Women And Weightlifting: Pete Sisco Says Lifting More, Less Often Is The Way To Go

Today we introduce Pete Sisco to the PEERtrainer community. Pete is well known in the fitness world, and has a particular talent at helping people realize they are much much stronger physically than they ever realized. In fact, his work is featured in Tony Robbins new "Ultimate Edge" program.

A few years ago Tony visited Pete to learn about his strength program. In a one day session, Tony was able to increase his bench press from 180 pounds to 500 pounds by changing how he approached lifting. His expectation of himself physically increased instantly, and Robbins realized that Pete's work was analagous to his own work.

The idea here is not that one becomes a big bodybuilder, but the mental implications are massive. Imagine how you would think about yourself if you knew you were much stronger than you realized?

Pete is also a huge advocate of weight/strength training for women and continually highlights the health benefits of lifting. He has a strong voice and opinion, and thinks differently. You probably know that at PEERtrainer we are constantly looking to highlight people who seek to approach problems from different angles. We are psyched that we found Pete- and our objective here is to have a conversation with him over time. So if you have any specific questions about working out or exercise, please comment below or send us an email!

Part 1: Feel Powerful and in Control – Starting Today!

I have a pet peeve on the subject of women and weightlifting. The wonderful people at PEERtrainer have asked me to write about it in a series of posts, which I really appreciate.

What bothers me is when I look at the weightlifting area of any gym I visit anywhere in the world it is not populated by at least 50% women. Why not? I think it’s because of a litany of lies, myths and macho hype that is perpetuated everywhere from women’s magazines to online forums.

In this post I won’t talk about how lifting weights has been repeatedly clinically proven to deliver lower blood pressure, increased lean mass, increased fat burning, increased natural HGH and testosterone levels, increased libido, increased HDL 'good' cholesterol, improved cardiac function, lower bodyfat, greater bone density, stronger tendons and ligaments, increased energy and a more toned appearance. (Can I ask you to just read the above list again. Imagine if a pill could deliver all that? What would you be willing to pay to get those health benefits? Well, you can get them free in the gym.)  

But today I want to talk about something else. Something you can feel 10 minutes from now. When you lift a weight, a really heavy weight – not something that requires minimum exertion – you feel a sense of power, accomplishment and even self-esteem. 

I’ve spent the last 15 years studying ways to get stronger and leaner in the minimum amount of training time. Briefly, one of the key techniques I have developed involves lifting a weight only a very small distance in only your strongest and safest range of motion. There are a lot of benefits to doing this but one of the most immediate is the sense of accomplishment, even triumph, it gives you.

Why should only men feel that? 

Hey, these are stressful times. You might have two mortgages, three car loans and four kids heading for college. Life can easily feel overwhelming and lately the news is certainly no morale booster. So when was the last time you felt powerful and had a triumphant sense of achievement? 

See what I mean? That’s a huge and immediate benefit of weightlifting that nobody talks about. I know you won’t see a heavy barbell in Cosmo.

You can try this in virtually any gym. The leg press is a great one to try because the strength you have will really shock you. In a very positive way.

Leg Press:

This exercise is performed with safety stops engaged at ALL TIMES. Position the seat so the sled is within 4 inches of your full extension. Place 100-200% more weight on the press than you normally use. Press the sled up one inch off the safety stops. Hold for a count of 5 seconds while exhaling. Do not lock out. Experiment to find the most weight you can hold for 5 seconds. Repeat 5 days later with 20-50% more weight and again 5 days after that with another 20-50% more weight.

My 15-year-old daughter could perform this exercise with 1,000 lbs and I like to think of that as her early inoculation against thinking in any way that women are weak. Women are not weak and I’d like to see them demonstrating that more often in the gym.  

-Pete Sisco  

Pete Sisco has been innovating efficient, productive training methods since 1992. He is the inventor of the Power Factor, Power Index and Relative Static Intensity measurements and has written many strength training books. He is also the author of several bestselling strength training e-books including Train Smart 2009 – The World’s Fastest Workout, available at this link.

 Sisco’s training methods have been featured in Men's Journal, Golf Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Ironman, Martial Arts Training and many others. His training is exclusively featured in Tony Robbin's Ultimate Edge program as the best method to achieve peak results quickly.