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Comment by datavirtue | Hacker News Reader

Not with weight on their back. You should seek professional advice for weight training. I learned that trainers don't even let people touch a bar for a year as they repair and strengthen their core. It's all body weight and PVC pipes to develop form.

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Not trying to argue with you, but that sounds more like a rehab programme than a programme designed for someone who is fully able and just wants to start resistance training. The bar is generally a fine starting point for most people but smaller dumbbells could also be used if the bar was too heavy. Also, you should be squatting in a cage with safeties, which mitigates a lot of the risk when squatting. It absolutely should not take a healthy abled person a year to start squatting 20kg.

if your trainers aren't letting you touch weights for a year you need better trainers. form is important but perfect is the enemy of good enough. if you try and be absolutely perfect before progressing at all you'll never move an inch.

Unless you are elderly or disabled in some kind of way, if you can't survive putting a bar on your back and squatting, you are a weak (physically) human. I'm not joking.

I'm a man and know more about mens standards, but if you can't back squat at least 1x your bodyweight you are probably pretty weak. Similar for deadlift. And these are just bare minimums. Most humans are FAR more capable than this. Maybe just multiply these by 0.5 for a women just based on genetic strength differences.

You can start with the bar if you want, you will eventually learn through experience based on your body your form for squatting. And the internet as well as being able to record yourself are readily available for practically everyone. Given that you can definitely learn the basics of form without necessary needing a trainer.

These threads are always insane. You can pick up a bar the first day you step into a gym. The body is an adaptation machine. Apply stress. Adapt. Repeat.

A trainer spending a year "strengthening your core" is called theft.

> Not with weight on their back.

Yeah, people do worse in real life. They pick up stuff of varying weights all the time at odd angles.

I would say that weights that approach lifting levels are rare. Most stuff that weights a lot becomes too unwieldy to lift. Anything above that tends to be something you carry with multiple people.

Also, I would say that your grip is going to be a bigger liability in those situations.

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