New Lifting Routine
When I first started lifting, I had no idea what I was doing. Squatting with a bar on my back and pressing a barbell over my head or chest seemed impossible. Thankfully, I am very fortunate to have an experienced weight lifter living with me who was willing to teach me the basics and help me learn how to lift weights safely and efficiently.
I started lifting because I knew that it was a good partner with keto and Nate kept telling me that it would help me make my hips stronger and less prone to injury (for those that don’t know, my hips were/still kind of are weak as all get out. I regularly messed them up exercising).
Nate wanted to start me off slow and knew that I wanted to be in and out of the gym relatively quickly so he got me started on StrongLifts 5x5. It’s a fantastic beginning lifters program that helps you quickly and safely build up your strength.
I has been doing StrongLifts 5x5 for about 3 months and then I started to feel myself getting bored. I was still lifting, but I wasn’t really paying any attention anymore to form and was starting to not want to go to the gym because I was doing the same old thing every other day.
I talked to Nate about this and he helped me develop a new lifting plan that would work in more assistance lifts to help be build other muscles to help me on my main lifts.
I knew I wanted to keep the big five: deadlift, squat, bench press, overhead press, and barbell row. But I wasn’t super sure what to add in after that. I had a basic idea of what muscles I wanted to work, but nothing really beyond that.
To make it easy, I divided the big five lifts into 4 days. (I wanted to add a lifting day and then one ab day at home to make my total workouts 5 days out of the week). This is what I did for the main lifts:
Monday - Squat
Wednesday - Bench press and barbell row
Friday - Deadlifts
Saturday - Overhead press
Tuesday and Sunday are rest days and Thursday is my at home ab day. This new breakdown allowed me the freedom to add in a more diverse group of exercises and help me develop muscles that would help me be more successful on the main lifts.
I’ve now been doing this new routine for about 3 weeks and oh my gosh I love it! Being able to really focus on one main lift a day has helped me drastically improve my form and become more confident with each main lift. I think that’s mostly due to the fact that I no longer jump from doing squat to bench press or deadlift to overhead press.
I’m also starting to see some serious muscle development too and that’s really cool! To be able to watch my muscles grow and develop has been one of the most rewarding parts of lifting. It is so empowering to feel and see yourself getting physically stronger.
Now don’t get me wrong, StrongLifts 5x5 got me to this point, but I think it says something that I was able to recognize that I wanted a change and change it instead of just quitting. Before I totally would have just quit. Knowing that my health goals have become a real part of my long term goals and life plan is really cool. It shows that I am developing a real mindset change.
I’ve noticed this a few times with food in the last few weeks too. For instance, when I was making desserts with my little sister for Easter I found myself washing all the utensils we used for melted chocolate right away. Four months ago I absolutely would have licked some of that chocolate off. That same weekend my little brother offered me a Malley’s peanut butter egg, I said no thank you. I wasn’t tempted in the least bit.
This is a huge step for me and it’s really awesome to finally apply my health goals to my everyday decisions. Thinking “well...I could have that peanut butter egg and feel like crap tomorrow and get all puffy or I could not have that egg and eat a spoonful of that broccoli and rice mom and Nate made for dinner. I choose the rice.”
Finally choosing my health goals over my cravings is a huge step for me and I am super excited to see where those choices lead me.
188.6 today. Almost cried. Again. 8 pounds away from the lowest weight I remember which was in eighth grade...10.6 pounds from my first long term goal and a healthy BMI. WOO!