Exercise Discussion/Question of the Month
We will be taking one question each month asked in the Body-Improvements Forum and highlighting it here along with an answer. Please visit FORUM WEB ADDRESS to submit your question today.
Q: I'm new to weight lifting and am unsure how I should go about picking a weight I should start out with on each exercise. I feel like I need to go heavy if I'm going to feel like I had a good workout.
A: A lot of people get hung up on this step. It really doesn't have to be all that hard though. Here are a few general rules:
1. The most important thing to keep in mind is starting too conservatively is always better than starting too aggressively. Most people just starting out have been inactive for years. At the very least, they haven't touched a weight in years. It doesn't make much sense to start out with heavy weights relative to your current strength levels for the sake of "having a good workout." A few weeks of conservative lifts will go a long way in preparing your body for the stress of resistance training and it certainly isn't going to make or break you.
2. On that same front, it's important to work out some of the "kinks" that have accumlated over the years when you were less active. This is a topic for another article all together but, suffice it to say, with the inactive lifestyles many of us lead it's much more common to find a number of kinks on most people. These kinks come most commonly by way of muscle imbalances and flexibility issues. Jumping right into heavy lifting without assessing and correcting your kinks can exacerbate the issues. You must build an effective and efficient foundation before really pushing the weight.
3. Many trainers will prescribe a weight based on a 1RM (rep max) or RM number determined during testing. Your 1RM is the max amount of weight you can lift for one repetition in a given exercise. Your RM is the max amount of weight you can lift for a given number of reps.
For instance, one might determine that their 1RM in the bench press is 100 lbs. This person might want to start with a program that uses sets of 15 reps per exercise. Knowing that their 1 RM is 100 lbs, it can be estimated that their 15 RM is approximately 65 lbs. However, keeping in mind we want to start conservatively, one might start with a weight of 50 lbs and build up from this point.
4. Often times, at this point in the discussion, it's not unusual to hear a client clamor about how difficult the above seems. And to be honest, all of that math isn't necessary. Keep in mind that in an ideal world, an individual starts out learning and using free weight exercises. As an example, when teaching the basic barbell lifts, we'll start the client out with no weight on the bar. The first session might not use anything above the weight of an empty barbell. Low weights allow for the execution of a high number of reps (12-20 per set) which helps the client get a feel for the movement.
The first week or so isn't about the *effort* you put into moving weight. It's not even about having a positive effect from training, unless you label learning proper form a positive effect.
Once it's obvious that form is understood, we'll start adding weight incrementally on each progressive set. This will be in this same workout session or the second. This is a touch & feel process... if the weight is going up with absolute ease, obviously you can make larger, incremental jumps in weight. In the context of this discussion, a low increase in weight might be 5 lbs per set and a high increase in weight might be 25+ lbs per set.
We keep adding weight to the bar until there is a small breakdown in form... small being the key word. You don't want to push pushing yourself to failure, especially during this initial test phase. This breakdown can come in the form of something as little as a shaky rep. Once this occurs, you've found your starting weight to use from this point forward.
Where you go from there is a topic for another article regarding periodization and progressive overload.
5. The same process can be done with any form of resistance training (e.g., machines, dumbbells, etc).
6. To bring it all together, you want to start by picking a rep range you want to shoot for in each exercise. Remember, different rep ranges have different acute and chronic impacts on the body. For instance, high reps may lead to more volume thus creating a larger caloric expenditure. Low reps tend to have a greater impact on enhancing strength and muscle maintenance. It's not an either-or proposition though.... in most cases a combination is best, which also is beyond the scope of this article.
Once your rep ranges are decided, select a conservative weight to use for each exercise. By conservative, the first week or so should not be difficult at all. This will allow for optimal practice and enhance proper mechanics of each lift. It's important to remember that there's no sense in really pushing weight until you are certain you are doing the movements correctly. Don't do more than that just because it felt easy and light. Instead notate this in your training journal (which you should be keeping) and realize that next week you should up the weight a bit.
For instance, if your rep range is 8-12 and this is what your weeks look like for the bench press:
Week 1: 50 lbs for 8 reps
Week 2: 50 lbs for 10 reps
Week 3: 50 lbs for 12 reps
It's safe to assume that in week 4 you could ramp the weight up a bit to keep you within your rep range.
Week 4: 55 lbs for 10 reps
If there are any questions stemming from this article, please do not hesitate to email us at info@body-improvements.com or come to our forum and start a thread discussing this topic in the training section.
Exercise Philosophy
Today's media has transformed a relatively simple concept into one bordering the intensiveness in difficulty of rocket science. This concept we speak of is that of exercise. How should you go about exercising to reach a certain goal?
For all intents and purposes, we'll define the media as that which promotes a certain concept or idea in hopes of generating a monetary profit. Think magazines, commercials, books, gurus, etc.
In a day in age where a premium is placed on an individual's weight and looks, this media sets out to “muddy the waters” with false advertising and erroneous claims in hopes of confusing the customer. Confusion creates uncertainty, which in-turn leads to a sense of need. This is how the popular media taps into your wallets by way of your hopes and dreams. Package all of this together and you've got companies making fortunes off the frustrations of the masses. Worse yet, the advice and products they're selling is known to cause more harm than good.
Body-Improvements exists to banish this “hit & run” mentality used by the media. With strong core values of truly helping people by means of education and instruction, Body-Improvements tends to be a contrarian by nature and strongly values simplicity.
With this said, what are the core values with regards to exercise held by Body-Improvements?
- Resistance training using the basic exercises
- Managing fatigue and recovery
- An emphasis on matching exercise dose and mode to the client’s specific goals
- Assuring that client's goals do not conflict one another are are appropriate while establishing and helping maintain a goal-driven mentality
- Aerobic exercise for aiding caloric control as well as cardiorespiratory fitness
- Matching exercise selection and mode to individual client ability and availability of equipment
In truth, our primary value is maintaining the integrity of the basic principles, logic, and sciences dealing with health and fitness and being able to break these variables down into understandable, usable chunks for our clients to apply to their lifestyles.
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