6 Rules for Determining The Weight to Use in Your Workouts
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How much weight should you be lifting?! That is the ultimate question, am I right? Seriously, this is one of the most frequently asked questions I get and that’s why I’ve decided to dedicate an entire podcast episode to the topic. Not only am I going to explain how much weight you should begin with if you are new to working out, but explain how to know when you need to move up in weight, how you should constantly be monitoring if you need to move up in weight, why it’s important to continue lifting heavier weights, and how to know if you are lifting TOO heavy of weights.
Things I discuss:
Rule #1: Start light and work your way up
Rule #2: You should never compromise form.
Rule #3: The goal is to be able to perform 70-90% of the movements with ease
Rule #4: If you can’t perform 8 reps, you’re trying to lift too heavy. If you can easily perform 12 reps, you’re lifting too light
Rule #5: Use progressive overload
Rule #6: You need to get uncomfortable
Link mentioned in this episode:
Episode 13: How Much Weight Should I be Lifting?
Episode 68: Getting Off Your Fitness Plateau with Progressive Overload https://www.movementwithjulie.com/
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Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real let's get it. Let's go. [00:00:29]
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast. I am so pumped about today's episode. I feel like I say that every time. But you guys, this is something that so many people ask me and so I'm just creating these podcasts that I can continue to direct people and hopes that this helps you in some way, shape or form in your health and fitness journey. So today's topic, we're talking about six rules for determining the weight to use in your workout. So how much weight should you be lifting? That is truly the ultimate question. Seriously, this is one of my most frequently asked questions that I get, and so that's why I decided to do an entire podcast episode on this topic alone. Not only am I going to talk about and explain how much weight you should begin with if you're new to working out or if you're just coming back. But I'm also going to explain kind of when to know to move up in weight, because it's really important that you're constantly monitoring this aspect of your journey and also why it's important to continue lifting heavier weights. Right. And know also which part of you continuing to lift heavy weights is also kind of when to know if you're lifting too heavy of a weight. So that is what I'm going to be diving into in today's episode.
Before I dive in, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Annie K 620. She gave a five star review and said, Sole Sister Julie, I love you so much. I am blessed to have found your podcast and it has been wonderful listening to someone whose journey and faith and health has been similar to my own. I love your practical tips, honest vulnerability, and your past eating disorder struggles, and that you are also unafraid to share your faith and love of Jesus keeping you and who He has caused you to be. I love this so much and thank you so much for this review. I appreciate every single one of your guys's reviews. If you haven't already read it and read the podcast, that is my one ask of you. It really does help us out on the podcast. Just helps to not only rank us, but also it helps when people kind of stumble upon the podcast page. They're able to check out their reviews and see what is how this podcast is helping people and also it helps our team, right? So when we know what is helping you, we can do more of that so that we can continue giving you exactly what you want on this podcast. So thank you so much for your review. If you haven't already gone to Apple Podcasts, you just type in embrace a reel to Apple Podcasts. That is a app that comes on every single Apple device. And first, make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode and then you can leave a rating and review down at the bottom. It really does, like I said, help us out and also helps our team out.
Okay, so let's dive into the six rules for determining the way to use in your workouts. Rule number one, start light and work your way up. So if you're just starting out, this is what I always recommend. I recommend you starting out with at least one light pair, which I consider to be 5lbs, 8lbs or 10lbs, and then one medium to heavy pair, which is 12lbs, 15lbs or 20lbs. So typically for upper body, you will likely use the lighter pair a lot more. And then when it comes to lower body, obviously it's a bigger muscle group, so you're likely going to use the medium to heavier pair more if you are just starting out. I would recommend kind of maybe starting with 5lbs for your light pair it or 8lbs depending on maybe you've been doing this for, you know, a couple of months or a couple of years, but you're not like experienced. I would start with five or 8 for your light pair and then for your medium to heavy pair. I say 12lbs to 15lbs to either 12lbs or 15lbs. Either one of those could even be 12 and a half pounds. I know that that is a dumbbell that people get that is going to be sufficient for you, especially for some of those lower body movements. And I really think that you'll be able to get the most out of that. So just, you know, start with those two pairs. That's truly all that you need. If you want to get the most out of your weightlifting, I would recommend getting a 5lbs to 25lbs set. I've seen Amazon have some really good deals right now. I've seen them about, I think it was last week, it was 197$, which I know might sound like a splurge. But I'm telling you, dumbbells are going to last you for ever, literally forever. And they're such a great investment. And typically I think they're they range around $350 to 3, $99. So it was a great deal. I do have some on my Amazon storefront and I will link that in the show notes below. So if you want to go check those out on Amazon, you can definitely recommend starting light and then kind of working your way up.
Rule number two is that you should never compromise your form. I see this all the time. You need to start small, start light. Do not feel embarrassed, do not feel ashamed. It is so much more. You're going to get so much more out of your journey when you have that mind muscle connection versus you just trying to lift heavier weight because you want to add that to lots. Your work out, right? Please, please, please don't make this mistake. If you are lifting in your form is compromised, you need to lift lighter weights. Form is so important for a few reasons. Number one, poor form will always lead to injuries. Number two, poor form means that you aren't working the right muscles. So when you're not targeting the right muscles, you're not going to see the results that you want. And number three, poor form means that you're literally going to get zero benefits from the exercise. So again, I'd much rather you lift lighter and have an immaculate form versus you trying to lift heavier and your form be compromised. Right. So please, please, please humble yourself. I know, especially if you're working out at a gym or in a public setting, it can feel embarrassing. This is why I always say go to the aerobic room. The aerobic room is one of the most underrated rooms in the gyms. If you are working out at the gym because it is number one filled with mares, which is awesome and so good when you're trying to perfect your form. And number two, it is filled with dumbbells, which is so great because you literally have ranges typically from 2lbs all the way to 15lbs or 20lbs, which is all that you need. So find that aerobic room in your gym and that's going to serve you long term, but humble yourself and just know that you are going to think yourself later when you really start to perfect that form with the lighter weight. And then once you continue to get that muscle memory, over time, you'll be able to lift heavier.
Rule number three The goal is to be able to perform 70 to 90% of the reps with ease. So this means if you're aiming for 12 reps, the first nine rep should be pretty easy. They should go fairly. I wouldn't say quickly because I always recommend slowing down versus speeding up. I think many times when we are just wanting to get through something, that's when form can be compromised. So the first nine reps should be pretty easy, but then Rep ten, Rep 11 and Rep 12, that should be where you're really kind of you're struggling, but it's not impossible. So it's definitely a feat for you, but it's not something where you feel like you're compromising your form again. Another example if you are performing eight reps, the first 1 to 7 should be fairly easy and then you know, you should barely get up on Rep eight. Like it's like up, up, up, up, up, up, up. I know recently I've been working out with my husband Joshua again, which I haven't been working out with him in gosh, over three and a half years since I started working out from home. And so it's been really fun a few days a week to work out with him and man, I forgot what it's like to be able to cheer someone on when you're like on the last few reps, like, go, go, go. You got it, you got it, you got it. So that's really cool. But that's definitely something that I always recommend is kind of to recap that if you have the right weight for you, the last 1 to 3 reps should be challenging for you, but not impossible while maintaining proper form. Right? So once you really find the perfect weights for specific movements, I want to encourage you to stay consistent with it, at least for a few weeks, if not for a few months, depending on how consistent you are, and really make sure that you're tracking it in the history. If you're inside movement with Julie, there is a history tab for every single movement that you're able to check out and that will tell you exactly the date as well as how many reps and the way that you logged wise. So first, one side note that I wanted to share with you on that is when you're logging away, for example, inside a movement would usually make sure that you are logging the full volume. So for example, let's say you're tracking 12 reps of bicep curls. If you're holding two 10 dumbbells in your hands, you would log 20, you would not log 10, you would log 20 if it is both arms, bicep curls. And so that way you're making sure that you're not only logging your total volume, but also you're able to know like, okay, when I log 20, that means I was holding two 10 dumbbells. So I hope that makes sense. The same thing would apply if you're logging like a single workout or a single exercise, excuse me, single side on an exercise. So a single arm back row if you are holding a 20 dumbbell, remember, if you're logging the total volume that you lifted in each set, you would actually log 40 instead of 20 because you're logging 40 total. I hope that I hope that that makes sense. If feel free to reach out to me if that doesn't make sense. But again, just make sure that you are logging the total weight. And again, rule number three, the goal is to be able to perform 70 to 90% of the movements with ease.
Rule number four, if you can't perform eight reps, you're trying to lift too heavy. And if you can easily perform 12 reps, you're likely lifting two light. So your rep range is typically going to be within that. 8 to 12 rep range, sometimes 15 depending. But this kind of rep range itself triggers the hypertrophy, and the formal definition of hypertrophy is just an increase and growth in muscle cells. So hypertrophy refers to an increase in muscular size achieve through exercise. So again, this muscle growth is optimally triggered within that 8 to 12 rep range. But if you can easily do three sets of 12 reps on a particular exercise, you're not going to be igniting muscle growth, which means that you likely need to be lifting heavier. So if you're performing 12 reps and Rep ten Rep 11 and Rep 12 were really hard, but you're still able to do it with good form. Then that is when you are inducing hypertrophy and you know that you're using the right amount of weight. So remember this, if you are hitting all, for example, kind of going off this example, if you're hitting 12 reps for all three or four sets or however many sets you're aiming to do, then you know it's time to move up in weight. So kind of once for me, once I start lifting that new weight, then my new goal is to kind of go back to square one and ask myself like, am I able to do eight reps of this with ease, you know, with maybe the last one being a little bit more difficult and so on and so forth. And again, this is just going to take time, especially if you've never lifted before or if you've never really lifted within tension like this before. It's just going to take time to understand what movements and what your weight is for each exercise. I always say that if this is going to stress you out and cause you to not stay consistent by like logging your weight and all of that stuff, do not worry about logging the weight. Stay consistent first, create the habit, create that muscle memory, and then over time you'll be able to log your weights. I will say that it is really encouraging to look back on like literally day one and be like, Wow, I was lifting this and you know, a year later you're lifting X, Y and Z. That can be super encouraging. But you have to ask yourself, what is going to allow me to stay consistent? And if that is not tracking your weight to begin with and just getting down the habit of working out and staying consistent in your workouts, let that be that there be enough. I will say that typically a lot of times, like I mentioned earlier, for your lighter pair, if you're especially only having two pairs of dumbbells to work with, you're going to use the lighter pair of dumbbells for your upper body and then the medium to heavy pair of dumbbells for your lower body. A lot of the times it's pretty, pretty rare that you're going to use like the light pair for leg movements, depending like especially with fives, I would say maybe eights or tens can definitely be enough for some leg movements. But yeah, that's a kind of general rule of thumb.
Rule number five Use progressive overload. So remember that the human body will not change unless it's forced to. And this is why it's really important to never grow complacent in your training. So first, I want to kind of describe what progressive overload is. So essentially it involves increasing the demands of the musculoskeletal system to continue to make gains in muscle size, strength and endurance. So simply put, in order to get stronger, you must continually make your muscles work harder than they're used to because your body is very adaptive. So if you're constantly using the same number of reps at the same load, you'll likely plateau in your results, which is where kind of your body adapts. This typically means like increasing your resistance, a.k.a. upping the weight for use for specific exercises. But there's also some other methods to increase overload. If it's not an option for you, or if you don't want to compromise your form in terms of your weight. Like if you don't feel ready to move up in weight but you want to implement progressive overload, there's a few other ways to do that. So the first way, like I mentioned before, is increasing the resistance. So I typically suggest small jumps to ensure that you're maintaining proper form. So for example, if you're using 8, maybe try 10, or if you're using 10, maybe try 12 and a half pounds. Don't try to jump from 8 to 15. That's going to be too big of a jump. I know it doesn't seem like it's going to be a big jump, but it is, especially if you want to maintain proper form throughout all of those reps. So keep that in mind. Another method of kind of increasing the overload is to increase the reps. So if you can't move up in resistance, whether you don't have access to the weights or you don't feel like you can perform the movement with proper form at the higher weight, I always encourage you to increase a few more reps. So like I mentioned before, the muscle building rep range is about 8 to 12, which applies to most of the compound movements. So for example, if an exercise calls for eight reps, try completing 12 reps instead of the prescribed eight reps. Or if you see an arm wrap, which means as many reps as possible for an exercise, try beating your best last time you did the movement by one. Two three reps again while prioritizing and maintaining that proper form. Number three, another way to kind of increase the overload is to increase the volume. So another way to increase is to increase the volume in set. So if the movement calls for 12 reps, since it's really not recommended that you go above 12 reps for muscle building, you could instead do another set. So for example, if a superset calls for two sets of 12 reps, you could instead do three sets of 12 reps to increase your overall volume. So another way to increase your overload is to reduce the in-between set rest interval. So essentially, this is allowing you to do the same work in less amount of time. So this is going to allow your body to become more metabolically efficient in regard to anaerobic exercise, a.k.a. weightlifting, right? So for example, if the rest timer says 30 seconds in between, around, maybe try resting for 15 seconds or 20 seconds. Obviously, make sure that you're listening to your body and make sure that you are resting enough to ensure that you are maintaining proper form. Because if you do this and you, let's say, for example, decrease your rest time, but then you go and shoot for, you know, the next set, but you are not able to maintain that proper form. It's essentially useless. So just make sure that you are able to perform movements with ease as well as, you know, with ease with the exception of like the last few reps being challenging but just maintaining that proper form. And then another way to kind of challenge yourself is if you are previously doing a modified version, try doing the regular version. So maybe this a great example of this. I know a lot of women, myself included, and when I first started, I really struggled with push ups, right? Push ups. Are there just a hard movement? And so maybe you've just been doing push ups on your knees. I would encourage you to maybe try to do 3 to 5 push ups regularly, even if that means you're resting a little bit more in between each rep that you're taking and then complete the remainder of the reps on your knees. But that's just a great way to kind of challenge yourself and again, just keep your body guessing so that you are not just constantly hitting these plateaus.
And lastly, rule number six is that you have to learn to get uncomfortable. If you feel comfortable throughout the entire set, you're not lifting heavy enough. You guys know the quote that your comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever changes there. This is so true and rings so true when it comes to resistance training. If you are feeling comfortable lifting that 10 all day every day, that's great. But you're likely not going to see the changes that you want in your body. Your body composition will change once you start embracing the discomfort of lifting the heavier weights.
So there you have it. There are six rules to finding what weights you need to be lifting, but I also have some frequently asked questions that I wanted to address. So the first things first is if you've never done resistance training before and you want to start working out at home, but you have no idea whether you need the 5 or the 10 for your light pair of dumbbells. I get it. It can feel daunting. It can feel difficult. But here's a couple of ways that you can figure this out. First way is you could find a gym that offers a free day pass and on your first day, go to the gym and kind of test out some different weights and follow these six rules. Right? So ask yourself those things and see if you can find your way to make sure that you're tracking it on your phone so that you remember. But try some bicep curls, try some upper body movements like lateral raises for your shoulders, and then try some lunges and squats for lower body and see how you're feeling with kind of the medium to heavy pair and see which ones kind of, you know, whether that's 5lbs or 8lbs or 10lbs for your light pair or 12lbs, 15lbs or 20lbs for your medium to heavy pair. Another idea is that you can fill a backpack up with random things like see what it feels like, right? So maybe it's two cans or three cans or a box of rice like you can literally get so creative when it comes to this.
I know there's one girl that's been doing my workouts for the last, oh gosh, be three years. I think it will be three years in September. And she started literally just by filling up her backpack with some cans and using some gallon water bottles as like dumbbells for bicep curls and things. And that's kind of how she started. And now she has a full set of dumbbells. She still does every single workout from her bedroom. Amber, if you're listening to this shout out girl, you're amazing. She's a mom of two. She's incredible. And she is so strong and so consistent. But she started, you know, everyone starts somewhere. And so if that's you just start with what you have and see what you can do. If that's, you know, a can of corn or if that's a gallon of water, whatever it is or like I'm a. And earlier. Amazon is also a great place to buy if you want to buy new. I will link the 5lbs to 25lbs dumbbell set that I saw on sale. I don't know if it's on sale today. And I actually, you know, by the time this airs, I don't know if it will be on sale, but you can definitely check it out. If not, you can also type in like 5lbs to 25lbs dumbbell sets if you want to invest in that. Like I said, that you're going to get the most out of that just because you'll have such a wide variety. But if you just want to start with the light pair and the medium to heavy pair, you can also search that on Amazon and that is a great place to get single dumbbells.
Also, I want to mention, if you're looking kind of for a cheaper option, you can always look on Craigslist or Facebook or whatever the local equivalent is that you have available in your local area. There are always people that are either donating or selling their gym equipment, oftentimes for pretty cheap, simply because they just they don't want it around anymore. It's collecting dust and another man's trash is, wait, what is the saying? One man's trash is another person's treasure. That could totally be the case. I know. For me, I started out with dumbbells for my dad. He was he was like, hey, I have these dumbbells. I have the, you know, from 5 to 40. I don't know if you're going to need them or if you would need them. And this was I mean, this was back in 2018. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, I'll take it. And for the first I want to say 4 to 6 months, they collected so much dust in our garage. And I remember Josh saying like, Hey, are you ever going to use these or do you just want to donate them? And I'm like, No, no, no, I think I'll use them. And lo and behold, that is literally how movement with Julie started, which is so crazy to think that it all was from my dad moving to California and saying like, Hey, do you want these dumbbells? And me just randomly saying Yes. So you never truly know what you're what you can get from people. And so yeah, just be on the lookout for used equipment because there is some great stuff out there super cheap. So there you have it. Let me recap those six rules for determining how much weight you should be lifting. Rule number one Start LT and work your way up. Rule number two Remember to never compromise your form. Rule number three The goal is to perform at 70 to 90% of the reps with ease. Rule number four If you can't perform eight reps, you're trying to lift too heavy. But if you can easily perform 12 reps, you are likely lifting to lite rule number five implement progressive overload and rule number six learn to get uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is where growth began.
So there you have it. I also talk about this in episode 13. How much weight should I be lifting? In this episode? I talk more about kind of like 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. And then also why it's important to track weight for each exercise. This is an older OG episode, but definitely check that out. And then also episode 68, getting off your fitness plateau with Progressive Overload. That is episode 68. So if you are new to resistance training and you are looking for a plan, I have a program for you. It's a demo only program. It is 100% beginner friendly, but if you are also experienced, it can work for you. I've been lifting now since 2013, so I've been lifting almost for ten years. And I can tell you all these workouts that I program every single week are ones, the exact ones that I do. So whether you're beginner, there is always modifications. Whether you are experienced, you can always challenge yourself with the sets and the reps and all of that. So definitely for both people, if you want to learn more, you can check it out by going to sale. That's S-A-L-E dot movement with Julie dot com and if you're a new subscriber and you join today I have a 50% off sale going on for your first month so 50% off your first month. You get five brand new workouts every single week delivered straight to your phone and I release them on Saturdays at 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time so you can learn more, hear all the testimonials and see all the things over on that page. That sale, S-A-L-E dot movement with Julie dot com again. I hope that this episode served you. I hope that you got something from it. I love you so, so much. And I'll talk to you in the next episode.
[00:12:25] 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 are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. 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 it real because you're worth it. [00:10:51][0.0]