given me a lot of information to make a foundation to work with.

 

[Flabba Wabba Jabba]

Thinking back to my time in the Army and fuck was that some of the stupidest exercise I've ever done. Pretty much the definition of "work harder not smarter".
View attachment 7320096

Take burpees for example. I don't care how many burpees you do it's not going to increase the amount you can bench by any meaningful amount. Nor is that jump going to increase your squat. I remember one time going to a proper gym and a Sergeant was giving me shit because instead of constantly doing exercise every 10 seconds I actually understood the importance of rest periods in between my lifts. He was shit talking as if I was some lazy fuck then when it comes time to deadlift I end up pulling hundreds of more pounds for reps than his ass.

Mike Mentzer put it best. Rest is allowing the body to grow, to become anabolic. Think of it inversely, going to the gym induces damage and fatigue then resting allows the body to grow, so catabolic and then anabolic.

Most people never figure this out and either overtrain themselves into oblivion or undertrain because they want to go every day.

Bench press/overhead press is the closest a man can get to the feeling of a female orgasm

OHP to me is the ultimate indicator of real strength after squats, because of how hard it is to get a big OHP and a big squat. Deadlifting and bench are great movements, but they're great because they feel good and you can post up big numbers relatively quickly (especially deadlifts). OHP takes time, dieting, technique and a lot of patience, considering the increases in strength come in single digit kilograms over months of training.

I've seen guys pull 5pl8 and 6pl8 every other week, but I have never seen someone overhead press more than 100kg/225lbs in the gym ever. When I pressed 80kg for the first time I felt better than when I deadlifted 200kg for the first time

 

[Burger Kong]

Mike Mentzer put it best. Rest is allowing the body to grow, to become anabolic. Think of it inversely, going to the gym induces damage and fatigue then resting allows the body to grow, so catabolic and then anabolic.

Most people never figure this out and either overtrain themselves into oblivion or undertrain because they want to go every day.

This is true. When you lift weights you end up creating small rips in your muscles and the rest periods fill in those gaps in your muscles which makes them bigger.

Going back to my stories of training in the Army, we would go on big 40+ day training exercises and even then the leadership will admit you will come back from those events physically weaker. You will probably learn more about how to carry out combat tactics. Mentally it will probably make you a better Soldier, maybe you can handle a gun better. But physically you just spent 40+ days in the middle of the desert destroying your body and eating mostly MREs.

MRE's aren't like some well thought out fitness diet they have stuff like M&Ms in them because the thought is "how do we give these Soldiers some low cost calories to keep them going" not how do we get them to be buff healthy bodybuilders.

 

[dick brain]

I hate cutting.