Low Weight, High Reps

So, I know the title of this thread would get a lot of attention, which is what I'm looking for actually... so hear me out!

I purchased the book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" a while ago, and have finally joined a gym (a week ago) and want to start following the work-out plans in this NROLFW book...

Soooo... I'm at the gym tonight, and I'm doing some lifting. As I was leaving the gym, one of the "trainers" asked me how my workout was, etc. I'm new, and they "seem" to care that I joined. By the way, it's a wonderful gym. They've got everything you could possibly want. A gigantic free weight section, classes that are included, strength-training circuit machines, ellipticals, treadmills, bikes, etc etc etc etc. They've even got a sauna and a private "womens only" workout room upstairs. Pretty sweet.

ANYWHO. Back on track - I'm leaving and this chick trainer asks me how my workout was.. I tell her good and that I'm already feeling it from doing the lifting. So, she then proceeds to tell me that I need to really only stick with the cardio, and keep the weight lifting light and very repetitious. I wanted to choke her. I was so freaking mad when I left. Is it wrong to have been that upset?

I just don't get it... these "trainers"... where do some of them get their credentials!!! Low weight, high reps?! Are you KIDDING ME??!?!?!?!?!

Anyway - Other than this thread being a total rant, I need some opinions on how you all would handle that... I just nodded and left after she said that, because me being "new" to this gym and all, I didn't feel it was my place to argue w/her, but why are people still telling other people this?!

sometimes, i just tell people that I want to get big and bulky. at least then they can't argue that i'm doing the right thing to meet my goals.

Just tell the trainer not to worry, that you'll fit in the high reps/low weights while you jog home. That's a great book and routine btw.

How I would "handle" that?  She's entitled to her opinion same as anyone else and like most people on most things, her opinion is not based on fact or up to date research, which is a pity, given her profession and the number of women she will train and provide with inaccurate information.  At best, you might have said to her, "I'm trying to follow the New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women workout routine, have you heard of it?"...and start a converstion from there.  You never know, maybe she just doesn't know.  At worst, smile and nod, smile and nod...

I am on my way to becoming a trainer. I have a few more months until I take my NASM exam. This basically means two more months of memorizing useless facts like how many ACL knee injuries there are per year or what the percentage of obese Americans is. The NASM test is basically just a way to test your memorization skills and the funny thing is that it's one of the most sought after certs there is for trainers.

Since I already have a lot of knowledge/experience with exercise and nutrition, I have been training a few people off the books here and there. People at the gym I work at, always come up and ask for my help with exercises, nutrition, etc.. I love helping people which is why I want to become a trainer. However, it starts to get annoying when these people are paying for sessions with trainers, and then expect me to provide them with help for free when they aren't getting the results they want. The trainers at my gym are pretty much the same (high reps, a lot of cardio, etc..) So I started telling these people that I would train them for half of what they were paying off the books.

Everyone I have trained that I have come across were either hooked on cardio with no real lifting experience, or the people who have lifted do a lot of isolation exercises with high reps/light weight. Aside from bench press, they never did any other type of free weight compound exercise. None of the people have been following very good nutrition plans either. So I preach the principles of Starting Strength - full body workouts relying on compound exercises using heavy weight/low reps along with HIIT for cardio and meal plans that I help them come up with. I make sure to show them proper form on all exercises (especially squat because a lot of people don't even go to parallel let alone below it). The people I have trained have had a blast and are getting great results with it. The two things they especially like are - HIIT because they no longer have to do cardio for 45-60 minutes a day, and being done with a full workout in less than an hour. So many people spend like two plus hours in the gym.

So I would love to work at your gym turning more and more people on to things that actually work. Unfortunately, most gyms won't hire me until I have that piece of paper saying I am certified, even though I know more than a lot of the trainers I have come across.

thanks for your post, vyperman. It just amazes me how these trainers (who are supposed to be training people to be fit/healthy/etc) don't seem to know much... It just annoys me, I guess, especially since starting to read the NROLW book... Thanks for your insight. I'd love for you to work at my gym too! I understand cardio is important for health, etc, but doing cardio alone won't give you a great toned body, will it??

I work out at the local comm college and they recently hired a personal trainer as weight room attendant.  One night I was lifting and she was amazed I was lifting so heavy - I told her about my NROL4W routine/ book and now she is reading it on Tues and Thursdays the night I am in aerobic class.  She likes it and said she is learning.  

I will be done with that book next week, and am donating it to the lttle library they have going in the gym.  My book is totally used and abused and falling apart but anything to help others.

Personally I think I would have told that trainer that you have a program that proves the low weight high reps philosphy is bull hockey and to take a hike.  Tell her if cardio only and the low weight stuff had worked for you in the past you wouldn't look like you do now.  I also like the suggestion telling her that you want to be big and bulky and maybe tell her you want to compete in weightlfting competitions etc... that might shut her up hehehe

Original Post by fatanr11:

thanks for your post, vyperman. It just amazes me how these trainers (who are supposed to be training people to be fit/healthy/etc) don't seem to know much... It just annoys me, I guess, especially since starting to read the NROLW book... Thanks for your insight. I'd love for you to work at my gym too! I understand cardio is important for health, etc, but doing cardio alone won't give you a great toned body, will it??

The thing about cardio is that it is important. However, it is only one component of fitness that people put too much emphasis on. Starting in the 90's, the "cardio craze" took over and a lot of people began to focus more on cardio training than strength training. It takes a balance of both worlds along with nutrition to see results. You need strength training to build muscle to achieve a faster metabolic rate. Cardio strengthens heart/lungs and has other benefits to it. However, nothing will give you a full body transformation like strength training. I am really glad that a book like NROLFW exists to fight against the misconception that only men should lift weights/use heavier reps.

No problem on the post. I am glad that I was finally able to vent a bit of my own frustration and express my enthusiasm a bit about the training I have done with people so far. It is funny because my mom has me training her as well. Three days a week, I work with her pro bono. She says it is payback for all the years she took care of me..LOL She suffers from osteoporosis ( where bone muscle density is reduced) and she wanted to know if there was a way to help deal with the condition. I told her the best way to try and combat the condition was with strength training. Now here is a woman who has never lifted a single weight in her life. The only exercise she got was walking 5 days a week. So I had her due all compound exercises (bench, squat, deadlift, standing military, barbel row) along with a few other exercises. When she started, she couldn't even do the 15 pound bar for one rep on bench press. Now she is doing the 45 pound olympic bar for 6 reps, deadlifting 75 pounds for 5 reps, and doing 20 rep squats with 45 pounds. All her lifts have gone up considerably in less than two months, and when she started she really couldn't lift anything.

Original Post by vyperman7:

The thing about cardio is that it is important. However, it is only one component of fitness that people put too much emphasis on. Starting in the 90's, the "cardio craze" took over and a lot of people began to focus more on cardio training than strength training.

 I find it interesting how this even has an impact on the way gyms are designed and built these days.  You have to often walk through the huge cardio section to get to the small free weights sections hidden at the back.

You'll also notice gym inductions are heavily focused on the high tec treadmills, elliptical machines and bikes.  Then you're suddenly rushed through the free weights section before you catch something nasty!

Very comical!

vyperman... I have a quick question for you.  I am doing a lot of compound lifting, how long should I be at it before I up my weights?  Thanks.

Original Post by littlesimongeorge:

You'll also notice gym inductions are heavily focused on the high tec treadmills, elliptical machines and bikes.  Then you're suddenly rushed through the free weights section before you catch something nasty!

 How true that is!!!!!!!!! When I first joined this gym (which by the way, has a bigger free weight/strength-training machine area than cardio equipment - thank GOD!)... but when I first joined, I was shown ALL the cardio equipment, how it works, how you can put the ellipticals on "fat burn" mode, etc. Then, when it came to the free weight section and weight machine section, she hastingly rushed me past it, and said "well thats where the men workout". WTH!! She didn't show me the different weights, etc. I had to ask to be shown the strength-training machines... oh well. I'm just thrilled that this gym is literally 5 minutes away from my house and is so well equipped! Thank you Energy Fitness! LOL

Yeah its funny except that so many people have wasted their time by listening to this crap. I was kind of one of them, I knew the importance of lifting from a teenager from the Firm workouts but there still wasn't enough emphasis. And I would build muscle only to cardio & diet it off. I'm just so peeved that I could've been so much better a few years ago.

Original Post by lessofanita:

vyperman... I have a quick question for you.  I am doing a lot of compound lifting, how long should I be at it before I up my weights?  Thanks.

You want to up the weight when you can complete all the sets you are doing with good form on any given exercise. For example - If you were doing bench press for 3 sets of 6 @ 100 pounds, and you completed all three sets with good form, you would use 105 pounds the next time you did the exercise. Using small five pound increases upon completion of the sets with good form is a good way to ensure steady progress and avoid adaptation. One thing I recommend to everyone is that you keep a workout journal. For every workout, write down each exercise, the weight used, and the amount of reps for each set. This makes it easy to keep track of progress and saves time when planning future workouts.

The rep scheme that I use, and tell my clients to use is what they can do for 5 reps. Five reps helps to build strength, which in turn helps to build more muscle. This works out to be about 80-85% of your one rep max. However, I know that others prefer to keep the rep range a bit higher with 8-12 reps. In my opinion though, if you are doing over 8 reps, it is too light. The only time I will ever do high reps is on squats (high reps work well for legs) and on bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and dips. However, all weight lifting I do is done with 3-6 reps.

actually vperman it was in the 80's that aerobics "came to be THE exercise"  Can't you see Olivia Newton John singing "Lets get physical"??!!! 

I'm one week shy of completing the NROL4W and just finished reading NROL and will be doing the "big boy" workouts next week.  I found it fascinating in one section he said that an afterburn from a good weight lifting workout can burn calories up to 2 days  WOW -- where as aerobic/ cardio will only give you the short afterburn.  Can you imagine how much time we could save each week just by doing an hour of hard lifting vs "treading" along on the wheels in the so called fat burn zone for hours on end with nothing to show for it? 

I love my step aerobics class and won't stop doing it.  I love lifting weights and doing the intervals afterwards but will say I've 'Seen" the best results from weight lifting- I can see my muscles have shape and definition just waiting under the fat layers.  I've got to work on my eating now so I can show them off to others as well.

Also want to add that several years ago when I weighed this much I was wearing clothes so much larger -- muscle truly does take up less space than fat and I can see it every day.

Original Post by dbackerfan:

actually vperman it was in the 80's that aerobics "came to be THE exercise"  Can't you see Olivia Newton John singing "Lets get physical"??!!! 

I'm one week shy of completing the NROL4W and just finished reading NROL and will be doing the "big boy" workouts next week. 

me jealous. stupid shoulder/bicep.

oh & thanks, i'll now have that song in my head when im off to the gym (to do lifting & intervals tho). altho i would have to say olivia's song would've been more about calisthenics.

Correction: That wanker Kenneth Cooper published his first book extolling the virtues of the kind of endurance exercise he found fun and trash-talking strength training (+ calisthenics) in 1968, coinciding with Bill Bowerman starting to popularize jogging in 1966-67. Plus Jim Fixx's preaching the virtues of running for health and longevity in the seventies and spreading misinformation about how lifting heavy was bad for you.

 Cooper thought that more cardiovascular exercise was always good for you and that there was no limit to how much endurance training you could to and stay healthy.

 Jim Fixx dropping dead of a heart attack while out running at age 54 made Cooper re-evaluate his data( I'm sure several of Cooper's contemporaries and friends also suffering Fixx's fate had something to do with it) to revise his recommendation drastically downward and reevaluate his stance on strength training to something more resembling what I consider sane; he still over-emphasises endurance traiing but he now at least recommends that everyone over the age of 40 should strength train at least twice a week.

 Personally, I'm still going with "age 6" as the lower limit, and 3 times a week as the recommended minimum frequency; 2xweekly is only barely enough for almost maintaining.

 But Cooper's change of heart hasn't been publicized widely 'cause - well, Cooper doesn't seem to be eager to admit that he was wrong in his recommendations for the better part of three decades and he's shortened the lives of millions of people who believed in him and did harmful amounts of endurance training while not doing enough strength training.

I'm one of those people that advocate incorporating both into your wrkout training.

I can't stress enough to my older clients [over 40] how impt strength training is for them - since many of them are skeerid of it and/or believe all they need to do is jump around on a step for an hour a day. Women, in partic. have a much lesser chance of getting osteoporosis when they incorporate strength training into their workout rountine.

By the way... Has anyone seen/ talked to Spirochette lately??? I miss her!

Original Post by fatanr11:

By the way... Has anyone seen/ talked to Spirochette lately??? I miss her!

She pops on ever so often, but not nearly enough.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by fatanr11:

By the way... Has anyone seen/ talked to Spirochette lately??? I miss her!

She pops on ever so often, but not nearly enough.

 haha seriously! Spirochete is one of the people that made me want to start weight lifting.

Oh, and I have a theory about gyms. I think they want you to be fat. They want you to lose just enough weight to think "hot damn! I'm losing weight!", but they don't want you to ever meet that goal you have in your brain because then you might stop giving them your money, because you'll have figured out how to do it on your own without paying for fancy personal trainers and whatnot.

I decided this today when they had a special zumba class at the gym where I work. After the class they gave out free muffins. I mean seriously? These people are trying to lose weight and you're tempting them with muffins?

Original Post by danaofdoom:

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by fatanr11:

By the way... Has anyone seen/ talked to Spirochette lately??? I miss her!

She pops on ever so often, but not nearly enough.

 haha seriously! Spirochete is one of the people that made me want to start weight lifting.

Oh, and I have a theory about gyms. I think they want you to be fat. They want you to lose just enough weight to think "hot damn! I'm losing weight!", but they don't want you to ever meet that goal you have in your brain because then you might stop giving them your money, because you'll have figured out how to do it on your own without paying for fancy personal trainers and whatnot.

I decided this today when they had a special zumba class at the gym where I work. After the class they gave out free muffins. I mean seriously? These people are trying to lose weight and you're tempting them with muffins?

 

i dont pay for personal trainers at my gym, but ye workout-gods if i could have a home gym i would give a virgin sacrifice.