The Barbelles Society: Ladies Who Lift

I know this is probably useless without videos but I'll try anyway. A guy at the gym stopped me during deadlifts and said that I was pulling with my lower back. Although I'm not entirely sure how you pull with your lower back did he mean engaing your lower back? He also said something about needing to bring my hips much lower, although I thought anyway lower and it would be similar to a squat? Again useless without videos but I'm re-watching Rippetoes tutorial on the deadlift and I just wanted some thoughts really.

I know exactly what he means and it is common.

What will be happening is your hips are coming up but without the bar breaking off the floor, rather your legs almost straighten then your back rounds to lift the weight, which thrusts out the lower back.

Hips are not as low as the squat at the start of a deadlift, but leg drive should initiate the lift - for every inch your hips rise the bar should rise if you catch my drift.

This is a pretty good pic of what I mean, as the hips rise so does the bar



where as here you see the back is rounded, thus lifting using the lower back


if you look at Mr Schwarzenegger here you note he is keeping his spine 'neutral'


So basically drive with your legs, the moment the bar clears your knees fire your hips forward as if shagging the bar to complete the lift.

I hope you don't mind me mentioning something which has really helped me (and by helped I mean make 85kg which previously scared me feel like almost nothing!)
Basically I was keeping my hips too low in the start position, causing me to waste loads of energy at the start of the lift and risking having my back rounded, like in the bad pics Matt posted.
I watched a few things and it really helped me to think about pulling the bar backwards rather than straight up! Also to really lock in my lower back arch (meaning your hips will be in the right position).

Hope this helps, sorry if it's annoying

I've had comments when lifting tbf, mainly when I started, people kept telling me I should be a cardio bunny and my body would look better that way.

Don't get so many comments now I can lift double my bodyweight (admittedly not much, I weigh just under 50kg).

I've had comments when lifting tbf, mainly when I started, people kept telling me I should be a cardio bunny and my body would look better that way.

Don't get so many comments now I can lift double my bodyweight (admittedly not much, I weigh just under 50kg).

These guys are simply as Smack pointed out the wanna be gangster types. I have training with several women including two world champions and they workout and encourage in the same way.

I also get looks and get watched from a lot of guys at the gym, mainly as myself and the group i train with are usually lifting 20 x more than the staring dickheads can.

I wouldn't recommended a swiss ball though fran, the 'core' benefits are nothing like that from squats, overhead press and deadlifts.

But surely its better than nothing? As I said, the weights area is pretty much full and I can't stand just running on the treadmill for endless amounts of time waiting for them to leave.

(I do actually quite like the treadmill Nice warmup)

The guys at our uni gym are quite nice, besides the usual guy-gossiping and hovering around doing nothing (but they usually are willing to share or give up their bars/spots if they aren't doing anything productive, when I ask them). I've had some guys staring at my deadlifting and squatting, but nothing too bad. Besides me and my friend, I've only seen a few girls doing biceps curls, goblet squats and stuff like that with light dumbbells.

I think it's just a question of developing a proper attitude; you have the right to be there using the weights or other machinery, to do your workout and then get out. If they start making stupid comments, you should just ignore them, stare at them scornfully as if they were dog ****, or pay back in kind by criticising their lifting (especially if they're the kind that can curl a lot, but couldn't deadlift to save their lives). No one's been stupid enough to insult me, so I haven't had a chance to rip into anyone yet
It helps when you're confident in what you do; even though I'm quite a confident person, I always hesitate a bit before trying a new lift (for example I only tried benching for the first time, when my friend was there to spot and the gym was quite empty). But otherwise I come in, mind my own business, work through my lifts and then leave.

And fran, if you can take some of the weights with you to another area, do that, but don't bother with the swiss ball. For example just work on goblet squats and modified deadlifts, shoulder press etc. with the dumbbell until you feel comfortable enough to go back to the proper weights area and work with an empty barbell.

Also probably found myself a training partner. He used to be quite big apparently, but he's been cutting down, and recently joined our boxing gym for conditioning, while still doing strength training at our uni gym. Can now maybe try to get my squats heavier, since he can spot for me (the other friend mentioned before is way too small to spot for heavy stuff).

Hmm have to give up on that idea There is no where else in the gym I can really get away with doing weights unless I was on a swiss ball anyway, and I can't really sit on the floor... I'm not sure I could get away with doing anything proper elsewhere in the gym cos it would have to be in the yoga mat section thing. Oh well, back to the running machine for me.

Do you have any friends you could cajole into training with you, at least for a few times, before you can start working out on your own? Or maybe listen to music while lifting and completely ignore all the other people there? It's not fair that you can't workout the way you want to because of a few idiots If I could I would come to train with you and take care of those guys

Nah I don't know anyone else who goes to the gym really, except my exhousemate but I never see him and I don't think he goes very regularly.

Its my own fault really, I just don't have the confidence for stuff like this. I'll just remain in this thread and dream looking at you all chatting about it

But in a few months time you could be looking at YOUR progress rather than other peoples.

Please don't let a bunch of guys govern what you do. You only need to find that confidence once - try going when you're angry about something, it does wonders for confidence!! - to walk up while they're lounging around and ask if you can use the space while they're not. Have a lift in mind - read up plenty before you go so you have a really good idea of how to do it, something fairly simple will be good to start with - and just do a few sets while they look on wondering why they were wasting time standing about. It is daunting at first, and it's always difficult to find confidence when you feel like a novice but you'll feel so much better after you've done your first set. And I'll leave it to you to find out how good it feels when you actually start noticing a difference.

I guess, but like I said i just don't think I have the confidence. I'm trying to spend time on here so I can read up and know as much as I can but there is a lot to understand. I've been listening in on all of you for about a month now :/ I'm still hoping for a day when there is no one in there so I can try something. I just don't really have any confidence especially in a place where I know people will be looking and judging.

Thanks for your advice though guys, hopefully one day I'll be able to do cool things like this.