Ye gods. The time is upon me where years of rowing crew no longer pay dividends and I now have to work out to stay in shape. Boohoo! Let me preface that by saying I have always done something of a cardiovascular nature (no, no THAT) on a daily basis...but the weight stuff was not something I touched. When I rowed Crew, it was a joke that my arms were the weakest. I don't have much flesh there at all so trying to build muscle was hard. Really hard (hence sweeping rather than sculling)...but I have long powerful legs that made up the difference.
In the gym, I find the leg press relatively workable. I lift about 120kg in sets of 8. I don't know the names of all the equipment but whilst I can work the arm weights where you pull the weight down behind you on a pulley (whilst sitting) I can only manage 40kg. On the one where you push the weights forwards with your arms I can only manage 25kg 
Pathetic isn't it? And I struggle at that.
The bloody abs machine kills me though. I thought I had broken my abs yesterday lol. WTF? That was NOT my finest hour.
What weights do you struggle with in the gym...or what equipment do you hate the most there? Also, for the yoga/pilates lovers, as well as creating a strong core, do you also just rely on those classes for keeping toned? I have never taken a yoga or pilates class and should..if for no other reason than building my core. I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on either/both....
Cheers!
C x
Originally Posted by Camille
Camille, this will be an unusual answer for a guy, but I struggle most with bench and shoulder press movements; the problem is a sticking point in my range of motion for those particular exercises. You didn't specifically ask for it, but I will offer the following thoughts with respect to weight training:
(1) London is absolutely correct with respect to using squats and lunges as the foundation for working your glutes. Find someone who can teach you how to perform a straight-legged deadlift (also known, with slight variation, as a Romanian deadlift) and that will further help to shape and firm your derriere, as well as your hamstrings and lower back, which, collectively, comprise the all important "posterior chain."
(2) If you have't been weight training for long, don't lament the amount of weight you can handle per se. Use a weight for which you can perform the desired number of repetitions but one which you can truly feel in the targeted muscle groups.
(3) If I understand you correctly, you were a former competitive athlete, so you will be far less prone to do this, but don't succumb to the "I'll get too muscular if I lift heavy" train of thought adopted by so many women. Barring pharmaceutical assistance, you probably don't have the hormonal profile to do so without years of hard, consistant training. Muscle adds shape and functional capability to the human body and, in my humble opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than an athletic female physique.
(4) For the purposes of avoiding strength imbalances and reducing injury risk, think of muscles as working together as antagonistic pairs. For example, the biceps functions to bend the elbow while the triceps elongates; the triceps straightens the elbow as the biceps relaxes.
(5) With respect to ab training, one movement that I particularly love is called a cable or pulley crunch. Ask one of the trainers at your gym to show you how to do this one. Since the lower back muscles (spinal erectors) work in opposition to the rectus abdominus (the proverbial six-pack), I would highly recommend an exercise commonly called "hyperextensions" for the lower back. Again, ask one of the trainers at your gym to show you how to do this one.
(6) If you truly want to get the best "bang for your buck," whether it be for the purposes of building muscle, burning fat or both, emphasize the heavy multi-joint exercises such as bench and shoulder presses, rowing movements, chins/pullups and deadlifts for the back, and, as previously noted, squats or leg presses for the legs.
I hope that this has been of some help. My undergraduate degree was in wellness & fitness, so I always enjoy discussing exercise protocols.
)))
I see a Kenny Chesney concert in our future lol.