What Weights Should I Be Using?

Rep Range to Increase Muscle Size

• For muscle strength (that is building your pure strength) Rep range is usually around 6-8 reps. The idea would be to select a weight where you fail over an above this range or you only have 1-3 reps in reserve.  
• For muscle hypertrophy (which focuses on building lean muscle, strength endurance + burn fat) This tends to be 8-20 reps to failure or 1-3 reps in reserve. If you are doing Fitness Bites, this would be our URstrength workout, so select a weight that allows you to fatique the muscle within the target rep range.
• For Muscle Endurance (think those high rep arm exercises in URfit!) this is usually 15+ reps at a lower intensity. Building muscle endurance in this way translates to helping us stay strong in every day activities, reducing injury + feeling less fatiqued.

Getting the weight right:

• The weight you choose should lead to muscle fatigue. If you feel like you could ‘go on forever’ with the weight you are using, it is likely you have gone too light. If you go too heavy, there is a risk of not being able to perform the rep range + increase risk of injury.

Progressive Overload:

• As your body starts to adapt + you stimulate muscle growth, you will need to increase your weights. It is important you still feel challenged by the weights you are using to ensure you are making progress, building your strength + increasing lean muscle mass. (After all we start losing 3-5% of muscle mass per decade after the age of 30) If you don’t have a wide range of weights are home, look to increase the rep range or add extra resistance with bands.

Experiment:

• It may take a bit of experimenting to find the right weight for you. Don’t be afraid to mix up your weights during a workout. There maybe some exercises e.g deadlifts + squats where you can go a bit heavier + some such as overhead exercises you may need to go a bit lighter. You can always up the weights during a workout or drop down if they feel too much!!

Don’t get swayed by everything you see on social media about women needing to ‘lift heavy sh*t!! Of course this is great for some women, but the most important thing is to get your form right, exercise consistently + build up slowly. And don’t forget the power of bodyweight exercises too – being able to achieve x1 full push up is huge…there is so much you can do at home to improve your strength + build muscle before getting into the super heavy stuff!

I always recommend starting light, build up gradually + follow a structured program to achieve the goals you are looking for. FITNESS BITES are x3 short focused workouts a week working different muscle groups, along with short bursts of cardio to give you the perfect mix to achieve the best results in midlife.

Why don’t you come + check them out + start your Fitness journey right now!!