Ask HN: Do you lift?

I lift 4 days per week (Chest, Arms/Back, and Legs twice). I'm a girl, so I'm trying to build that instagram booty. Basically 3 sets of 12 reps, to failure. Once I can do 12, I increase the weight.

Chest: Incline bench, bench, pectoral flys, shoulder press, lateral raises, tricep dips, crunches, leg raises.

Legs: Squats, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, romanian deadlifts, calves

Back: Barbell rows, cable rows, lat pulldowns, barbell curls, biceps machine, abs machine, leg raises.

Diet-wise, I eat 1800 cals: 189g protein, 160g carbs, 35g fat. Basically I eat the same thing every day, which is a lot of chicken, veges, and protein shakes. I do HIIT 2-3 times per week on rest days in between lifting.

My goal is to get to 19% body fat. I'm at around 22% now so still some way to go. Pretty jealous of guys and your testosterone. I need some more of that for my measly bench press :(

More often than I should, probably. (https://wiki.haskell.org/Lifting)

Yep, picked up boxing and other martial arts along with some HIIT a year ago. Did wonders for Sleep, overall well being, mental clarity, body composition, back pain and self-confidence (In no particular order). Training 5-7 times a week. I am almost 30 now and I regret so much not starting a working out earlier. It had a profound impact on my life and IMHO not working out is inexcusable. Especially your future self will thank you, when your muscles start to degrade.

My strategy and goals are, to quote Eddie Strong “.. I go and I lift big fucking weights”.

My 3-4 day a week workout begins with a compound lift and then more targeted lifts. I hit each muscle group twice in a workout. Benefits of compound lifts include increased testosterone and generally looking like a bad ass.

I work my core during each workout to promote stability and prevent lower back strain. Warmups include 10 yards of high knees, butt kickers, and high kicks.

Day 1: deadlift 5 sets, bent over row 5 sets, barbell shrugs, 5 sets. planks, side planks deficit deadlift 4 sets, cable pull down 4 sets, front and rear deltoid lifts with db 4 sets

Day 2: snatch or cleans 5 sets, bench press 5 sets, overhead press 5 sets stand ups inclined bench press 4 sets, push press 4 sets, kettle bell snatch or clean 4 sets

Day 3: squat 5 sets, close grip bench press 5 sets, barbell curls 5 sets roman chair and side roman chair *leg press 4 sets, tricep kick back 4 sets, hammer curls 4 sets

Diet: Post workout recovery shake, protein in the morning and capping soda to 2 a week

Success Tracking: I am writing a workout logging application that provides analytics (maxes, etc.) based on the workouts you send via text message. I’ll post my email address if anyone is interested in trying it out

I am 55 years old. In my twenties, thirties and early forties I ran a lot and did things like pull-ups push-ups and crunches. The past 10 years have been much more weight lifting.

I currently lift 5 days a week

MWF -- benchpress, leg press, leg curl, seated rows and back extensions

T TH --- pull-ups, leg raises, overhead press, bicep curls, deadlift, dumbbell lateral raises and shoulder shrugs

At times I have been focused on lifting heavy and relatively few reps. Currently I am biased the other way, a lot more volume at lower weight.

Mix in some walking, jogging and "sprinting" for some cardio. At times I have reduced the weight training and bumped up the cardio for several months.

Goals: mix of health, functional strength and looking good

Eating: I have been on intermittent fasting for 4 years. Style is 16:8 with the occasional 20:4 or even 22:2 thrown in. I do not really restrict what I eat, but 90% of days I break my fast around midday with a very large multi-ingredient salad so that I am starting with the healthiest food.

I do not lift, but in order to stay in shape, I trick myself by riding my bike to work everyday, 4-5 days a week. Work is about 2 miles away. So riding there and riding back is 4 miles a day total. I also try to walk around the building at least 2-3 times per shift.

During the summer, I try to swim 2-3 times a week for 20 minutes a day.

As far as my diet goes, I normally only eat once per day, which is a big lunch, followed by a snack or two later on, usually a handful of almonds or almond butter or something like that. My diet is high fat, moderate protein, and low carb. It has helped me maintain a comfortable weight for the past 2 years.

In my best years of working out, I managed to lose over 80 pounds, though I have put back on about 15 pounds again, but I do look more bulk than I did. Truth of the matter is, I am lazy. I have no desire to go to a gym or lift. So I have to do things to make myself work out. I guess I'd rather be coding than working out.

I've never been one for going to a gym (although with life getting busier and busier it's probably about time that it's worth looking at).

However I routinely move gearboxes and engine blocks around my home workshop, lift the car and turn spanners underneath it (trying to crack exhaust manifold studs while laying on your back and only having half a foot's worth of arm room can be an awesome workout on your arms, haha!), take the chainsaw out into the bush and lop up firewood, etc etc, as well as a morning routine of stretches. I try to keep quite active outside of office hours and do tasks which simulate the kinds of workouts people regularly do in gyms to make up for the tremendous amount of sitting I do 9-5.

Obviously I'm not setting targets and able to quantify my fitness from the things I do, however I've successfully staved off the 'programmers belly" for the better part of a decade and a half so far.

Yep, currently 3 strength training days and 3 conditioning days a week.

I have very little real-life need to lift heavy things or run fast, but training to do so gives me time for myself, increases mental fortitude and is actually pretty interesting when you don't just follow a program but try to learn to do your own programming. Plus compared to sitting on my ass 7 days a week, how I feel is just such a day and night difference.

I recently picked up both Tactical Barbell books and recommend them highly. The military theme was a turnoff for me, but the content is solid. It's more of a teach-a-man-to-fish approach to how to be able to train for a wideranging type of fitness without breaking yourself than a just-do-this type of rigid program, and I've been very happy with the results so far.

I do. My routine is a strength day and fun days. Fun days I do whatever I want, but I must do a strength day where I lift "fairly" heavy in deadlifts and overhead presses.

I have no goals. I had, I succeeded and lost my appetite. Just lifting because I like to do so. Diet is a sustainable one. Not going for abs, just try to stay healthy with no gut sticking out.

The keyword in lifting and related stuff is sustainability. Just go for a routine and a diet which is sustainable so you can do it for a long, long time.

Btw, for those who claim they don't have time to train; please read 1- http://baye.com 2- Doug McGuff's - Body by science

This is high intensity training!

5 years here, focused mostly on the back and legs to ensure I don't get a permanent desk posture (and nothing makes me feel more powerful than a set of heavy deadlifts). The first two years I used to go 3-5 times a week, but lately I've settled into 2-3 times a week to simply maintain. No real goals, other than staying sufficiently fit. Trying to eat clean; A mostly vegetarian diet with a free pass for tuna.

My primary activity of choice is trail running - I run ultra marathons (and organize a couple a year too!). I do a mix of body weight and lifting 2-4 times a week as well. We've set up a pretty sweet home gym so I have no excuses - it's between my home office and the kitchen :-)

Diet is moderate carbs, higher protein and fat, but damn I like ice cream.

I am doing DoggCrapp but instead of a defined number of sets and rest intervals I simply blast each exercise for 5 minutes trying to achieve a repetition goal. I also skip the extreme stretching thing.

No diet. No defined frequency, I train when I can, which is not as often as I'd like.

On and off for 10 years. Most of that was really bad form.

A few years ago I got a trainer and decided that I was going to be serious about lifting.

At my best I'm going 5 days a week in the morning when the gym isn't busy.

My split is chest, back, arms, back, legs. The reason I do 2x back is because my back is much weaker than my front.

Naturally I sit at ~185lb (84kg) but I know I can change this if I eat more consistently over a period of 2 months. Ideally I'd like to be at 200lb with 10-12% body fat.

My diet could be cleaned up dramatically. I'm naturally skinny so my biggest hurdle was just eating more. I'll generally eat four decent sized meals (foot long sub as an example) and a protein shake per day.

My current focus is contracting the right muscles for the exercise.

I've done 5 days a week at a gym for a year, but haven't noticed that much difference compared to 2-3 days, which is what I do now. One day with a personal trainer which is what keeps me going. On top of that I'll dance or cycle or snowboard or kayak from time to time.

No specific goals. Everything's just easier if I do some kind of regular exercise.

Relaxed, CSIRO-like diet. Low carb, high protein, but I'm not super strict. It's actually annoying that I can't eat crappy fat food anymore. Eating something like a burger means slight stomach pain at night.

So in general: great improvement from doing "something", but I neither enjoyed nor really benefited from pushing for a lot of effort.

I do most of my weightlifting workout routine at home with dumbbells now, but still do deadlifts and squats at the gym. As soon as I buy my own barbell and weights, I'll stop going to the gym altogether.

I lift on Monday and Thursday, and run at least 2 miles a day Monday through Friday. I used to lift four days a week, but I came to the conclusion that was too much and I needed a little more recovery time. It's working quite well, as I've lost about 20 lbs. over the last three months.

I used to run and lift three times a week, until I picked up Brazilian Jujitsu.

I joined a local club, thinking that my fitness would give me an advantage, and I ended up tapping out several times a minute.

Two years later, I'm now a blue belt, and won silver at a recent competition. I still tap all the time, but I also submit others. I now run twice a week, and lift occasionally.

I highly recommend BJJ to anyone looking for a fun destressing activity. It's essentially playfighting for adults.

Yes, I do [0] strong lifts, I also run 3 times a week.

[0] https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

I lift weights and run both almost every day. However, I would say 40% for fitness and 60% for releasing stress and anger. After I run 5-6 miles, all my built up anger from the day dissipates and then it slowly builds back up and then I need to work out again to release it!

I would be interested in knowing how many other people on HN feel this way.

I switch between workout A and B below training 2 to 3 times a week. If I hit 15 on the last set I add 2.5kg to the bar next time.

I've used a routine like this in the past and succesfully added around 10kg of muscle to my frame. I'm getting back into it again after a back issue, so I wanted to get strong again.

Workout A

---------

Bench Press 2 X 10, 1 x 10+

Squats 2 X 10, 1 x 10+

Row Machine 2 X 10, 1 x 10+

Barbell Curl 2 X 10-15

Workout B

---------

Overhead Press 2 X 10, 1 x 10+

Deadlift 1 x 5+

Chin Ups 3 X AMRAP

Parallel Bar Dips 2 X 10, 1x 10+

Started doing lifting since pre tim ferris 4 hour book when i was 30 and 155 pounds. 3x week simple bench squat dead with cardio warmup 5x5 and never more than 30 min in gym. Has worked well for me for 5 years added 25 pounds muscle and way better than running/ cardio in every way

I lift 3 days a week and follow a routine based on this -> https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/the-best-3-day-plan-wor...

Yes. Started with Stronglifts 5x5, since it didn't have power cleans like SS does.

3x a week split into chest, legs and back. Main goal is to increase in size (done that) so soon I'll start cutting and reduce my body fat %

i train brazilian jiu jitsu 4-5x a week. most of Mon-Thurs evening for classes, then sometimes an open mat session on the weekend.

when i started the goal was weight management, as i was getting tubby as i was getting older. that part worked. now (9 years later), it is for fun.

Yep. I exercise with my brain every day, all day.

Been lifting off and on for 15 years. Try to go 5 days a week. Rotating upper body, lower body, core + cardio.

Eat pretty well. Supplement protein shakes with minerals. Sea salt, oils (coconut, flax, hemp), various vitamins.

6'2" ~220lbs. Ideally would get to around 235lbs.