Does anyone lift heavy? Please chime in!

[daisyduke]

Do you still lift heavy?

If so how are your results?

What programs do you like?

Thank you

[Joni O]

I lift heavy upper body 3x a week. For me, that’s a weight that I can lift 8-10 times before I just can’t lift it anymore. Mostly Cathe and The Firm. I’m trying to keep my arms toned and somewhat strong into my older age (I’m 64.) I also do lighter weight workouts on some alternate days - like Ellen, Jessica Smith, Tracy Mallett, etc. It all seems to be working to keep my upper body looking better than any of my (non-VF) peers.

No more squats and lunges for me, so I walk 3 miles a day and do some old fashioned floor work for lower body.

[Sue B]

I've been lifting heavy for years, either on my own or at the gym with paper workouts. I love what it has done for me. Drop Two Sizes (the book version, first rotation I managed to complete) helped me shed the perimenopause weight and get back on the workout wagon so to speak. Strong (the book) was another terrific program, but it does call for gym equipment. I recently finished the 3-day program from the book Eat Lift Thrive by Sohee Lee, and am now doing a program I wrote using her tips. I can share if anyone is interested.

DVDs that allow heavy lifting - not too fast, not too many reps - are extremely rare. One that does is Xtrainfit Toning, led by Karen Gentz. Drop Two Sizes has a DVD set that's OOP but maybe you can trade for it or buy it off VF Roost since it didn't have many fans here. Cathe usually does too many reps for my liking but a recent one of hers that I like is PHA Training where everything is 12 reps and she does it in circuits. I did that recently on a day I couldn't get to the gym and it will probably get much more use as holidays approach

[Joni O]

Yes. I take back some of what what I posted. I guess most of the DVDs I use have more than 8-10 heavy reps. I break my weight workouts into higher rep/lighter weight and lower rep/heavier weight. Heavy to me is something like using 10-12# for bicep curls versus 3-5, for example.

[ncl]

I recently started back lifting heavier after a long time of not lifting heavy. I have found that 2 hours a week of this are enough for me to have muscle growth. I sometimes do 2-1 hour workouts or 4-30 minute workouts to achiever this. I find if I do more than that that my body doesn't have time to recover. I gather from others that they do more often than this.

Recently I did Cathe 4 day split rotation though at the end I was mixing up the cardio as I was getting bored with that cardio over and over. I next did a month of Xtrain Burn Sets and Xtrain Cardio Leg Blast. I may have gone a little over the 2 hours per weeks with that but it was OK. I prefer video to paper workout and I find it challenging to find heavy lifting programs. STS was always too much for me and I ended up getting injured but I never made it to the 3rd mesocycle and it strikes me that i probably should have just started with the 3rd one. That high rep stuff at the beginning was too much!

I will say that since I started back doing some heavier weights that my body looked very noticeably better and I am finding it easier to shed a few pounds, not EASY, just a little easier. I also feel way better.

[Sue B]

Originally Posted by Joni O

Yes. I take back some of what what I posted. I guess most of the DVDs I use have more than 8-10 heavy reps. I break my weight workouts into higher rep/lighter weight and lower rep/heavier weight. Heavy to me is something like using 10-12# for bicep curls versus 3-5, for example.

There isn't any one real definition of heavy, is there? I've been doing sets of 8 or 12 which at the gym would be considered medium or even light. The last phase of ELT that I did had sets as low as 3 and honestly I think I'm getting to old for that (just for me personally, I know there are much older women who powerlift, good for them!) I stick to about 15# for curls and often even lighter. Cathe's weights on PHA of 12 and 15 were just fine.

[rhbrand]

I do.

I don't use video based workouts hardly at all anymore. Only as a break from heavy lifting for a week or two.

I do paper workouts, right now The Year One Challenge. LOVE IT!

Of course my goals are mostly strength based. I want to get STRONG! Deadlift 300+lbs, (I'm up to 245) Squat the same 300lbs, I'm at 210.

I have found for my goals, I just cant do that with dvd based workouts. And besides I can listen to my music which is 300% more motivating to me than the canned stuff in dvds lol.

[jcmclean]

Once a week to the gym for heavy squats, deadlifts, bench and rows. Nothing like it for upping the intensity.

[Pratima]

I'm doing an abbreviated CLX rotation and going heavy on the Push phase since it's only 6-8 reps per exercise. I'm surprised by how heavy I can go! Like 10 lbs on tricep kickbacks. The only thing is that while my legs can take pretty heavy weight (25-30 lb dumbbells) my forearms are too weak to hold that much for very long. I'm hoping to build enough strength that I can eventually hold those as long as I need to!

[kmissa]

Originally Posted by rhbrand

I do.

I don't use video based workouts hardly at all anymore. Only as a break from heavy lifting for a week or two.

I do paper workouts, right now The Year One Challenge. LOVE IT!

Of course my goals are mostly strength based. I want to get STRONG! Deadlift 300+lbs, (I'm up to 245) Squat the same 300lbs, I'm at 210.

I have found for my goals, I just cant do that with dvd based workouts. And besides I can listen to my music which is 300% more motivating to me than the canned stuff in dvds lol.

I don’t lift that heavy, yet. I just started doing a keto bootcamp. One year challenge was next on my list. I just brought thinner, leaner, stronger.