Anyone else into weight lifting? I am not a body builder or anything but I try to make it to the gym at least 5 times a week. So I thought I would start a thread and see if anyone has any advice for long term lifting (like the rest of my life long term) and personal experiences with it. I have had a really good past six months and here are some of my personal notes.
Mental notes on things that helped me:
-I have been keeping a note book for the past year. This has helped me stay accountable, record sets/reps, and helps me ensure I am either increasing weight or reps each and every time I go. The last part isn't always possible but I try!
-Setting certain short term and long term goals are great. I am 5' 9" and usually averaged around 160. I decided my long term goal was to get up to 185. I achieved this in two months and was really pleased. My short term goal was to increase weight every other time I did a certain exercise.
Things that I discovered:
-Creatine. This was huge and I am a believer in it now. I did a lot of research on creatine and decided to try it out and I think this is what helped me hit my weight goal. I even tapered off of it to test if the weight would "fall" off and it did not, which was nice. I have never been huge on supplements and usually only used generic whey protein but I am glad I at-least tried one more.
-It is nice to be able to do cardio and lift but at some point one of the two has to take priority. I had to significantly cut the amount of cardio I was doing to maintain the energy and weight I wanted. I am currently at 60 mins a week of running and have found that to be a good balance, especially with my bad knee.
Interested to see what anyone else has to say!