Whether your goal is to build muscle mass or achieve a fitter, more toned body, lifting weights can help you get there. Weight training as we age can help fight the loss of muscle mass and mobility, as well as improve psychological well-being. You can simply use your body weight for many exercises or use free weights, resistance bands, or other home fitness equipment to get results.
This article will walk you through how to get started with weight training and provide suggested exercises and training advice for beginners. Many gyms or fitness centers offer introductory training sessions at little or no cost, or they have trainers available if you have questions. Additionally, there are many personal trainers who train clients online, through video platforms.
While most gyms have a combination of resistance machines and free weights, such as dumbbells and barbells, you can also get a comprehensive weight training workout at home with basic equipment. As an example, for some strength training exercises, like pushups or lunges, you only need your body weight to provide resistance. You can expand your at-home workout options with dumbbells. Kettlebells , which are weighted balls with handles, are another popular option.
Resistance bands are also a helpful addition to your workout equipment. These color-coded elastic bands provide varying levels of resistance when pulled and stretched.
You may be especially interested in building your biceps or toning your legs , but the best resistance training program works all the major muscle groups in your body. For a solid all-over workout, you may want to start off with the following exercises.
Including these exercises in your weight lifting routine will work most of the large muscle groups in your body. Start off by doing 10 to 15 reps of each exercise.
In general progress always boils down to progressive overload — i. That could be by adding one more repetition gradually, or adding 5 more lbs to the lift etc.
It might help to change up the exercise variations that you are using and then apply the principles of progressive overload on a weekly basis. Skip to content How much weight should you lift? Or should you lift heavy weight for lower reps? After reading this post, you are going to learn: What is the ideal weight to build muscle, When to add weight to your exercises, and How to create a weight training program using the appropriate weight.
Disclaimer: Although we are doctors and personal trainers, we are not your doctors. The amount of weight you should lift depends on what your primary fitness goal is. If your goal is to build strength, then your weights should be heavy enough that you can only perform repetitions per set. If your goal is to build muscular size, then you should only be able to perform repetitions per set.
Notice that I am not recommending a specific weight. Improving your strength can also help you gain more muscle mass.
You are setting a new baseline. If you can easily get more than 12 reps per set, the weight is on the low side. What About Strength? If your primary goal is to build strength, then you need to lift heavy. In general, anything above lbs for upper body exercises is considered heavy, and anything above lbs for lower body exercises can be considered heavy for most people.
To recap this section: Gaining muscle mass will require you to learn proper techniques in the major functional exercises. Begin by training in the rep range for months, and use progressive overloading to increase the weight over time. After months of training, incorporate a strength training block, where you train in the rep range for months. Different weights will stimulate your nervous system differently, improving muscle mass and strength.
If you are a beginner, you should not start with the heaviest weight you can handle. Do not lift weights so light that you can easily exceed the goal rep range. Find the sweet spot right in the middle. If you had two reps left in the tank, then the RPE would be 8, and so on. Never go lower than an RPE 7 on a working set. The risk of injury is too high. Use proper form! Here are the three most common scenarios in which you add weight: You are doing sets at an RPE of 7 or less You can do 12 reps or more on any given weight You have been doing the same exercises with the same weight for 3 weeks or more If you are a beginner, you can increase the weight as often as every workout, or every week.
It is always a good idea to add weight as slowly as possible. The sweet spot lies in choosing a weight in which you can just do reps on your own. Bodybuilders also train the fast-twitch muscle fibers, usually starting with multijoint movements sorted by body part. Here the recipe calls for higher volume working sets of multiple exercises at different angles and shorter rest periods 60 seconds for smaller muscle groups and up to 90 seconds for larger ones. For more detail on how to maximize your size gains, check out the 8-Week Fast Track to Intermediate workout.
Not everyone trains to get as big or as strong as possible. You can also train at a lower level of intensity—that is, the weight you use relative to what you can maximally lift for one rep. This builds up the mechanisms within the muscle that make it more aerobically efficient, without increasing the size of the muscle.
Hence, the muscle can do lots of reps for long periods of time without fatiguing. The classic marathon runner's musculature is designed to take him or her the distance. Focusing on muscle endurance means choosing very light weights that can be done for reps or more. The weight stimulus just isn't strong enough to maximize size or strength. That's because the muscles are engaging the slow-twitch rather than the fast-twitch fibers.
These fibers are designed to be used for longer activities and don't typically grow significantly in size compared to the fast-twitch variety. If you know what your goal is, it's not difficult to figure out how much weight you should be using on a given exercise. What you see is an inverse relationship between the number of reps you can do and the amount of weight.
When the weight goes up, you can complete fewer reps. With a lighter weight, you can do more reps. For instance, if your max weight on the bench press is pounds, the number of reps you can do with each weight increment might look something like this:.
Since a strength curve like this is unique to each individual for each exercise, you could prescribe a training protocol based on it. If this was your curve for the bench press, to focus on strength you'd train with poundages above ; for size you'd train with about ; and for muscular endurance you'd be using weights below the lower limit of this chart, around pounds.
Everyone has their own strength curve for every exercise. You'll become familiar with your own through practice and repetition. The key is to make sure you use a weight that best corresponds with your goals. If you always start each exercise with a practice set, you can always rack the weight short of muscle failure and call it a warm-up if you don't think you're within the target rep range.
Adjust the weight on your next set as necessary. Of course, logging your weights in a notebook, on your smartphone, or on BodySpace reduces the guesswork next time around.
The difficult part is behind you, but that doesn't mean an experienced lifter can't fine-tune the working weights. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind. This means choosing a weight that allows you to complete this many reps without struggling to finish the set. A strength training session that works all the muscles of the body, including the hips, legs, abdomen, chest, back, shoulders, and arms, two to three days per week is plenty for maintaining overall fitness.
For building strength, any rep range will work, but for best results, be sure to include 2 to 5 heavier sets of 3 to 5 reps. To build strength, the goal should be fewer reps at a higher weight that challenges you during each repetition. However, it is wise to establish a solid overall fitness level before moving on to heavier weights, since heavier weights come with more risk if your form is not correct.
Aim for 2 to 4 days of strength training per week, and be sure to take rest days in between. The heavier weight will break down your muscle tissue, and you will require rest and recovery to repair that damage.
That repair process helps build stronger muscles. Increasing muscle size, also called hypertrophy , will occur whether you train at the lower rep range with higher weight or a higher rep range 8 to 12 reps per set with a moderately challenging weight.
The key to increasing muscle size is volume, meaning adding more sets and reps to your workout over time. You can spread these additional sets and reps over your weekly training sessions. Aim for 12 to 28 sets per muscle group per week, spread over 3 to 5 training days, for optimal muscle growth.
One-rep max 1RM is a measure of the amount of weight you can lift for a particular exercise for one repetition. It is often calculated using a 1RM calculator where you can input max weight lifted for multiple reps and it will provide you with an equivalent 1RM estimate.
One of the things people fail to realize when lifting weights is how much their bodies move to assist in moving the weight. Unfortunately, this can undermine the very goal of an exercise, which is to isolate and contract a particular muscle or muscle group. When lifting a weight, you always need to focus on isolating a muscle during the movement. If you swing your body, you are using momentum to lift the weight.
By doing so, you are dispersing the energy meant for one muscle to many muscles. This is why people who grunt, arch their backs, or drop their weights are doing themselves a disservice and likely annoying others in the process. By simply lowering their weight to a reasonable level, they can achieve so much more with so much less. Maintain this focus when doing any weightlifting exercise. Keep your back flat, shoulders square, hips level, abdomen taut, and head and neck relaxed but lifted.
Not only will this help you maintain proper form, but it can also help direct which weight is appropriate for the exercise you are doing. If you cannot lift your chosen weight with proper form, it is too heavy, and you should use a lighter weight.
Seek the guidance of a personal trainer if you are unsure about your form.
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