I am about to start using the "Greyskull LP" workout programme. What size weights should I begin with?

July 25, 2012 7:21 AM

I am about to start using the "Greyskull LP" workout programme. What size weights should I begin with? I am a 24 y/o, 5'5", 60kgs male.
posted by FuckingAwesome to health & fitness (6 answers total)

Have you read the links from the thread you linked, or purchased the ebook? Those are good places to start. The Green is good at some things but telling you what weights to use for Greyskull it is not.

At 5'5 and 60 kg I'm assuming you don't have much background in strength training, so you might want to start with a more straightforward protocol like Starting Strength. Either way you're going to have to actually read something (or pay someone so you don't have to).
posted by telegraph at 7:30 AM on July 25, 2012

I just glanced at it but in the first post it says to choose a weight you can do 4 sets of 25 reps on, it looks like.

Sometimes you have to spend a day or two before starting a "program" figuring out how much you can actually lift. Or estimate and increase up or down as you go on the first day.

Programs like starting strength usually have a default (very low) starting weight for warm up exercises (such as the weight of the bar) and you increase that during your warm up to your final work set weight. So you could do that and go up in increments, calling each set a warmup, until it starts to get pretty tough.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:27 AM on July 25, 2012

Three weeks into restarting resistance training after too long off of it, I am getting good results with a graduated approach -- I took a guess at what I could tolerate, and attempted sets using those amounts, always ready to adjust up or down. Keep your ego out of it -- you're not going to benefit from injuring yourself just because you think you "should" be able to shift a certain amount.

There is a wonderful satisfaction to realizing that you can move more weight than you were moving last week. Give it time, it'll come. Generally, I attempt 3 sets of 10-15. If I can get to 15 on each of the three sets, then the next workout, I add 5#.

Good luck, and enjoy yourself!
posted by Infinity_8 at 8:36 AM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

There is an FAQ of sorts deep in the Greyskull LP thread on the strengthvillain forum, which you should read and bookmark. It says:

Starting weights:
Use enough weight so that the last set doesn’t exceed 10-12 reps on the final set of any of the lifts under normal circumstances

It's better to start too light and correct it by making larger jumps at first than to start too high and have to deload early.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:37 AM on July 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

Seconding what ludwig_van said. There's no harm in starting light and focusing on learning the form. You may even be able to go longer without a stall. The same advice applies to practically any beginner program; you'll progress so quickly that your starting weight will become mostly irrelevant within a few months, so make nailing the form your priority.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 2:31 PM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nthing Ludwig_van. In my opinion and experience, it is genuinely difficult to go "too light". It is far, far easier to go too heavy, and when you do that, your form goes to crap, you end up doing weird stuff to finish your sets that ultimately hurts you - or you can't finish it at all - and you also end up stalling/plateauing relatively quickly.

A real lesson for me - as a guy with a similar, if slightly taller/heavier build than you - has been to go lighter than I think. This helps immeasurably with my form, which lessens my chance of injury; it makes my progression steadier and paradoxically feels like more of an accomplishment; and it allows me to perform my reps slowly, completely, accurately, and smoothly. I'm talking weights that are very comfortable for me to one rep.

With a lighter weight, but a better lift, I feel like I'm getting a better, harder workouts, no doubt about it.
posted by smoke at 3:46 PM on July 25, 2012