How heavy should you lift?

This article is written by Rob Maxwell (learn about his education), M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.

How heavy should the weights be?

I have covered how many sets to do, how many reps to do and what tempo the reps should be done at. Now it is time to talk about load. How heavy should you go? This, like the other acute variables, is a highly talked about subject matter as well.

"Heaviness" was my first introduction to working out. I can remember being in junior high and one of the ways you could establish perceived dominance over your peers was to have a superior bench press - or tell people how much you could bench because I am not so sure what we did and said were the same thing.

I know for me it was my first big goal. I wanted to be stronger and I wanted to bench more! I remember when I first did 100 pounds as a kid. I was immensely proud. I also remember when I got stuck working out in my garage by myself bench pressing and having to maneuver the weights off my chest. Load does matter.

There is an inverse relationship between reps and weight

When I was discussing reps before, you may remember me stating that there is an inverse relationship between reps and loads. This is a fact.

You aren't going to be able to do lots of reps on a heavier load. You can do lots of reps with a lighter load. That is a fact.

Load is subjective

Load is also subjective - at least when we talk about heavy, moderate, and light. Heavy to one person might be a warm-up set to another.

So one of the first declarations I will make about load is this: Do not compare yourself to other people. It is really a waste of your time and energy.

We know this: The heavier the load, the stronger you will get if you keep your form good and compare apples to apples.

When I was a young teen and wanted to increase my bench press, I was not going to get stronger if I did not add load.

We know that increasing loads will make us stronger. We also know that increasing load (weight) when the form is poor and the goal is different is not very productive.

How heavy should you go?

In exercise physiology worlds, heaviness means load. What is the load? Like I said above the actual loads are very subjective. You cannot call a certain weight heavy. It may not be.

Did you mean hard? Hard is achieved in many ways and it is all supposed to be hard. I have seen people use 100-pound dumbbells for lying chest press and do multiple reps. They would not call that heavy while others would not be able to move one of them out of their way to get to a machine. It is subjective.

What is heavy to one is not heavy to another if you are talking pure loads. What is 50 pounds? It is 50 pounds. That is all that it is. It can be thought of as light or heavy depending on what you are doing.

Weight is not the best definition and level of hardness is not the best definition of load - so what is?

Three ways to determine the best load

In the training world there are three ways to decide how much load to use.

1. Percentage of 1 rep maximum

2. Rep Maximum

3. Wing it

Let me review these three.

1. Percentage of 1 rep maximum

In the strength and conditioning world of sports, the percent of 1 rep maximum is the most used. There have been quite a few studies that show that it is accurate. There are also quite a few studies that show it is a little bit wrong, but the concept is good.

What it means is that you can take a certain percent of the maximum a person can lift a weight ONE time and use it as a training prescription.

It looks something like this:

• If you use 85% of the person’s 1 Rep Max you will build maximal strength
• 70-to 85% of the one rep max is best for hypertrophy and general strength
• Lighter than 70% is ideal for muscular endurance

There is some credence to this. There have also been many studies that show that it is more exercise specific - so it is hard to say that that is the ideal way to go across the board.

I will say for maximal compound lifts that you would use in athletics it is an incredibly good ballpark.

The percentages are then mixed to a rep range.

Greater than 85% is associated with 6 or fewer reps. 70 to 85% ranges are associated with 6 to 12 reps. Less than 70% is associated with more than 12 reps.

2. Rep maximum

The second method, Rep Maximum, is a little more practical. All that it means is that you use the maximal load you can use for a given rep number.

So, if you are supposed to be doing 12 reps then you use the maximum weight that you can use for those 12 reps in good form. That would be called 12RM.

When you look at the above paragraph and you see that the percent of 1 Rep Max is associated with a given rep range then you can see that this is a perfectly accurate way to go.

If it is going to go back to the reps anyway than why not just go to the reps? It is accurate.

It hammers home a crucial point and that is that you should be using the maximum load YOU can use for a given rep number.

3. Wing it

The final way of “winging” it is part joke, but it is the most common way that people choose the loads in a gym - or they simply pick an easy load.

I am a big believer in biology and human nature. Wait, is that the same thing? Anyway, people will go by the path of least resistance. No pun intended.

So, if you just tell a person to pick a weight, they will be shortchanging themselves.

Rep Maximum is a way for you to push not to do that. If you know that you should use the best load for a given rep and set count, you will use a more appropriate weight because you are being more objective.

Once that gets into your mindset and you really buy into it, winging it will work better.

So how heavy should you go?

The best and shortest answer is to use the heaviest load that you can use for a given rep amount while maintaining good form.

We must remember at this point that there really is not a magic rep number. We know that if we are doing lower reps like 6 or less and using the appropriate weight for that 6 then that is going to work more on maximal strength.

And if we are using the appropriate weight for 12 reps then that is going to work more on hypertrophy, tone and general strength - but all will bring results.

Getting remarkably close to fatigue is the big key whether you are doing high reps or lower reps.

Studies show that good things happen at both ends. You must use appropriate load though. Common sense tells us that if a bodybuilder is going to do 30 reps pump sets than he/she will use far less weight than if they are doing sets of 6.

Both sets can be highly effective if the set feels “hard” and the muscles are being worked to exhaustion or close it.

For some general guidelines, “heavy” is considered anything that is the Rep Max for 6 reps or fewer, “medium/moderate” is anything that is Rep Max for 8-12 reps, and “light” is a load that is Rep Maximum for a load that is being used in 12 or higher reps.

A big key that I want to go back to here is do not confuse “heavy” for hard or “light” for easy - or, my favorite, “okay” for “medium.” It is all supposed to be hard!

In fact, any experienced lifter will tell you it is far harder to do light/high rep sets (when done correctly) than heavy/low rep sets done correctly. It's all supposed to be hard.

It is easy to grab some “light” dumbbells in your estimation and do 15 “easy” reps, but that is pointless. And if you say that is what you heard builds “tone” then I will throw my computer mouse at you, somehow!

Tone is built by having hard muscles under lean skin that came about from working out and proper diet.

There is no such thing as spot reduction. The only way that that scenario is productive is if you are rehabbing an area and doing those “easy” sets for rehabilitation.

We should always be striving for rep maximum. And look, we can all do that. It is very subjective. If you feel like the best you really can do is a certain load for a certain number of reps, then who can dispute that?

Use the maximum weight that YOU can use, in good form, for the prescribed reps. I cannot say it any clearer than that.

Dynamic Constant External Resistance

How many reps should you do? Do your best. Strength training done in gyms using weights, bands, machines, etc. is called DCER—Dynamic Constant External Resistance.

This means that you move the joint (dynamic means moving), you are holding constant tension on the muscles and you are using External Resistance through the “normal” range of motion. The Resistance is the load and the EXTERNAL means weights, tubes, or machine plates. It is not internal. There must be an outside load. So if you want the benefits of strength training (or if not, why would you be doing it), then you need to use the best External Load that you can.

This article is written by Rob Maxwell (learn about his education), M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.