How Much Weight Should I be Lifting?
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How much weight should you be lifting? How do you know if it’s too little or too much weight? How much weight should you be increasing at a time? I know it can feel overwhelming and frustrating to figure out on your own. That's why in this episode I give you a detailed guide to weight lifting that will be sure to answer all your questions!
In this episode you will learn:
How to determine how much weight you should be lifting when you first start out
How to warm up correctly before lifting weights
How to know when you should be lifting more weight
How much weight you should increase at a time
Why it’s important to track the weight you use for each exercise
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose a real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, and let's go.
Hello, and welcome back to the Embrace Your Real podcast. I hope you're having a great day. I hope wherever you're listening to this in this world, you are feeling joy, you are feeling gratitude. And if you are not, remember that you have the opportunity to change your mindset in any given moment. So five, four, three, two, one, you can choose to be grateful. You can choose to actively look for the blessings in your life. I just felt like I needed to share that with you before we dive into today's episode. If you have not already subscribed to the podcast, I want you to click that pause button, hit subscribe. That way, you'll never miss a podcast with me. We release them every Monday and Thursday. I love this community so much. If you haven't already rated and reviewed this podcast, it would mean the absolute world to me if you did. It just helps us in the podcast land of getting out there, and spreading the message of embracing your real and truly just living an authentic life.
So without further ado, let's get into today's episode. I'm really excited about this one. It's kind of more of a educational one, and this is one that a lot of women ask me. Especially when I'm posting workouts, which I have been posting a lot more workouts in this quarantine life because we all need workout ideas, we all need workout inspiration. And so, I am going to be talking about how to know when to move up in weight. And I'm going to be specifically talking about resistance training, because that's what I personally do. That's what my Movement With Julie weekly workout app has, is resistance training, weightlifting AK, if you didn't know that.
So when starting out on your weightlifting journey, I know that this can be a really confusing and frustrating, and even intimidating topic. So if that's you, please know, number one, I've been in your shoes. I remember when I first started in this, and even a couple of years in, I had to reevaluate, how do I move up in weight and what do I need to do? So my goal here is to just give you my best tips for feeling confident in knowing you are lifting the appropriate amount of weight for building that body that you want, but also remaining safe in doing so. And that's really, really important. Before I dive into kind of how to know when to move up in weight and when to adjust your weight, and all of those things, I first want to talk about knowing where to start. And for those of you who are just getting into resistance training, maybe you're a couple of weeks in, maybe you're a couple months in, maybe you're a year or two in, I think this is really important for you to here if you haven't already.
First, I suggest starting with a lightweight. And I know that some people can feel overly confident in this area, like, oh, I don't want to feel like a weak person and I don't want to pick up those five pound dumbbells. But it's really, really important that you start somewhere around 50% less than what you think you would use for a particular exercise. So I primarily work out with dumbbells, because I work out in my basement. So when I'm talking about weight and I say something like 60 pounds, keep in mind that's total weight, so that would be two 30 pound dumbbells. Let's say for example, you're like, I know I can squat 60 pounds. If you do not know that and you have not been lifting long enough, I always suggest that you start somewhere around 50% less than that. I would suggest starting with, let's say for example, 30 pounds.
This will kind of help you get a feel for performing the exercise, and doing so with proper form. Because no matter how long you've been lifting, whether it's been one day, a week, a month, a year, or 10 years, or 15 years, form always needs to be your number one priority. And I always recommend lifting less weight with proper form because it's going to be much more effective for building the body that you want, rather than lifting heavier, trying to up that weight because you want to see your total amount of weight logged higher but doing so with you know poor form. Because when you do so, you're actually recruiting the muscles you're trying to target. Plus you're performing safely, which is reducing your risk of injury. I don't want you guys going into a workout and trying to up your weight so much because you want to lift X amount of weight, or you saw somebody on Instagram do that and so you're going to go. And try and do that, and then you get hurt doing it.
So after you perform the exercise with 50% less weight than you think you can do, you can gradually start working your way up by performing a few reps at a time until you find a weight that challenges you to slow down in order for you to complete your reps with good form. I see, oftentimes there are so many people and with so many workouts on Pinterest, and Facebook and Instagram. You'll see these people that are like, they're doing squats like a thousand miles an hour, and their form is not great and they're just getting it done. And I want to make sure that when you're lifting, you are slow. You are really feeling the movement in all of the targeted muscles. Maybe your first set you perform, let's say, for example 12 reps at 30 pounds. Then your next set you can try that same amount of reps, so try 12 reps at maybe 40. So that'd be two 20-pound dumbbells.
Maybe you get to the end of that and you're like, okay, I feel really good. Like, I still feel I could lift more and maintain that proper form. Let's say you go up to sixties, that would be two 30-pound dumbbells. Again, this is all hypothetical. This is not a magical number or anything like that. But let's say you're at 60 pounds, so two 30-pound dumbbells. Or if you're performing it with a barbell or whatever, you feel like completing 12 reps is difficult. Take note of that. And next time if you feel like completing 12 reps at 60 pounds is difficult but you were able to maintain proper form the entire time, take note of that. Because next time you go to squat, that 60 pounds would be a great place for you to start the next time that you hit leg day. And so, that's kind of just like a rule of thumb that I always suggest.
Again, just recapping, when you first start out, trying 50% less than you think you can. And that way, it allows you to slowly increase the amount of weight that you're lifting every time you perform the next set of 12 reps, or whatever prescribed reps it is. The same tactic applies in lateral raises, or shoulder presses or bicep curls, whatever exercise it is. This is just merely an example. Again, it's super important that I recommend you not go straight into lifting the amount of weight that you want to lift. I know that you just want to dive right into your workouts, but a warmup is always recommended. Not only for your safety, but allowing you to lift more weight with greater ease when your muscles are warm. Let me just quickly walk you through an effective warmup, and what that will look like with a weightlifting session.
You'll want to focus on dynamic stretching for your warmup. This is a question that I get asked a lot like, what types of stretches should I be doing pre-workout and post-workout? I'm going to dive into kind of warm up, what you'll want to do pre-workout, and that's going to be dynamic stretching. You're not going to want to do static stretching unless you're a runner. Runners are suggested to do static stretching before you go on a run. But for weightlifting particularly, which is what I'm talking about, you're definitely going to want to go into dynamic stretching. And dynamic stretching is basically designed to get the body moving through a full range of motion by warming up your muscles, and helping improve performance, to help you prevent injuries during your workout. And then on the flip side, static stretching is great for post-workout to help with improved flexibility, reduce stiffness and improve blood flow.
And just for time's sake, I'm going to be going into some of the dynamic stretching for your pre-workout for upper body days. Let's say for example, you're going to want to do some small and big arm circles. I mean, you can just Google this, dynamic stretching, arm circles; dynamic stretching, arm swings; dynamic stretching, spinal rotations. Those are all going to get your upper body moving, making sure that you're going through the full range of motion, to help you really improve that performance and prevent those injuries in your upper body days. And then for lower body days, some of the static stretches, hip circles, leg swings, body weight, lunges, leg pendulums, forward, back, lateral, all those different things. Again, super easy to just Google dynamic stretching, and most likely it'll come up with some good YouTube videos for that.
I would say a good stretching routine takes around 10 minutes max, I would say. Like, five to 10 minutes depending on what you're stretching. So basically the way that I work out inside my Movement With Julie app is; on Mondays, we have lower body days. On Tuesdays, we have upper body, Wednesdays is cardio and core. Thursdays is full body, and Fridays is booty blaster. So for full body, I would take a couple from upper body and a couple from lower body just to warm up everything. And then for booty blaster, I love to do body weight lunges before I head into any sort of booty workout that's very glute focused. So that's just kind of an example of what I do.
Now that I've kind of discussed how you figure out your starting point, how to do a proper warmup. Now, let's talk about how and when it's a good time to increase the weight that you're currently using. It's super important that you continue to increase your weight when you're resistance training. I know it's very, very easy to get comfortable using the same weights week in and week out. Like, you just get comfortable with those 10 pound-dumbbells, or you get comfortable with those 15-pound dumbbells. And every single week, that's what you're using. You have to remember that while it might be easy for you to reach for the certain pound dumbbell that's just feels comfortable to you, over time, that's not going to build the body that you want. And a quote that I love is kind of related to this is just that your comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever changes there. And when you feel uncomfortable, that's when you're actually creating change in your body. And when the weight feels comfortable, it's a clear sign that you need to go up in weight.
I know that this one is hard. It's hard for a lot of people because once you get comfortable doing something, it's like you almost form this sense of confidence in that specific exercise that you don't want to change anything. Because you don't want to make it harder, or you don't want to compromise your form but it's really important. And if you're really wanting to tone and build that muscle and change your body composition, that you have to constantly be switching it up. Not all the time, but you have to identify when you've gotten to a place where it just feels comfortable and you're allowing yourself to stay there, that's when you need to switch it up.
The coolest part about our bodies is that your body actually acclimates to the weight that you're lifting. When you're lifting a certain amount of weight for the first time, you're placing a new stress on your body, and this new stress triggers your body to recruit more muscle fibers to be able to withstand this stress. Your muscles are made up of muscle fibers. When the muscle fibers are recruited, the stronger you are making the muscle. But if you continue to lift the same amount of weight, it's no longer a stress that you're placing on your body. It's now become a new normal stress that your body is used to and has become acclimated to. So your muscles will have recruited all the muscle fiber it needs without needing to recruit anymore, if that makes any sense. This means that when you aren't giving your muscles any need to recruit more to get stronger, it won't, which is why it's so important that you constantly place that stress on your muscles so that it can constantly grow.
Step one to knowing when it's time to increase your weight is sticking to a prescribed rep and set scheme. Let's say for example, it's three sets of 10 reps. And your body will get acclimated to this scheme, which will give you much more understanding of knowing when a weight has become too easy. So once your body is acclimated to a certain amount of reps and sets for a specific exercise, the second thing that you want to do is be paying attention to how your body feels on the last three or so reps. So that would be a rep eight, rep nine and rep 10 in this example. Those three reps are really good indicator of how challenging the weight is that you're using.
Let's say for example, you're using a set of 10 on either side for shoulder presses, and you perform the set with little to no struggle at the end. So like you could have done two, three or even four more reps, that's a good sign that it's time for you to bump it up. But on the flip side, let's say you're using those 10 dumbbells and you're doing shoulder presses, and you can barely, I mean barely perform eight reps with good form. That's a sign that you need to go lower in weight. Again, remember that proper form is ultimately priority when lifting weights.
Another good indicator is the speed of the exercise and how you feel after completing the prescribed amount of sets. So if your last few reps are slow and strenuous and you feel out of breath, you're actually probably using the right level of resistance. But if you find yourself flanging through this set with the last few reps and it's just as easy as the other ones, then you know it's time to go up heavier. I hope that, that makes sense.
I know for me, whenever I am deciding if I am moving up, typically because I personally don't have 17.5 dumbbells, which I wish I did because there's so many exercises that I think that would be a good medium for me. It's really important for me to just identify if it's ready for me to go up, jump that five pounds, which is 10 pounds total on that specific exercise. And I have to be really mindful about it, because I can easily tell it. If I bump up from fifteens to twenties for example on bicep curls and I just can barely pull up the bicep curl on rep eight, or rep... Even rep seven or eight or nine, that's just a good indicator. Stay at fifteens, and really slow and steady in that exercise, and make sure that I am really extending the arm all the way through. And then as I'm curling, I'm squeezing the bicep, I'm creating all that tension.
So you just kind of got to be mindful and also be aware of what dumbbells you have available. Like if you are looking to see if you need to jump, you need to ask yourself, what would I be jumping to with the availability of the dumbbells that I have? I know not everyone has the luxury of having every single dumbbell at your house. At the gym is a little different, because they have so many different dumbbells. But just be aware of that and be mindful of that, because that will be a great indicator and will help you understand better when it's time for you to bump it up.
We have three kind of different things that I just talked about, and I want to make sure that you fully get when I'm saying. The first thing is with the prescribed amount of reps, you want to make sure that you are really being mindful of those last couple of reps and seeing how you're feeling. And that will be a great indicator of whether or not you need to stay at the weight that you are currently at, you need to go down in weight or you need to bump it up. Essentially, you're going to be finding your sweet spot between eight to 10 reps. Using the right amount of weight would look like performing eight to 10 reps, so without having to compromise your form but where you don't feel like you could perform one rep more with proper form.
And then for this kind of overview of how you would identify whether or not you need to maintain your weight, you need to go up in weight or you need to decrease weight, you would do the same thing for, let's say, for example two sets of 12 reps. So your prescribed reps is 12 or your prescribed reps is 15, really look for those three to four last reps in that prescribed set. For 12 it would be like, hey, let's look at rep nine rep 10, rep 11, rep 12. Those are the last kind of four, how are you doing with those last four-ish reps? And then 15 again, it would be 13, 14, 15, how are you doing on those last couple of reps?
One more piece of advice for this particularly, because you are looking at proper form. If you don't have a mirror by you when you're working out... I know for me actually don't have a mirror downstairs in my basement. I love, love, love taking videos of my exercise. I know it might sound weird for some, for other people you love doing it too. But for me, I just love it because it allows me to kind of look back on my form. If you don't have a mirror that you're looking at, it can feel like, oh yeah, I'm crushing this movement. But then when you record it and you look back at yourself, you're like, oh, this is actually not proper form. Which kind of goes back to, it's really important that when you first do a specific exercise, you see a demonstrated video.
You see a video demonstration of that movement, so that way you know what to compare your form to the proper form. Because I think oftentimes if you're just strictly going off of something like Instagram or a workout that is not really a video demonstration, that is people actually working out. And in a lot of cases, the form that you see on Instagram videos from just fitness influencers all over, it's not the correct form. Or they sped it up because they wanted it to be a faster version, because they know that the span of people's attention is very small and so they sped it up. It's just important that you see it at the speed that it needs to be in your video demonstration, and then you see the proper form. Make sure whenever you're doing, you know what proper form looks like so that you can compare your form to that form.
The next question is, how much should you add? If you are like, okay, yes, I'm at a place where I need to add weight. It's getting really easy those last couple reps. Now that you've determined that and you need to increase your resistance on the exercise, how do you know how much to add? I know this is one of the most difficult things to navigate when weight training, so the key here is to increase slowly. It's better to add a little bit of weight where you could do more, rather than adding too much and then hurting yourself because you can always add weight on the next set. So keep that in mind, and it's a good rule of thumb that I always like to go by.
If you're using free weights, so dumbbells for example, the progression is fairly simple. The next weight that you would most likely jump up to is, either 2.5 or five pounds. And that would be 2.5 pounds on each, which would be a total of five pound increase because if you're using two dumbbells, depending. Sometimes you're just using one dumbbell. Like for example, if you're doing like back rows and you're doing single arm back rows, that's obviously one dumbbell. I mean, typically, dumbbells go from 10, 12, 12.5 and 15, 17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, et cetera. And then many machines will have 2.5 weight increases, or they'll jump up to five, or they'll jump up to 10. So just be very, very mindful of that when you're looking at machines in the gym.
My rule of thumb, again, just move up slowly and use your last few reps to gauge to determine if you found your new way. If you add weight and you get to rep five or six and you feel like you haven't worked anything at all, you can pause for a moment, quickly readjust your way and continue the laps, four or five reps. Remember, that it doesn't have to be perfect. This is you trying to find your weight. And I would rather you find your weight... Be mindful of that... Mid set if you're like, this is way too easy for me or this is way too hard. I would rather you do that and allow yourself the appropriate weight than risking the injury.
As a rule of thumb, many fitness professionals will say not to increase your weight more than 10% at a time. Let's say for example, you're currently lifting a hundred pounds on the barbell squat. When you're increasing your weight, you would add no more than 10 pounds. And you do that incrementally. Again, you're like, okay, I'm lifting a 100 pounds on a barbell squat. That's super easy. I'm getting 12, five, six. It's like I'm barely doing anything. Or I feel like I'm working anything, add 10 pounds. I know it doesn't feel like a lot, but add 10 pounds. Then do your last couple of reps, and then try the full amount of reps with the new 110 pounds. And then see, gauge where you're at again.When you're into five or six reps, how are you feeling? Is it getting harder? Do you still feel like it's very easy and you're maintaining good, proper form? Add another 10 pounds, and complete the rest of that. And then, that's how you would work up to try and find your weight.
Keep in mind though, this is not something that I want you to consistently do every single day. It's really important that once you kind of find a good weight, that you stick with that weight for a while to let your... Like I said... Let your muscles acclimate to it. And as soon as your muscles have acclimated to it and it's become easy, like your new found 120 pounds on the barbell squat feels like the 100 pounds a few weeks ago did. Then it's time for you to make your body uncomfy again. But I don't want you to constantly change your weight back and forth, because that's going to be very, very difficult to track. So, just keep that in mind. Which kind of goes into the next point that I'm going to be talking about is, keeping track of the weight that you're using every exercise.
So if you work out in a gym, you might see some people having a lifter's journal. And basically, this can be a super valuable tool for people to just write down specific weights that they have felt like they've nailed in terms of, this is very challenging, but I feel like I have good form and I feel like it's actually challenging my muscles. That way you can constantly assess your progress, and you'll also be able to look back on how far you've come. This is also why we created My Movement With Julie app to have the ability to log your weight, because I think it's really important that you're constantly logging your weight so that you remember what you did the previous time.
Let's say for example, you add curtsy lunges and you're like, oh wait, I remember we did that a couple of weeks ago. What was the weight that I used and that felt really good? Then you can look back and say, oh yeah, that's right, I used 10-pound dumbbells on either side, or whatever. And so, you can continue with that. Fitness logs can also help you determine what area you might need to work on. So if you're looking at something and you're like, man, my bench press, or my dumbbell lunges or my shoulder press hasn't really gone up in a long time. Maybe it's time for you to evaluate and ask yourself if you have taken the time to see if you need to bump up in weight.
So, just kind of jotting down brief notes. I know a lot of the girls inside the Movement With Julie app, they log their weight. And then, also they have some sort of journal that they keep just to kind of give a overview of how you felt on that workout. So remember, it's not just the weight that is the determined. There's so many factors that go into how much you lift every day. Like if you're lacking sleep, if you're not drinking enough water, if you skipped breakfast, there's so many variables. And so, that's why having a specific fitness log for your workouts can be super helpful for you. Because then you're able to look back and say, oh yeah, that's right, I was very low energy because I only got five hours of sleep, and I forgot to eat breakfast before I worked out. Those are all variables in you lifting, so just making sure that you have that is important.
Another thing that I wanted to briefly touch on is, what if you're doing new workouts weekly, how do you gauge going up in weight? And this is a question because inside the Movement With Julie app, we do have a lot of different variations of workouts weekly, simply because it helps prevent boredom. It also allows people to get outside their comfort zone, and it just allows them to stay consistent, and excited with their workout and working different muscle groups in different ways and things like that. Generally if you're doing different workouts weekly, you're simply just doing variations of a similar exercise or an exercise that is working a very similar muscle group. If one week you're doing, let's say reverse lunges, and then the next week you're doing walking lunges or you're doing forward lunges. We just did a variation of a forward lunge with alternating dumbbell under your leg, similar to how you would with a basketball. Those are just variations, and they're technically working the same muscle groups. So if you are like, I don't know what I should do on this specific exercise.
A great rule of thumb is to go off of, what did I do for a forward lunge last week? Or what did I do for walking lunges a couple of weeks ago? And kind of go off of that and see if that's a good starting place. And then use the new tools that you have in your toolbox to ask yourself and evaluate if you need to maintain that weight, if that weight's good. Or if you need to go up or go down in it. Even if your workouts look different than they did last week and you're not doing the same exact movements, using that rule of thumb will help you, and it will help you to translate it into the next week as well. Ultimately, remember that smart lifting is better than anything else. You've got to give yourself time, be patient with yourself, and ultimately it will come naturally when you start practicing it more.
I just want to briefly go through the couple things that I mentioned. The first thing, if you are brand new in weightlifting, again starting light. Around 50% less than what you think you can do, and then slowly increase that. And make sure that you are going into those dynamic stretches for your upper body or lower body, and you're really taking those five to 10 minutes before your workout to stretch those muscles, to improve their flexibility. And then you are asking yourself if you need to increase your weight, just looking at those last couple of reps and asking yourself if you're maintaining that good proper form. Or if you are compromising your form because the weight is too heavy, that's a great indicator of if you need to maintain, you need to increase or you need to decrease your weight.
And then when you're looking at how much, if you've kind of determined I need to increase the weight, how much do I add? Again, it's that 10% rule. So, think about that. If you're at a 100-pound barbell squat and you feel like that's really easy, increase to 10%, which would be 10 pounds. Do the same thing, and reevaluate. Just remember that you're not constantly changing your weight because that's going to be really hard for you to track, which leads me into my last thing is tracking your weight that you're using for specific exercises. And then also just tracking overall how you're feeling, how your sleep was. Were you drinking enough water? Were you eating enough? All the things, so that you can really identify that, and keep a log of that because it's great to look back on.
I hope that this episode, you found it informative. I hope that this helped you in some way, just making you feel more confident when knowing how to move up in weight. I know that this can be a tricky thing, and I know that people get very fearful. But I want you to get outside your comfort zone. I encourage you to practice this. If you have questions, feel free to DM me. I am always open to DM. I'm on Instagram, Juliealedbetter. Also, if you are not part of a program and you're wanting the capability to log your specific weight that you're using, and just be overall a part of a community, and also a part of a program that will help you get outside your comfort zone. I do have my Movement With Julie weekly workout app. It's an amazing resource for you. Every single week, I give you five brand new workouts.
On Sunday at 12:00 PM Mountain Standard Time, there's a community of hundreds of women all across the world and we're all working out together. And it's just a great community, a great camaraderie, especially during this time. Specifically as I'm recording this, we are in quarantine, so it can feel a lonely time. But having that virtual community has just been lifesaving for me, and it's also really helped me bump up my intensity of my workouts because I just feel held accountable, which is great.
Again, thank you so much for tuning in. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me. I'd love to see you screenshot this, post it up on your story, tag your friends. Tag me, so that I can see it and can personally thank you for tuning in. I will talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so Juliealedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily, post-workout, real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode.
Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface, so go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.