Form is everything, when you are lifting heavy: Featuring Deborah Copaken.
For the past 16 months, in an attempt to reverse osteoporosis, I've been lifting heavy weights under the auspices of Holly Rilinger, who insists on proper form. But what does proper form look like?
Results from my DEXA scan on 12/18/2024
Since then, I have been consistently lifting heavy weights in group classes with Rilinger three times a week without fail, either asynchronously, using her online videos; or over Zoom during her live classes; or a few times in her actual studio out on Long Island.
My next DEXA is scheduled for December 5, 2025, and both Rilinger and my primary care physician are eagerly awaiting that data, but until then I asked Holly, last weekend, to record a video with me in her studio to demonstrate proper lifting techniques for Romanian deadlifts, goblet squats, one-armed rows, chest presses, and squats. Why? Because a) those are five of the key strength-building, big muscle group exercises; and b) because when I tell people I’ve been lifting heavy weights with an online trainer, what I mostly hear is this: “Well, I couldn’t do that if it’s not one-on-one and in person. I’d be afraid of hurting myself.”
But here’s the thing: when you take an online group class with Rilinger, she is watching everyone in their Zoom boxes and adjusting each person’s form in real time. I also want to stress something important: I have no skin in this game. Neither Rilinger nor her company are paying me a single dime to write about her program, nor has she done away with or discounted the monthly fee my partner and I pay to work out with her. I’ve just seen, over the course of these sixteen months of lifting heavy weights with Rilinger, what a difference her specific midlife-focused training has made not only on my bone mass but also on my mobility and strength, as well as on my partner’s—it completely cured a painful hip issue he’d been having for years—and I want everyone reading this who wants to have it to enjoy the same opportunities.
To that end, Rilinger is hosting a new 21-day virtual strength training program, called Blueprint, to get you started, and she is gifting all of my readers a $20 discount on the $119 one-time fee if you use the code BPI99 when signing up. Meaning it will now only cost you $99 for a 21-day program, and I cannot recommend this program highly enough.
The first day of the program is this Saturday, November 22, 2025. And please don’t be afraid if you’ve never lifted any weights before, never mind heavy ones. Prior to working with Rilinger, I’d never lifted either, and yet in sixteen months I’ve gone from goblet squatting ten pounds to squatting forty pounds; from Romanian deadlifting twenty pounds to deadlifting sixty pounds; and from bench pressing twenty pounds to now being able to press a full sixty pounds over my head. And if a 5’2”, 59-year-old, formerly-weakling and gym-hating me can do that, trust me: you can, too.
Read more here and watch Deborah Copaken & Holly Rilinger demonstrate 5 compound lifts to get you started on your strength training journey: https://open.substack.com/pub/deborahcopaken/p/proper-form-for-heavy-lifting?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
