Lifting Weights–A Guide for Real Women, Part 3

The following is part 3 of a 3 part series on lifting weights for beginners by guest blogger, Maria Gajewski. She has gone from a weakling to squatting 65 lbs (30 kilos) all without looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You can find her blogging about personal and organizational change at Never the Same River Twice

Part 1 | Part 2

Now that you’ve discovered the joys of pumping iron and worked your way through a Beginner’s Routine, you must be interested in exploring weightlifting further! Unfortunately, the weightlifting world is very male-dominated and results in articles like, Get Huge Biceps by Employing Hypertrophy Progressions and EFA Stacks!!! I don’t know what that means, and you probably don’t care to find out. The good news is that there are some sites that talk about weights and weight training in a friendly, no chemistry degree needed way. Here are some of the best.

Stumptuous
Mistress Krista runs a great site dedicated to women and weight training. She covers nutrition, exercise form, routine building, and a whole lot more. Especially helpful to a beginner is her From Dork to Diva series which shows the proper form for a lot of foundational exercises.

Weight Training 101
This About.com article bundles a lot of information into a small package. Like all About pages, it contains a lot of cross-links to related articles that will help you find exercises that are right for your fitness level.

Beginner Dumbell Workout Routine
This article gives a once a week routine, complete with illustrations for the recommended exercise. The entire Building Muscle 101 site is pretty good, even though it lacks female models.

Abs Diet for Women Forum
Okay, it’s hard to believe, but Men’s Health is a pretty good site for women’s weightlifting. In particular, I really like the Abs Diet and have found the Abs Diet for Women forum quite helpful. The diet combines eating 5-6 times per day with circuit training. I’ve been using a modified version of the diet for quite a while now and am happy with the results.

This is far from a comprehensive list of resources. If you know of sites that have been helpful to you, please share with others in the comments.

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Leigh Sundstrom has written 270 post on Thats Noice.

Post by Me...Leigh. Mum, geek and lover of all things noice...and nom Check out my other sites Blog Chicks

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