How much to lift?

How much should you lift?  Good question.  To gain muscle you must work your muscle.  That means if something is really easy and you could literally do hundreds of repetitions, then it's not heavy enough.  Do you want to get stronger?  If so that means building muscle.  I for one love being strong and I love to push and challenge myself.  But, I know that there is a limit to everything so I'm not going to lift crazy amounts of weights. 

Be daring, you can lift much more than you think you can.  But form is so very important in lifting.  You can hurt yourself by lifting heavy and not using good form.  You can also go to the gym and spend hours there doing nothing if you don't lift correctly.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Good form, full range and weight do wonders.  As far as how much weight, that is tough to answer because everyone is different.  Start light, you can always add more weight the next trip to the gym.  Something may feel light to begin with but two days after the gym you may be dying. 

The whole idea around lifting is to get stronger, every day tasks are so much easier when you are strong.  Building muscle is working those muscles; but you build your muscles before you get heavier.  This helps to protect your joints; no muscle and you will get joint damage by lifting heavy.  You must build the muscles around your joints; build them slowly and properly.  Having muscle allows you to do things that others may not, especially as we age.  When I do go heavy, the number of repetitions is way down.  Maybe even one rep is all that I can get out but it is all stepping stones to getting stronger.  Next time I might get two or three out.

Lifting weights will build muscle but, you must eat nutrient rich food as well.  You can spend hours upon hours at the gym lifting and exercising but if you are not fueling your body with the food it needs to build muscle then you are wasting your time.  Plus you are taxing your body and actually doing more bad than good. 

I cannot say enough about building muscle and how it feels when you move.  Just every day life movements are made so much easier when you've got muscle; and I don't mean big giant muscle, just strong muscles.  Day to day movements, going up stairs, hoping out of the back of your truck, climbing a ladder or lifting the end of the sofa can seem literally impossible until you gain muscle, then it's easy peasy.  Go lift.

Dead lifts

Livestrong Youtube

Dead lifts are good.  They are good for strengthening many things; your back, hamstrings, butt and more.  It is one of the things that you can do to help a bad back.  Of course if your back is really bad you will want to visit your Dr. before even considering doing light dead lifts.  Many consider dead lifts as those things that the monster lifters do.  They scream and yell and look like they are about to explode while doing them.  Yes, they do dead lifts but they do crazy weight dead lifts.  You can start doing dead lifts with light weight dumbells and move up if you want, or not. 

I do not do heavy dead lifts; my lower back gives me issues every now and again so I am working my way up.  I doubt that I'll ever get the "heavy" ones because even the light ones give you amazing results. 

Huff Post article on Dead Lifts

Dead lifts are a very natural movement for humans.  Bending over to pick something up is what we use to do all the time.  Now of course there isn't a whole lot of need for this and we spend way too much time sitting down.  Back problems is a big issue because of this lack of bending and strengthening the back.  Right now I am using 35lb dumbells for my dead lifts.  I like dumbells because I can move them around the gym more easily than a barbell.  But I sometime use a barbell if the gym is not too crowded.  You can start out with 5 lb dumbells so that you strengthen and don't hurt your back.  Believe me when I say, your butt will thank you for doing dead lifts. 

I do the straight leg (slighty bent) lifts:

Stand with your legs shoulder width apart or together, I do both.

Grab your dumbells and hold them in front of your legs, straight down.

Bend your legs ever so slightly.

With your back very straight, bend over so the weights just hit the ground but do not rest there.

Start slow, maybe 2 sets of 6 reps. 

Work up to at least 3 sets of 10 reps before moving your weight up. 

This is an amazing way to strengthen your back so that you aren't one of those people with a bad back.  Plus it helps to build those rear end muscles that may have gotten flabby or flat.  Again, you can do this at home with anything.  Kettle bells are great for this.  If you want a badunk, dead lift.

Old fashion push ups and dips

Reaching for my coffee cup this morning I felt it; wow, my lats are sore.  Never under estimate the power of a push up. 

I wasn't in the gym mood yesterday; so I stayed at home and did a small workout.  I wanted to work my upper body.  My first thought was push ups and tricep dips.  First lets talk about push ups.  Yikes, they are much harder than I remembered.  I started with easy girlie (knees on the ground) type push ups to warm up my muscles.  There is a great deal of stress put on your shoulders when you do full on guy style push up so I didn't want to pull anything.  I did 3 sets of 12 (girlie) reps to warm up my arms, chest, back and shoulders.  Then it was on to real push ups; the ones that girls avoid because they are so difficult.

I impressed myself with 3 sets of 10 but it wasn't easy.  Form is important if you are going to benefit from a push up; no droopy middles or laying down in between.  You have to keep rigid; going all the way down and up for a count of one.

WebMd article on push ups

I have decided to put push ups into my regular work outs although they will be saved for doing at home.  I don't want my face that close to the floor at any gym, no matter how clean it is.  After my push ups it was onto tricep dips.  This is an exercise that I do regularly and is great for that trouble (wobbly) spot on us women.

30 day fitness challenge video for tricep dips

This is a good video on how to.

I use the sofa for perfect height at home.  I lift the cushions off of the seat and tada, perfect.  It is higher than a typical stair and perfect for me.  As you get better and better at them you can look for something higher which adds difficultly and builds more strength.

My triceps are feeling fine because that is something I work on very hard.  I do many different movements for my triceps but adding more is never a bad idea.  Dips it is when I'm at home. 

Work those legs... at home

Yep, you can get in a a great leg workout at home.  If you have a set of stairs, you're halfway there.  Start your workout with a little warm-up.  Run up and down your stairs a couple of times.  I only have a half flight so that makes more trips up and down for me.  Now that you've got your blood pumping to your legs; it's time to really work them.  To start out I want you to do one step at a time.  Step up with your right foot and use only that leg to pull you up to the next step and put your left foot down onto the next step.  Now do it all the way up, slowly. 

After a couple of flights of one step; move onto to two steps at a time.  It is amazing how different going up the stairs so slowly and methodically feels.  Feel the burn. Going down, do the same.  Slowly, one step at a time; feel your muscle work to get you down the stairs.  I like to rotate from running down the stairs and taking it one step at a time, slowly.  No need for a StairMaster machine; you can be Master of the Stairs in your own home.  

When you start out, make sure to hang on to the rail so that you have stability.  I don't want anyone falling down the stairs so be careful please.  You want to work up to not hanging on to the rail so you can work out all those muscles that help you keep your balance.  There is a big difference from hanging on and not.  Not is the goal.  Once you've got two steps at a time with no hands; you can move onto some weights.  Of course you want to start very light and build.  You will soon be the Master of the Stairs.  

Next you can move onto an step exercise that sounds easy but is tougher than you'd think.  Bunny hops up, one step at a time with both feet at the same time.  Hang on to the railing doing this at first.  Again, no hands is the goal.  I like to do these between regular workouts or on my day off.  Don't feel like going to the gym?  You don't have to.  

Working out with your dog

Elsa is sure that it is playtime.

I have two blogs; my Lifting for Life and my Just dogs with Sherri one.  Today I covered both topics in one blog.   This morning I decided to skip the gym and workout at home; which meant getting my dogs or dog involved.  Elsa thinks the whole idea of working out is great fun.  Luke on the other hand is more of a spectator; although he occasionally gets off the couch to see what I am doing on the floor.  My girl Tilley who is now gone, use to lay across my chest if I got on the floor to do leg raises.

Trying to force a toss.

When it doesn't work, she tries playing with my gloved hand.

I started my workout with leg raises and moved onto squats and lunges with a 25lb. dumbell.  I wear my gloves when I do any sort of lifting and Elsa thinks that my gloves are pretty great.  She loves to nibble on them and considers it free for all wrestling match time when I don my gloves.  

As soon as I get onto the floor she runs for her ball.  While I am stationary on the floor, she thinks that it is a great time for ball games.  Heck, my hand is right there for the plunking and it has a glove on for extra games.  When I do not respond to her ball placements; that is when the gnawing of my hand begins.  She is sure that my working out is some sort of game and she wants to be involved.

Trying to drop the ball on my face.  I'll sure throw it if she drops it there right?  

Dropped beside me as I do my planks.

Heading up the stairs where Elsa awaits. 

Waiting to attack me. 

Then it was onto the stairs.  I lunge up two steps at a time; again this is pretty great fun as far as Elsa is concerned.  She waits at the top to attack me each time; then runs back down the stairs with me and we do it all over again.  She is great motivation and keeps me laughing through my workout.  She stays with me the whole time I run up and down the stairs, great work out for her too.

Luke watching the shenanigans of Elsa. 

After my "at home" workout, Elsa and I hit the park for a power run and walk.  If you don't want to go to a gym, you don't have to.  With a few pieces of inexpensive equipment, you can work out at home.  The bonus is that you can workout alongside your dog.  

Just dogs with Sherri blog

Lifting-for-Life blog

More about home workouts in the next blog. 

Lift to beat diabetes

Power walking with my fourteen year old guy.  

"I'm borderline diabetic," she said after an annual visit to the Doctor.  Yep, know how many times I've heard this?  A lot.  I was also borderline diabetic; seems to be common as you age and don't move as much.  So what can you do about it?  Are you doomed to become diabetic?  Not if you get on it now.   Strength training, eating clean and moving; all of these help you be a better you.  Of course you need to start with short, light workouts first.  Once you start to build strength, the sky is the limit.  You will not only feel better; you will be better.  

Strength training can help:

• Improve insulin sensitivity
• Improve glucose tolerance
• Help you lose weight
• Lower your risk for heart disease

(Taken from Webmd article)

Schwarzenegger.com article on diabetes and lifting

Nutrientology article on food and exercise with regard to pre-diabetes

Weight training is special for a few reasons in diabetes. For one, it appears to more effective than aerobic exercise in increasing your basal metabolic rate (BMR) [1]. (Taken from a great article on Diabetes and resistance training) 

Can you turn back time?  Article from Webmd 

Lots to read but worth the read if you or someone you love is pre-diabetic.  Lifting does much  more than help make you feel good and look good, it makes you good.  Lift.