need advice from the weight lifter chicks

So I really gotta face the music and do some kind of exercise. Really all my life have never found any l like much except downhill  skiiing and can't do that regularly. But years ago I used to do weights at a fancy health club in another city. I belong to Curves and its ok, but like everything else, i get sick of it. And can't seem to get my heart rate up and think its not hard enough to build me some muscle mass which i need. So I am going to check out other health clubs that maybe have nautilus or other better machines. But here is the rub. I have pain in my hands alot due to a weird medical condition and cannot grip free weights without pain and agrivating the hand problem. And I just got over one screwed up shoulder but now the other one is acting up. So the question is how can I do some useful work with weights and get some minimal upper body strength with these hand and shoulder issues?  any ideas? D

Well,  I'm not a "chick"....but I have moobs (man-boobs!)  does that count?   Anyway,  I think you have a few options, the weight machines are good (safer than free weights, if you have grip issues)  Start out light,  they are not as "effective" as free weights but safer for you. (you won't drop them on your head or foot, and they force you into "proper"  form ....harder to injure yourself) 
    Those  " resistance or powerband" (surgical tubing things)  might also be an option.  They give you "resistance" without weights.   You won't become "female russian weightlifter' big, but you can improve strength, and tone With them.  Good luck!  I'm sure the "buffed babes" will offer their 2 cents.   

Most gyms will give you a free orientation to all the machines and how to use them. Mine set the weights for me at the time, but now that I"ve been doing it for so long, I have had to raise them higher. I suggest calling around and going to visit the gyms to see which you like best and what the;y offer. If you can afford it, a few sessions with a personal trainer is great.

Ha ha Jimbo, my husband has man-boobs too but don't think he counts himself as a chick!  And ya know, we do have some of those elastic bands and some dvd program that might be the ticket. its the beginner version of p90-x (which we figured out was too advanced for us muffins). just got  to figure out a way to do some of this. have dupuytren's disease in my hands and have to avoid hand trauma. in fact, going to hand surgeon in SF next week  to get the nodules shot up with cortisone to shrink them. maybe he will have an idea on what i could do with weights or resistance without hurting hands. if there was a lapsf support group then i would show up and meet some of the folks i chat with on here. oh well. thanks for the suggestions. do you do any weights?  D

Never heard them referred as moobs before. But the one disappointment I must say with my great weight loss is I still have my moobs. I think If I were able to get rid of them my conflict with my goal would evaporate.

I have a lot of pain in my hands too from being a production transcritionist for 18ish year.  I cannot lift free weight really really heavy because unless I am wearing straps, I just do not have the hand strength to not drop them on me.

Remember Charles Atlas?  A big deal of his was dynamic tension - using your body to work against itself, and also body weight stuff - pushups, lunges, squats - all of these can be done with different leg/arm positions and you can definitely build some muscle just using body weight and leverage before you need to add weights. 

The tubes sometimes hurt my wrists because they pull a weird way, so if I use them, I need to wear a wrist brace and be ever so aware of my form.

Remember - form is key!  It does not matter how many you do if they are sloppy and thrown up - for matters.

And honestly, unless you are genetically inclined, you are not going to bulk up. 

Pushups on your knees at first.  Do 5 if you can wide armed, elbows go out, then do 5 arms in close with your elbows coming down by your sides (works triceps more).  Do this a couple of times a day. 


If the pushups on the floor on your knees you cannot do many or if its too much on your tender shoulders, then start on the wall.  Stand away from the wall, lean over to the wall and do it up against the wall.  CONSISTENT SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING!!  Do them in the morning when you wake up, do it at lunch, do it before dinner/after dinner or before bed.  Do triceps dips on a coffee table or a chair. Do they have you doing rehab exercises for your shoulders?  Is it rotator cuff stuff?

I need to do pushups on spider fingers - flat palmed presses my wrists too weird. 

With lunges, if they hurt your knees, you can get a box,or a step and then do it where the foot that lunges out in front is up on something, that tends to take a lot of pressure off a tender knee. 

Those are my early morning thinking thoughts while I coffee up and gather my wits! 

Hey B
I knew you would have some great ideas and these sound like good ones. My hand problem stems from dupuytren's disease which causes these cords and nodules in the hands. going to see the hand surgeon for some cortisone shots which will shrink them down some. have done it before and it ususally helps quite a bit. doing art work all day is tough on the hands but I just can't give that up so i gotta do something that won't make it worse. So i sympathize with you for doing the transcription work and the pain it causes. I have a good friend at our art studio who just retired from many years as a court reporter. Her hands and wrists were really giving her trouble but its getting better since she retired.

Fortunately its just the hands and shoulder that are the issues. I am lucky to never have had any knee trouble. and thanks to being 118 lbs lighter the back, hip and ankle pain i used to have is pretty much gone.

no, i haven't done anything for the right shoulder yet. the left one was fixed by about 4 visits to the chiropractor- really helped. but this right one is a different feeling. don't think its rotator and cant figure out anything  did to cause it. seems to be increasing so i guess i gotta do something.

so thanks so much for the suggestions. have an art fair this weekend and have to scurry around finishing and firing some pieces for the show and then do a lot of "lifting" to drag all the stuff to the fair and set it up. but it will sure be a lot easier than last year when i was 3 weeks out of surgery.   

And no, i am not worried about getting too buff looking. just want a little muscle mass so i can move forward into old age and have a little strength.   enjoy the coffee.  D

Coffee and Mexican mash have been enjoyed!  Check!  :}

Start with your big ol compound movements first girlie, like the squats, do them like sitting in a chair, do them like you are doing a plie - and definitely they will not hurt you.

Dupuytren contracture stinks!  Booo! 

I had random zinger pains during my loss phase, like my body was adusting to a different center of balance and would press or nerves differently or something.

But hell woman, being .. ahem.. mature, I can roll over in bed and pull something. 

Mad Skillz!  I gotzem! 

I also take SP-Zyme, from green willow tree dot com - its an enzyme - its has done WONDERFUL things for my pain, course I still hurt, but that's just to be expected - but the intensity dropped way low - I was eating NSAIDs like candy and they would not touch the pain - now I do not take anything pain-related unless I have a haddock or something! 

Doing the squat stuff - and also doing balance things are good, especially with the whole moving into older age considerations - we tend to get unsteady on our feet, and spend a lot of our walking time looking down - which changes our gait to shuffly gaits instead of regular strides - this also does weird things to our neck, back, and leg muscles.

Balance and strength!

Off to cypher doktorspeak! 

Sleep well!

I agree that a session with a trainer would be good. They will show you how to use to all the machines (tell them this is specifically what you want to focus on in your "free" session).

Personally, at this point I try to stay off of the machines as much as possible, but cable machines are good and I spend a lot of time on the assist machine (pullups/chinups). Also I do still use some of the others (leg press and ham curls until my form gets better for ass-to-ground squats, etc). I think eventually you will get comfortable and even bored and want to venture into free weights a bit more, but that's just a guess.

I do want to mention that your heart rate does not need to get high when you lift. Most nights that I lift, unless I also do some cardio, I barely break a sweat. Certain exercises will get your heart pumping (leg work, big compound moves), but, say, something like barbell curls won't. If you lift heavy enough (once you get comfortable), you will feel like you are working hard enough. Your muscles will get fatigued and you will be sore for a day or two.

I absolutely love love love weight lifting and loathe cardio. But that's just me. I think overall it's great to find something you love, and if you don't love strength training, just do it a couple times a week. Muscle is the very best fat burner there is! = )

Do you supplement at all for your hands?  Some good ones are Chromium, Milk Thistle, Vitamin E, Copper, and Vitamin C.  I second the idea in seeing a personal trainer to get you some ideas of a workout you can do that might interest you.  Maybe ask for personal trainer sessions for a Christmas present?

I work with a trainer and she gives me a lot of exercises to do that combine things like flexibility, strength training and cardio in one move.  For example stair stepping while holding a heavy weight ball over my head, boxing, stretched out squats (don't know what these are called), etc.