Everything you need to know about how much weight to lift and when
How much resistance you should use in an exercise depends on
what exercise you are doing
your past performance doing that exercise
the target rep range for your particular workout / goals
Generally, you should be using a weight which makes the exercise challenging.
Weightlifting, aka 'strength training,' aka ‘resistance training,’ is a method of using resistance to trigger adaptation in the muscles, the most common adaptation being increased strength.
Resistance training affects much more than just muscles. The nervous system, tendons and ligaments, even the bones will adapt, as well as the cardiorespiratory system. More on this later.
But first, a little story.
I used to work in a big public gym. An older guy started coming in regularly, like clockwork, 1 hour, 3 days a week. He would go through all the weight machines in a row each time he showed up. He did this for months. I grew to admire his dedication and consistency. We finally ended up chatting one day, and he asked me why he never seemed to see any results in the mirror. I was like “WHAT?!” Turns out he had been doing the same weight, sets, and reps every workout. This guy had somehow managed to succeed at the absolute most difficult part of working out - the “showing up consistently” part – while failing at what I had thought was the most basic part…
Progressive Overload
At the heart of any resistance training program is the concept of ‘progressive overload.' This is a concept so intrinsic to strength training, I had assumed everyone knew it. I’m assuming you know it, right now.
Progressive overload is lifting heavy stuff until you get stronger, at which point you lift heavier stuff. It's a pretty basic concept, where the only real ‘trick’ is lifting stuff that's heavy enough, but not too heavy. Which brings us back to the main question. How much weight is that?
Important: the following information addresses how much weight to lift. Learning proper form is also extremely important to exercising safely and effectively. If you’re doing this on your own, I am assuming that you’ve watched a few videos, read a few articles, or otherwise been instructed on proper form for the particular exercise you want to do.
First of all, be wary of exercise programs that tell you what weight to lift.
People who are starting new things are afraid of doing those things wrong, and a workout that tells you exactly what to do can ease those fears. But that’s all it’s designed for. It’s designed to make you feel a certain way when you look at it: comfortable and safe. It’s not designed to BE safe, and it’s not designed to be a good workout.
I’m not here to tell you what weight to lift. I’m here to tell you how to figure that out for yourself.
If you don't want to figure it out for yourself, hire a personal trainer and have them tell you how much weight to lift.
Most decent workout programs will not tell you what weight to lift. They will tell you rep ranges. The rep range defines the weight.
The basic idea is to pick a weight that feels doable for the prescribed rep range but challenging enough that you’re not 100% sure.
Different rep ranges are commonly associated with different goals.
Rep ranges of around 8-12 are believed to be best for hypertrophy. Hypertrophy means growing bigger, stronger muscles. (pronounced “hy-PER-truh-fee”)
Rep ranges of around 15-20 are associated with improving muscular endurance.
We would use lighter weight for the same exercise done at higher rep ranges than we would at lower ranges. Not because we want to, but because the weight you should be using at 8-12 reps is a weight you should be literally unable to do 15-20 reps with.
Rep ranges of even lower numbers are associated with maximal strength and power. We will not be addressing these ranges or goals here, as they should only be implemented in more advanced stages, stages at which people usually aren’t reading articles about what weight to lift.
Beginners should start with workouts for general strength/hypertrophy (8-12 reps), or endurance (15-20 reps).
Rep ranges allow workout programs to be effective for a variety of people and strength levels, and individually allow you to adjust your workout to your current strength and energy levels and availability of equipment.
Seems simple enough! But what if you have no idea what weight is challenging for an exercise because you’ve never tried it before?
Here’s how to figure out how much weight to lift if you have no previous experience with an exercise:
Pick a weight with which you are fairly certain you can perform 10 reps of the exercise. Start at 10 lbs If you really have no idea where to begin.
Do ten reps, wait 90 seconds, increase the weight, 5 - 10 lbs, do 10 more reps.
Repeat this process of 10 reps, rest, 10 reps heavier, until you can’t finish 10 reps.
The last weight you did 10 reps of, that’s your starting weight for the next workout where you do the actual sets and reps as prescribed.
Follow this same process for each exercise. The weight you end up lifting in one exercise is not necessarily going to be the same for any other exercise. If this takes longer than you expected or you are more fatigued than you expected, you can break this up into multiple days. There is no failure in this. You are an explorer gathering data in unknown territory. Training is a process where each step takes multiple days, if not weeks.
Starting Weight
If you absolutely have no idea, 10 lbs is usually a safe starting point. That’s 5 lbs each hand with dumbbells. Trust your first impression when you first try to pick up a weight and think “is this a good idea?” because everything you do after that moment will be more difficult than picking it up.
Note: If you can't do 10 reps of 10 lbs, find a lighter weight, or alter your workout to do more sets of fewer reps with 10 lbs. For example: instead of 3 sets of 8-12 reps, try 5 sets of 4-6 reps, and then 4 sets of 6-8 reps until you can do the workout as prescribed and progress from there.
Legs are strong and can lift more weight, but leg exercises are much harder on the heart and lungs so start with just your body weight (not holding any weights) and don’t overdo it.
Stop the exercise if you feel pain.
EXAMPLE SCENARIO:
Example Exercise: Our workout says to do Chest Press - 3 sets of 8-12 reps, 1-2 min rest We've never done this exercise before.
Day 1
Don’t follow the workout set and rep range on the first day. Our workout says 3 sets of 8 reps but we aren’t doing that until day 2. Instead, we’re going to do 10 reps, for as many sets as it takes. We have no idea what weight to lift so we will start at 10 lbs.
We do 10 reps x 10 lbs
Rest 90 seconds
It was super easy so we skip ahead and complete 10 reps x 30 lbs
Rest 90 seconds
We do 10 x 40 lbs. It’s getting kind of tough.
Rest 90 seconds
We try to do 10 but wow this got tough quick – we can only do 4 reps of 50 lbs
We log our sets and reps, and add any notes
The last weight with which we were able to complete 10 reps was 40 lbs. This is our weight to use next time.
This is a range-finding mission as well as a workout. You might reach 3 sets, you might reach 7 sets. If a set is really easy you can skip one +10 ahead.
Chest Press, Day 2 and beyond (not immediately the day after – day 2 is whenever you do the exercise again, usually 2 or more days later, to allow the muscles to recover)
Warm up set - 10 reps x 10-20 lbs
Rest 1-2 minutes
On day 1 we completed 10 reps of 40 lbs – so 40 lbs is the weight to use today.
Our workout is chest press, 3 sets of 8-12 reps so we’ll try for the lower end today.
3 sets of Chest Press 8 reps x 40 lbs
Rest between each set 1-2 minutes
We log our workout, recording completed sets, reps, weight, and how it felt. We think about what we were able to do and what we might be able to do next time.
Make a note of sets/reps to target next time. Pay attention to how you feel in the days following. Extreme soreness indicates that you might not be ready for more of a challenge just yet.
If things went well, you might try to complete more reps next time, and if you do that a few times, you’ll eventually be strong enough to do the workout with the next heavier weight.
That’s pretty much the nitty gritty of what weight to lift.
Read on for more in-depth exploration of some of the topics introduced above, and information that may be useful at some point in the first year or two of resistance training.
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Warm Up Sets
Do one or more lighter weight warm up sets in your workouts. The more advanced (heavy) your lifts get, the more warm up sets you should do. The basic idea is to do multiple sets of increasing weight / decreasing reps. We want to prepare the body for the actual work without tiring ourselves out too much.
Great and thorough article on warming up for resistance training here:
Log Your Workouts
Use a pen and paper, a digital document like notepad or google docs, or a workout logging app (recommended). Record your sets, reps, and weight, and add any notes you want.
Refer to your log before beginning each workout. Your last workout should help define what your targets will be next time, and this will guide how you structure your warm up sets.
Rest Time
Some workouts will specify rest time, but if not, I recommend 1-2 minutes of rest between sets.
There are a lot of studies out there, trying to figure out all the variables of exercise and rest, and their effects on muscle growth. By all means read up on it if it interests you, but I don't consider it one of the more important variables. You can choose to not worry about it at all and still get good results from working out. I recommend basing your rest times on how you feel and how much time you have.
The basic info I keep in mind:
Muscles use a source of energy called Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP. Muscles quickly use up ATP. Once you begin a rest interval, ATP is quickly replenished at first but also quickly slows down. You go from 0 to 50% replenished in about 20 seconds. Another 20 seconds gives you another 25% After a full minute you’ve replenished 85-90% and after that it's continued diminishing returns. I consider anything past 2 minutes to be extraneous; a matter of preference; often a matter of overall fatigue rather than specific muscular necessity; a matter of “I kept looking at my phone after my timer went off.”
The more classic set structure of strength training is 'straight sets.' This is where you do all your sets and rest intervals of one exercise in a row, before moving on to the next exercise.
I like to do my workouts as circuits. I do one set each of a series of different exercises, before beginning a second set of each, and then often a third or more. The idea here is that I plan to have shorter rest intervals between exercises because they're not using the same muscle groups, and by the time I’ve come back around to exercising the same muscle group, it has had more than adequate time to replenish ATP. The reality, however, is that I usually get just as tired and rest just as long as if I were doing straight sets.
Depending on how you do them, circuit style workouts might be a breach of etiquette in a busy public gym – you may find that you have to stake out your equipment/spots one at a time and stick to straight sets.
Whatever you decide to do, my main recommendation regarding rest times is “USE A TIMER.” It’s way too easy to look at your phone and completely lose 5 minutes and then you’re running late and your muscles are stiff.
Failure
Failure, in resistance training, is when you try to do a rep, but you can’t. You might be halfway through and realize it’s just. not. happening.
Some people define failure as the inability to perform a rep with good form. This is certainly a safer way of defining it if it means you stop the exercise sooner.
When I say, “repeat until you can’t do 10 reps” or “use a weight with which it is challenging to complete all sets/reps” I don't mean going right up until complete failure. I recommend stopping the exercise before you reach that point. 1-3 reps beforehand, if possible.
I will occasionally instruct a client to "do as many reps as possible (AMRAP)" but they know that when I say that I mean "within 1 or 2 reps of failure."
I do not train to failure. I do not recommend it. There are some people out there who believe in training to failure and will preach it from the mountaintop, but studies indicate that there is little to no benefit to training to failure.
Regardless, beginners should NOT perform exercises to failure, and advanced lifters should at least know not to do so without a spotter. At the point of failure, stopping an exercise with control becomes impossible. This can lead to injury.
As a beginner, try to anticipate, and stop 1-3 reps before you reach the point of true failure. This gets easier with experience. Err on the side of caution. Work out with buddy, with other people in the room, or with an emergency exit strategy for failure (like using safety stops on a rack or not using clips on a barbell so you can tip weight off)
Pain
Stop the exercise if you feel pain. This is different from the “pain” of normal exertion, but if you are at all in doubt as to what kind of pain it is, stop the exercise. “No pain, no gain” is not a real thing! Pain is an important signal that you are going to regret whatever it is that is happening if you keep doing it!
Sometimes you just need a better warm up, but sometimes a particular exercise isn’t for you right now. Either way, take a step back and re-evaluate.
A personal trainer would be able to give you personalized feedback on your form and technique, help you find suitable alternatives, and perhaps even give you some supplemental exercises or stretches that help correct whatever is causing the pain.
Leg Exercises
Leg exercises, especially standing leg exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts, tend to work the whole body more thoroughly. You’ll usually find the limits of your heart and lungs, as well as your core and spine stability, well before you’ve found the limits of your leg strength. That’s fine. You’ve still found a starting point. If you haven’t done a particular leg exercise before, start the first set of 10 reps with only body weight before trying it with any weight. Be careful, take it slow, and pay attention to your body.
When to Lift Heavier Weight:
Increase the weight when:
you’ve completed 2 or more workouts lifting solid reps with good form,
consistently at the top end of the rep range,
without extreme soreness in the days following.
When you do any form of resistance training on a regular basis, you should soon be able to recognize when you are doing the exercise with a feeling I usually describe as "solid." It's when you feel connected and in control -- of the exercise itself, but also the rest of your body.
The "solid reps with good form" part is important. We want to ensure that all the other parts of your body besides the muscles -- remember how that was mentioned earlier? --The nervous system, tendons and ligaments, bones, all these other parts have to be ready for the heavier weight as well. Some of them adapt more quickly than others.
Our workout in the example above was 3 sets of 8-12, so in that case, when you’ve completed 3 sets of 12, in at least two workouts, increase the weight to the next available increment, and try again at the lower end of the rep range: 3 sets of 8. This is where the increments available in our equipment may define how we decide to progress.
If you only have a few pairs of dumbbells and the jumps between them are large, you might have to get creative with how you bridge the gap. Look below for ideas.
If you increase the weight but can’t complete even one set in your next workout:
You did 3 sets of 12 reps last time, so you increased the weight. Now you can’t even do 8 reps in the first set. What to do?
Don’t worry.
It happens all the time. It's more common in situations where the next available increment is a large jump, but also very common even when you’ve increased the weight just a few lbs.
So, you’re standing there, you just tried your first set and couldn’t do it.
If you were only 1 rep away from reaching your target, just rest and try again. Second set: try for the same weight, same reps. If you can reach your target reps on the second set, continue into the third set. This indicates that you should add more warm up sets next time.
If your first set was short by more than one rep, or if your second set still did not reach the target: Decrease the weight and try to complete your remaining set(s) at the high end of the rep range. If you feel up to it, do a few additional reps.
In your next few workouts, you have a few options:
Go back down in weight and add more reps to each set for a few workouts. Do 3 sets of 13 reps. If the next weight up felt especially heavy, you might want to do this a few times. Do 3 sets of 14 and then 15, then try again at 8 reps of your heavier weight.
Go back down in weight and do the exercise more slowly for a few workouts. I use a metronome app for this. Look into “exercise tempo”. It’s a great way to add solidity and stability to your exercises, and can help to break through plateaus and really be confident in making that next step to a heavier weight.
Go back down in weight and add another set in your existing rep range for a few workouts. Do the math! If we’ve done 3 sets of 12, that’s a total of 36 reps. If we tried 4 sets of 8 we’d only be doing 32 and 4 sets of 9 is the same at 36, so for a challenge try 4 sets of 10, and work up to 4 sets of 12. Or immediately try 4 sets of 12 and see what happens! Just be careful, try to anticipate failure, and exit the exercise before you get there. Especially if working out without a spotter.
Stick with one of these methods or vary between them, and for a few workouts build your capacity beyond the high end of the prescribed workout before trying again to increase the weight.
Yes, all the options are to go back to a lighter weight.
No, don’t decrease your rep range in the heavier weight.
How Quickly to Advance
When you start resistance training, you’ll be making progress almost every workout. That's fine.
Your nervous system adapts first; you develop basic familiarity with the movement. You'll be able to lift heavier simply from better coordination.
Then, initial strength gains happen quickly. There is a big difference at first when your body goes from "never lifts weights" to "lifts weights semi-regularly."
Your primary muscles (the main muscles at work in any particular exercise) will adapt more quickly than your joints, tendons, and secondary muscles (the muscles that help with an exercise but aren't the main movers). As this gap widens, you will have a choice: You either slow down until these other parts catch up with your muscles, or you stop when you injure yourself.
By "slow down" I mean slow down your progress. Keep doing the exercise at your current level for more workouts, until everything catches up and you feel that full solidity.
As you continue, your progress will become more and more limited by whatever the slowest part to adapt is. This is normal and a sign that you are deeper into a committed practice of resistance training.
Tempo “Slow down” is also good advice when talking about actual exercise speed.
Working at different tempos can be especially beneficial in making well-rounded, solid, and safe progress. Slower tempos can help condition your joints and tendons and secondary muscles, can help highlight and correct issues with form before you learn about them the hard way, and also keep things interesting by adding variety to the same old exercises.
Search up “exercise tempo” for more information on this great tool.
A basic example would be doing chest press with a 4444 tempo. Where you count 4 seconds on the push, hold at the top for 4 seconds, let the weight down slow over 4 seconds, and hold at the bottom for 4 seconds.
Choose a much lighter weight to try this with, start with about 50% what you normally lift and see how 5 reps feels.
I use tempo variation very often, in my own programming and in what I have clients doing.
Plateau
Eventually, and this could be a year or more into regular resistance training, progress may seem to stop – a plateau. If it doesn’t bother you, great. You’re allowed to keep working out at your current levels and not worry about it! Sometimes a plateau will pass on its own. Sometimes, you’ll want to figure out how to push past it. You might play with variations of some of the ideas above in combinations you haven’t tried yet. You might end up reading even more articles, about stuff like nutrition, proper rest, and supplementary exercises for secondary muscles and corrective exercises for muscular imbalances. You might seek the help of a professional trainer.
But until then, enjoy the fact that as a beginner you’ll feel like you're making good progress for quite a while!
A resistance training workout is a single step in a process of discovering your limits and expanding them.
Try to be aware of the part of your brain that wants to step up to every workout, do every set and rep, and think, “nailed it.”
By all means, celebrate your victories when you’ve worked for them, but “doing something you are already able to do'' won’t trigger much change in the body.
The most successful workouts are often the ones where you’ve come right up against your limits. A genuine experience of your own limits can leave you feeling a bit defeated. But what a great workout!
It's a tough line to walk. You'll overshoot and undershoot it constantly. When I ask a client to do 3 sets of 12 reps and they do it no problem, they might feel pleased with themselves, but I'll be thinking I could have dialed things in better. When they're breathing hard after 2 sets and in the last set visibly making an effort but end up one rep short, they might feel disappointed, but moments like those can give me chills! It's the perfect workout! It's like catching a glimpse of a mythical creature. We try and try to find our limits, it can feel like walking through an unknown land of dense fog, and to be there with someone who's been trudging along, as the mists finally part, and they walk right up and just for an instant, clearly see and touch their own limits, well it's a moment.
Celebrate your moments! Celebrate your milestones! When a client has worked for months and finally chest presses 100 lbs for 3 sets of 12, of course we high five and cheer and dance around. Then we keep pushing.
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