Lifting: What's the Point?

If there's one trendy motto that I am obsessed with, it's "strong is the new skinny". I've recently seen this quote pop up numerous times, like at my gym or on Pinterest and such. I, as some of you may know, fully support girl empowerment through lifting weights, and I am a firm believer that in this day and age, strong is the new skinny. After my post on girls that lift (click right here if you haven't seen it), I got a lot of questions about good sources to use for workouts and where to begin: why lift? Well, I'll tell ya why.
Ladies (and...gentlemen who read this), pick up some dumbbells, 'cuz this is about to get heavy (so punny).

5 strong women - all of which are beautiful

How? Why? When? Where? These may be questions you're pondering as you skim through this, thinking that you would love to try strength-training but you don't know how to start or you don't think you have time. Well, listen up here, kiddos: YOU HAVE TIME. I am a full-time high school student, I have 2 internships, and a part-time job (even though it happens to be at a gym...), and I still manage to squeeze in my daily workouts, 7 days a week. So stop convincing yourself that you can't, and just hear me out on this. Step 1: Try it.

Step 2: Figure out how you're going to use that time that you just made, thanks to me. Do you have 40 minutes at home to do a workout? Can you go to the gym for a couple hours every night? For me, I've built my schedule to actually include my workouts; this means that if anyone ever needs me, they know they can find me at the gym, Monday-Friday, at any time between 4-6pm, because that's when my workouts are. Once you make this time, realize that 1) you now have dedicated yourself to exercising during that time and 2) you are going to utilize this time with a GOOD workout because YOU deserve it.
There. You've completed step 2.

a photo of my own wonderful home (aka the gym)

Now for the hardest part - how? Where do you start? Why does this even matter? Because, like I've said before, doing hours of cardio will not help you; in fact, it can harm you. If you lose a lot of weight from doing cardio, which is awesome & good for you, you become what we fitness junkie's like to call "skinny fat", meaning that you're slim, but your muscle mass is minimal. Although this is a perfectly fine and healthy body type to have, many people, especially girls, will have body dismorphia and end up thinking they need to be even skinnier, which is the main catalyst for eating disorders. Muscles are hot.

Think about your goals, and make them correspond with your time frame for workouts and what you have access to. For me, all of my workouts happen in the gym (#1 since I work there and #2 since I have been going there for 2+ years), but I know how obnoxiously expensive gyms can be, so if you have to stick with home exercises, that’s perfectly fine. However, my workouts/recommendations for workouts will be gym-oriented, since that’s all I really know!! There are trillions of fantabulous websites and DVD’s that can help you stay in shape, so don’t fret. I’m just staying true to what I know J

prime example of what i'm about to say 

So here’s the main point of this post: much too often, I see kids my age come into the gym and immediately jump right into some bicep curls with 50’s and then after 6 sets of whatever, go onto some 300 pound squats. THIS. This is what hurts me to watch. It’s not only kids my age, either. Many adults don’t even know how to properly plan a workout; they just do whatever they feel like doing that day in the gym, and then wonder why a month later they’re not seeing results. It’s all about consistency. First of all (mainly aimed at boys 16-25), doing bicep curls EVERY single day will not make you Arnold Schwarzenegger. In fact, you’re actually tearing the muscle fibers every time you do that curl, so you need time to recover. This is the same for each muscle in our bodies. To give you some perspective, here’s what my typical week looks like in terms of a “split”, or what body parts I do on which days:

Monday – chest & triceps

Tuesday – back & biceps

Wednesday – shoulders

Thursday – legs/glutes

Friday – off

Saturday – chest & triceps

Sunday – back & biceps

Monday – shoulders

Tuesday – legs/glutes

and so on.

Now, let me just say, it took me at least a month to adjust to this type of schedule. The idea of only working my legs once or twice a week killed me, because I, like most beginners, would work them every other day. I’d have an upper body day and a lower body day, and this is why my body hated me for so long. However, I’ve seen more progress in my body than ever before, and I’ve realized how well this “split” works for me; by isolating these muscle groups so infrequently, I am sore for at least 2 days afterwards, with at least 3 days of rest to recover. BAM. It’s simple. I also love my split because I don’t have to squeeze an entire upper body workout into 2 hours. With this, I am done with strength after an hour!

You want to see results? Then aim for them.

*Disclaimer: I am NOT suggesting that everyone creates a split like this; this is what I have found to work for me, and by research in science, it is very good for muscle recovery and development. I fully support total-body workouts, just a few exercises per muscle group, or whatever may be necessary.

So, once you have created a split or have found how to logically plan your workouts, the last step is to just write everything out. Don’t go into the gym not knowing what you’ll be doing that day. Even if it’s shoulder day, what will you be doing for exercises? Although it’s not necessary to do, it helps me tremendously if I write out everything I’ll be doing that day instead of just winging it in the gym. And NO, I don’t just have all of these exercises in my head; a lot of them stem from previous workouts with trainers, or from my favorite source, BodyBuilding.com : literally lists upon lists of phenomenal exercises for EVERYONE to try. They even give proper form tips, which is especially important for beginners since we don't want to actually look like amateurs, right? ;)

I hope that this answers a few questions that I have received! Like I’ve said, I am no expert on this nor am I certified to say I’m knowledgeable in this area. Everything I’ve learned has come from research and experience of my own. I do plan on creating some workout lists in the near future from some of my best lifting sessions, so you can see some examples. If there’s one thing I encourage you to do, it’s to try. Just give strength training a shot. Muscles are fabulous. Don’t ignore them.

I’ll be back soon.

-Lynds