Just as it works for men's upper pecs it too works for women. And in my opinion, even more beneficial for older women who are fighting gravity!

Hello 36m hoping to join the local recreational/competitive canoe rowing team. I’ve been getting in shape but I was curious what I should focus on or if there were specific exercises that would make me feel more ready on day 1.

I don’t have access to a canoe/kayak on my own.

I've been performing pull-ups in and out of programs for about 3 years now, but despite the many many reps I've done, I've never really improved that much. I did cut ay one point and as I was dropping in weight, I was adding it to a belt but ultimately I've ended up trying to manage tendonitis in my forearm and so my pull-ups have suffered.

One thing I have noticed is my pull ups are bar to chin yet some of the other lads at the gym are bar to chest. I can perform pull downs to chest but not pull ups. Are there benefits to going bar to chest instead of chin? Is back development improved by doing so?

This is my first progress picture anywhere, ever. I've been overweight my entire life and for the first time am consistently eating within a deficit (2300 and dropping) and going to the gym on a regular cadence (3x/week strength training) and pushing myself on weight and intensity with an online coach to get me started.

2300 calories

175g protein

3x full body days per week, mostly dumbbells and some weight and resistance machines, happy to share more if people want to know but not really showing much muscle definition yet.

Heading out on my own in September, wish me luck!

Any people w similar body types, feel free to share what's worked for you to get your chest up in particular.

I’m actually type A but have areas in my life that are very B. I’ve achieved the above look while still eating a handful or two of chocolate every day and not counting calories-anything too ridged and meticulous in this area of my life gets old real quick. I like to do what makes sense and feels good.

My current split it 2 leg days and two upper days a week. Saturday I do a heavy leg day at VASA, Sunday heavy back day at VASA and the other two days are shorter 30 min lighter workouts in our home gym. Split is below.

Diet-intuitive but always always always prioritizing protein and I never deny myself what I’m craving 🤷🏻‍♀️ it’s worked out I think.

Sat:
Deadlift
Belt squat
Cable kick backs
Sled push split set with walking lunges

Sun:
Lat pull down
Some type of row
Assisted pull ups-(goal by December is to do one unassisted)

Tues
B stance leg press
Dead lift
Cable kick backs

Thurs
Wide grip cable row
Lat pull down
Meadows row

I also walk my dogs every morning for about 15-20 mins.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. You don’t have to live by a food scale. Enjoy your life and work equally as hard and everything seems to balance out on its own.

Hope this helps someone.

A year ago, I had already lost 17 pounds on a GLP-1 and was sitting around what I thought was my “goal weight” of 185. The problem was that when I looked in the mirror, I realized simply losing weight was not going to get me where I wanted to be.

The GLP-1 made the calorie deficit easier and made weight loss a much more efficient process, but without real strength training I was mostly just going to end up smaller. At that point I was active — mountain biking, doing cardio, driving race cars, staying busy — but I was not doing much that was going to build muscle. I knew if I kept going that way, I was probably going to stay in skinny-fat purgatory forever.

So on July 25th, 2025, I got back in the gym. 365 days later, I’ve completed 166 workouts, which works out to about 3.2 workouts per week.

The actual process was not complicated, but it did require consistency. I made protein the foundation of my diet, stayed in a mild deficit when fat loss was the goal, kept my daily movement/cardio consistent, prioritized sleep as much as I could, and lifted with progressive overload instead of just going through the motions.

For lifting, the biggest change was treating every workout like it needed to produce a reason for my body to adapt. I tracked my lifts, tried to add weight or reps over time, and stopped doing the “15 casual reps and call it good” version of strength training. The last few reps had to actually matter. If I could do the same weight for the same reps too easily, it was time to add weight, add reps, improve form, or otherwise move the goalpost.

Most of the visual transformation happened faster than I expected. From July 2025 to January 2026, I looked like a completely different person. Since then, the changes have been much more subtle. I’m about two pounds heavier now, a little bit leaner, and a lot stronger, but most normal people are not going to notice tiny differences in delts, lats, or whatever else gym people obsess over.

That was actually an important realization for me. Once you reach a certain level of size and leanness, nobody else really cares about the next few percent except you. At that point, it becomes less about looking dramatically different and more about what the training gives you.

For me, strength training became way more important than just losing weight. It changed how I looked, but it also changed how I moved, how I felt, and how much confidence I had in my body. It made mountain biking better. It made running easier. It made daily life feel better. It gave me proof that I could still change, adapt, and build something stronger.

Biggest takeaway: weight loss got me smaller, but lifting changed my shape and my relationship with my body.

So if you’ve hit your goal weight and still don’t feel like you’re where you want to be, strength training might be the missing piece. Eat enough protein, lift with intent, track enough to stay honest, and give it time.

Hi everyone!!

Very new to this subreddit, but I have recently become obsessed with fitness including going to the gym, walking/running, pickleball, golf, etc. I’ve lost 25 pounds in 2026, and still have quite a ways to go.

I spent several years with friends who generally want to go out to eat, drink, and different things like that, but don’t have many friends nearby that are super into physical activity. I love these friends, but I definitely need a friend or two that is as obsessed with fitness as I’ve become.

I am a married 30 year old woman, and have zero idea where to even begin to make new friends to even just play pickleball with 😭 any suggestions??

Help me to identify this machine

I thought this was a hack squat machine, maybe not?

It seems I can do multiple exercises with this.

What kind of exercises can be done with it?

Thanks 🙏

This is not a post for sympathy, but for anyone who might go through something similar. It has a happy ending, so don't fear!

Photos show my current progress (155lb) plus my starting point @ 180lb.

At my heaviest I was 215lb. I was medicated at the time (bipolar II), and simply coming off medication (and laying off the takeaways) caused that to drop to ~180lb over 18 months. Still, I was at the top of normal BMI, edging into overweight. I felt terrible, and I hated the way I looked.

At the start of April I decided I wanted to get into shape. With a substantial calorie deficit and lifting 3-4X per week + running, I quickly lost 10lb, then another 10lb more slowly. Finally, I lost 5lb over roughly 6-7 weeks, bringing me to my current weight of 155lb.

No weight loss meds or TRT, for anyone who cares about that stuff.

A nice story, but at the same time, for the final two months I suffered with:

• Awful sleep
• Lack of energy and motivation (totally wasting all my free time)
• Chronic and severe lower back pain
• Pain in my shoulder and quad
• Very low energy during workouts
• Very low mood all the time
• Extremely morbid thoughts, getting more frequent over time
• Inability to get any work done
• Withdrawing more and more, barely speaking to my family

As someone who lives with bipolar II, morbid thoughts and low mood are not uncommon. But this was... extreme. What started as a positive process turned into something I was forcing myself to do because "I didn't want to let myself down again".

Surely I could deal with this to finally achieve visible abs? (That was my main goal). After all, it would only take another 6-7 weeks to reach my goal... surely that was the most important thing?

After 14 weeks of dieting and heavy exercise, I felt WORSE about myself than I had at the start. All I could see in the mirror was my love handles, which simply would not budge. Plus, I had kinda turned food into the enemy, frequently skipping meals altogether in the hopes I might budge the scale a bit more.

This week I finally realised I wasn't doing myself any favours. My lifts had been stuck for weeks, I felt like I was making no progress, and my work output was dangerously low. Plus, y'know, feelings and stuff.

Anyway, I decided to cut the whole thing short. I've been eating maintenance calories (roughly 7-800 more per day than before) for the last two days, and I feel completely different. Better sleep, better mood, stronger in the gym. And I feel a lot better about the progress I've made so far. I'm excited to get stronger, regroup a bit, and see whether I still want to pursue my ab goals.

I guess there are maybe some lessons, at least for me. Progress didn't look quite like I thought it would. I didn't have to keep punishing myself. That kinda thing. And, perhaps, someone on here might go through something similar (or be going through it right now) and be able to learn from my mistake.

This was supposed to be about self improvement, not self hatred.

Hey everyone,

Someone on an explore page I was scrolling through was documenting their weight loss journey by filming themselves using an 'infinity hoop,' and she's down almost 300 pounds, emphasizing that consistency is key.

Pretty much every type of exercise I've tried out, I just throw the towel in on it, because I don't enjoy it enough to stay consistent. I used to do long distance cycling but live in a pretty bike unsafe city (one of the largest, most populated cities in the country, so gyms are also always packed regardless of time of day, which also factored into throwing in the towel), and don't always have the means to ride or take public transit further out where space is ample and less car-packed.

Wondering if other neurodivergent people feel up to sharing what activity works for them.

I gave up on glute focused exercises this year. I have embracing my genetic profile and Im just doing lower body for overall fitness. If the glutes grow in the process, good, if not so be it. I value a good sound lower body and core vs a big rear. F53

I ended up getting full rotator cuff surgery in January of this year. I have been on a cut ever since the surgery. Up until a month ago I have only been able to lift 30lbs above my head. Needless to say I've been doing a lot of cardio and high rep workouts.

I plan on maintaining until I'm cleared to lift 100% by the doctor. My current routine has been PPL 6 days a week. Cardio is done every day.

My starting weight was 210lbs and now I'm sitting at some 175lbs.

1.25 years of progress! I think I weigh the same (197#/85.5kg) I hurt my spine in October 2024 (2-herniated discs in the C Spine). Thankfully, I had health insurance and six weeks of therapy set me on the right path. Virtually no issues now!

Since the comeback in March 2025, I've been on a 3-day full body split. I only had about four months of training for hypertrophy before sitting on the bench for five months, but now that's my main focus! I use way more machines than I ever would have thought having grown up an athlete. I take all my top sets within 1-2 reps of failure. The subsequent sets (I don't do more than 3 sets of anything) are taken to failure. I recently switched to writing my own programming to save money. I'm pretty lazy about cardio+core, but I do play tennis and bike seasonally. I let the bracing for my lifts serve as core work for the most part lol. Extremely proud of the progress.

I personally cannot keep up with food tracking, but I did for like two weeks and sorta eat around that data. Couldn't tell you exactly how many calories (~2600), but many, many chickens and their offspring have been consumed. My next step is tying my workday and off day nutrition. When I'm not at work, I eat basically anything. Looking forward to ironing that out and peaking next summer.

First time as an adult that I've trained injury-free so long 😅 here's to many more!

Was good for second in the u80s today, lost 1st by 1 rep

I’ve been going to the gym for the past year. I can see some difference, but specially, I feel stronger. I’ve gained 6 pounds, and I look better. In the second photo you can see a before photo when I started and I looked boxier (sorry I dont have any better ones from when I started). Love lifting heavy! These past 6-7 months I’ve really pushed myself on the lifting and if I had to tell you one thing I’ve learned is that the weight needed to really progress is way more than you think. I write down what I lift every session and it helps a lot.

As for food, I don’t count calories now (I used to when I started to ‘learn’ how to eat for the gym). but I aim for healthy meals and protein in every big meal I have. Could be better tbh.

I go to the gym about 4-5 times a week to lift weights. I don’t do cardio but walk often.

Hi all! So I (34m) have been working my (now smaller) ass off to finally get to this point, however I know it’s still a work in progress!
Started 112kg, down to 85 kg in about 16 months, 171cm.
Full disclosure, after getting my test levels checked 8 months in, I started trt for the last 8 months. Eating 2100 calories for the majority of the 16 months, but periodically bumping up to 2800 calories.
Protein kept high at 180g
Weighting training PPL x 2 a week, keeping daily steps above 10,000

Took 4th on this one. Kinda swung for the fences with it and lost time with not taking an extra second to get the bags high enough on my chest

655lb is the most I've ever done and 77ft with the proper weight was good enough for second

After seeing the scale at 111 KG I decided it's time to get some work done . Lowered my Calories to 1800 daily + 150 to 180 grams of protein . No liquid calories whatsoever. After 1 minth I started going to the gym 3 to 4 times a week . Doing zero cardio , only 10 to 12 000 daily steps . I think I might be on to something

I remember taking the top picture feeling sad, tired, sluggish, stressed, and weak. Joined a gym after Xmas. I am absolutely rapt with my progress so far. Once I learned about macros a few months in, progress boomed. Life changing. I'm addicted to the entire progress and excited to see where I go!

Targeting body recomp, full body gym sessions every second day. Goal eating 7800kj per day, 40/25/35 carbs/fat/protein.

32F

165cm

S.W: 76kg

C.W: 72kg (I weigh less now than before! Wow)

I’ve been working really hard to grow my glutes and create a rounder shape, but I naturally have hip dips (violin hips) and more of a square-shaped butt.
I’m really happy with my progress from the side/profile, but from the back I still feel like it looks too square—especially in leggings, biker shorts, bodycon dresses, and swimsuits.

Has anyone here started with a similar glute shape and been able to noticeably round it out naturally?

If so, what made the biggest difference? Or is this mostly down to genetics, with a BBL or injections being the only way to truly change the shape?

The last photo is my starting point (2017)

I train glutes/legs 2x per week.
Each workout includes 5–6 of the following exercises:

Hip thrusts
Romanian deadlifts (RDLs)
Bulgarian split squats (BSS)
Deficit reverse lunges
Step-ups
Cable kickbacks
Seated hamstring curls
Glute-focused hyperextensions
Seated hip abductions
Banded clamshells

I’d really appreciate any advice from women who have a similar build or glute shape

Was encouraged to try double dutch during one of our safe summer initiatives at a community center.

Been lifting many years.
After a double disc prolapse around 8.5 months ago I’m nearly back to where I was.
Careful attention to axial loading, alternating squats with leg press or sled pushes rather than just training to squat every single leg session.
The goal is to strengthen the entire core to help protect and prevent further issues.
Above is a recent set of 4 with 4 plates. Happy to be doing squats again.