By request: what I’m currently doing with weight-lifting

This has come up a few times recently in the comments, sooo, here you go! But before we do that: this post is gonna talk some about weight loss/gain (and there’s a picture of me when I was pretty skinny), so if that’s a topic you aren’t up for, maybe skip reading here for today. Also: I’m not an expert, and any weight-lifting you do is at your own risk!

I mentioned in a recent post that I’ve been back on the weight-lifting train, and that I’ve put back on a lot of the muscle I lost.

My body type is naturally on the smaller side of things when it comes to muscles, so if I don’t lift weights, I tend to settle into a not-that-strong state.

Also, when I am experiencing really bad stress, I lose my appetite, and that also makes me get weaker/scrawnier.

My skinniest times in life have always, always been the times when I have been in a state of Very Not Thriving.

I know some people get extra hungry when they are stressed, but when stress is off the charts for me, I just cannot manage to be hungry.

All of that is to say that for a while, my body situation has been very up and down. I got super skinny in mid-2018, leading up to the first time I left my marriage.

I feel slightly nervous about sharing this next picture (I think mostly I’m afraid of being judged on several levels!), but here you go, because it shows a good contrast with what happened later.

As things got put back together (or so I thought), I lifted weights and also went to Cross Fit with Lisey, and I gained a lot of muscle.

Then life deteriorated again on multiple fronts, and by last year, I was a little on the skinny side again.

But now I’ve gotten back into the habit of doing some weight lifting, and I am trying really hard to eat sufficient protein so I can build some muscle back.

I actually hate lifting weights

There are some types of exercise that I enjoy, such as hiking.

Weightlifting is 0% fun for me, though. I do it solely because I am trying to be strong and because I am trying to keep my bones as dense as possible.

And I do like feeling strong!

But the process sucks. I cannot at all relate to people who say they are addicted to working out. Bleah.

So, to make it manageable enough for me to be consistent, I:

• lift only about 3x a week
• only do a couple of exercises each time (usually three sets of each)

If I felt like I had to do this every day, or that I had to do 6 different types of lifts each time, I would give up.

I have to keep it to a level that feels reasonable to me if I have any faint hope of keeping this habit up.

The exercises I do

I try to do a leg day, an arm/shoulders/chest day, and a core/back day. But honestly, a lot of the things I do for my legs also work my core and back.

For legs/hips, I do:

• kettlebell swings
• barbell deadlifts
• barbell back squats
• kettlebell squats
• a leg press machine at the gym

For arms/shoulders/chest, I do:

• bicep curls
• dumbbell kickbacks
• bench press (with a barbell at the gym, with dumbbells at home)
• standing dumbbell flys (flies?)

For core/back I do:

• leg raises (lying on the floor, legs straight and together, and I lift them so my body is a 90-degree angle)
• hanging leg raises (at the gym; I have nowhere to do them at home)
• a back machine at the gym
• a floor back extension (lie on the floor, face down, and lift upper body off the ground as far as possible)

I don’t do all of these each time; I usually pick three exercises to do, and I do three sets of them. For things that are done with heavy weights, such as a deadlift, I do three sets of six. But for something like the leg raises, I do three sets of 20.

I know that this is not a professional program, and I know I could be much more muscle-riffic if I had a set program I stuck to, or if I lifted more regularly, or if I lifted longer each time.

But this is what I can manage to faithfully do right now, and I remind myself that any weights I lift are better than no weight lifting at all.

Done is better than perfect!

And progress is more important than perfection.

The equipment I have

A rec center membership

This is not technically equipment but…the girls and I have a family membership to the nearby rec center. It’s very affordable for a family plan when you pay annually, and they have pretty much every kind of workout equipment you could possibly want. 

At home, I have: 

Kettlebells

I initially was just using some lighter plastic kettlebells from Aldi, but now I’m using my heavier metal kettlebells.

Adjustable dumbbells 

I don’t have room here at home for a whole range of dumbbell weights, so I’m happy to have some that are adjustable; you just add or remove end plates to adjust the weight up or down. 

A barbell and some plates

I have a barbell and a bunch of plates for it here at home, but honestly, I end up mostly doing barbell stuff at the gym, because they have a squat rack there.

It’s basically impossible to do a barbell back squat if you don’t have a rack! 

And I also can do a barbell bench press at the gym, since I need some kind of rack for those too. 

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One caveat to finish this up: it is quite possible to hurt yourself if you lift weights with improper form. So, if you have no background in weight lifting, it might be helpful to have a few sessions with a personal trainer. 

I’ve also had a physical therapist assess my form for various movements, like kettlebell swings; I didn’t go to PT for that specifically, but she checked my form while I was there for knee issues. 

There’s a lot of information on the internet about correct weight-lifting form as well, but of course, that’s not quite as effective as having a live person watching you in real time.

Any other questions? Ask away! And if you have tips on this topic, please do share what’s working for you.

P.S. Here’s a post I wrote in 2019 about working out, and that one goes more into the reasons I keep lifting weights, plus a little about my eating philosophy. 

P.P.S. I hope I will be able to figure out how to keep lifting weights while I finish my nursing degree. Physical strength seems like a serious attribute for a nurse!