Many people use resistance training as a way to get in great shape and be healthy. Many times however, people do not lift the proper amount of weight to reach their specific goals. Want I want to talk about today is the most common mistakes I see in the gym as far as selecting the proper weight is concerned, and talk about how to determine the proper load.
Lifting Too Much Weight
Every single day I see at least one guy trying to put ever single plate in the gym on the leg press and then proceed to go through about 10 percent of the actual range of motion for 3 reps. I can not describe what a waste of time and efficiency this is. You want to make sure you choose a weight that you can go through a full range of motion safely. It is great to do partial reps sometimes, but not for 5 sets, and not every time you do the exercise. Keep reading to find out how many reps you should be doing for to reach your goals.
Lifting Too Little Weight
Just as many times as I see the guys lifting too much I see ladies lifting too little. The common misconception is that if women lift heavy weight they will get bulky. First of all, if you can lift a weight more than 15 times it’s not heavy. Second, it is almost impossible for women to get bulky. Women do not have enough testosterone to get bulky. The women you see on TV and in magazines or on hormones and steroids to grow that muscle along with diets that consist of many more calories than the typical woman. Most women that think they are getting bulky are just getting firmer underneath the fat giving the illusion of bulkiness. Soon the increased metabolism will burn that fat if paired with a reasonable diet, leaving you with a lean, harder, firmer body, not bigger muscles.
What Weight You Should Lift
The amount of weight you should lift is simple. Choose a weight that on the last rep of your set you can no longer complete another rep in good form. For example, say you are doing a set of 10 lat pulldowns. The ninth rep should be perfect and the tenth rep would be the last you could do before you would start to compensate, or cheat. If you were to do the eleventh rep it would not go all the way down to your chest or you would have to add momentum to get it there. Reps should be slow and controlled and your core should be engaged during the entire exercise. Once you can not do that anymore the set is over. If you stop the set before that point you will be wasting a good set and not getting the maximum amount of results that you could be getting if you did push the set a little farther. The key is make sure you are pushing yourself, but doing it safely.
How Many Reps You Should Do
The best way to find out how many reps and sets you should be doing to reach your specific goals is to personally talk to qualified fitness professional. Each person is different and has different needs and goals. Feel free to contact me if you have specific questions on how to design a program specific to your needs. Assuming however, that you are completely healthy and working on these general goals, you would want to work in these rep ranges according the most fitness researchers.
Muscular Endurance = 15 or more reps
Muscular Growth = 6-12 reps
Muscular Strength = less than 6 reps
I recommend that if you are working out for general fitness to do between 12-15 reps for most of your exercises. Vary the range occasionally to keep your routine fresh and get that best of all the rep ranges.
If you have any questions about choosing the right weight or any questions about how to structure your program feel free to contact me by clicking the link below for my contact information.
