There is no right or wrong way to pick your weights, but you can use these steps to steer you in the right direction.
- Choose an exercise and decide how many reps you want to do. For general strength and fitness, 10 to 12 reps.
- Pick what feels like a medium weight and complete the reps, paying attention to how you feel at the end of the set.
- If you felt you could do more reps, increase your weight by 3- 5 pounds and perform another set, again paying attention to how you feel at the end. Make a note of how much weight you used on both sets and how the exercise felt to you.
- Start your next workout with the weight you ended with the previous workout. Go through the process again increasing or decreasing the weight . Focus on choosing a weight you can only lift for the desired number of reps 10 – 12. The last rep should be difficult , but not impossible.
- After 5 exercise sessions try to increase the weight if able to complete 10-12 reps throughout the entire range, try to increase weights every 5th session. You should eventually get to a point where you are working at your maximum weight. Stay at that weight and after 10 sessions attempt to increase weights
- Strengthening exercises can also be completed using tubing, which allows greater muscle control with lengthening/strengthening muscles. The difference in strength is with different colors. When using tubing you need to change for greater tension, every 2-3 months if used regularly You need to make certain the resistance is not so difficult that you cannot complete the exercise through thew entire range. Strengthening needs to be done slowly at a pace of 3-5 sec.
Strengthening sessions can be done initially 3 x weekly on alternate days, when working at max strength twice weekly is sufficient. 1-2 sets is sufficient.