This is prolly a stupid question…and ill prolly get flamed for it but whatever. I was wondering…how should i know when to increase the weight of my lifts? And furthermore…how long does it ussually take for lifts to go up assuming the person is lifting/eating correctly?
Now i know its different for everyone…since thats the case…how long did it take for YOU to notice your lifts going up. I’m not really sure when to add weight and how much. Should i just add weight to one of my lifts next time and see if i can still bust out 8 or so reps?
I increase my weight by about 5 pounds a week on my lifts on average. I’m still a beginner so it might be faster than experienced trainers, or it may be less, who knows?
Since I started bulking now 7 weeks ago, my bench has gone up over 30 pounds as of monday. You just gotta add the weight, if it’s too much to handle, then drop a little.
[quote]facko wrote:
This is prolly a stupid question…and ill prolly get flamed for it but whatever. I was wondering…how should i know when to increase the weight of my lifts? And furthermore…how long does it ussually take for lifts to go up assuming the person is lifting/eating correctly?
Now i know its different for everyone…since thats the case…how long did it take for YOU to notice your lifts going up. I’m not really sure when to add weight and how much. Should i just add weight to one of my lifts next time and see if i can still bust out 8 or so reps?[/quote]
If you are just doing 3x10, don’t be surprised if your lifts stall out. The best way is to vary rep ranges, doing 10x3 sometimes (murderous), 5x5, 4x6, etc. Not only that, but vary your exercises also- don’t bench press every time you workout; do weighted dips, incline dumbell press, etc. in order to kickstart yourself.
If you are eating enough and varying your set/rep loads, you should continue progressing. It works for me.
Now i know its different for everyone…since thats the case…how long did it take for YOU to notice your lifts going up. I’m not really sure when to add weight and how much. Should i just add weight to one of my lifts next time and see if i can still bust out 8 or so reps?
If you are just doing 3x10, don’t be surprised if your lifts stall out. The best way is to vary rep ranges, doing 10x3 sometimes (murderous), 5x5, 4x6, etc. Not only that, but vary your exercises also- don’t bench press every time you workout; do weighted dips, incline dumbell press, etc. in order to kickstart yourself.
If you are eating enough and varying your set/rep loads, you should continue progressing. It works for me.[/quote]
Wow…im happy. See I been doing that…varying occasionally doing 5x5 and doing 3x8 and a couple times 10x3. I wasnt sure if that was a bad thing to do but my friend jon told me it keeps your muscles in “shock”. Thanks for the advice. Anyone elses input is appreciated too.
A good rule of thumb is to increase your weight when you are on the upper limit of your rep range. For example, if you are trying for 3 sets of 8-12 reps, then add weight when you can do 12 reps on the third set.
If you are trying to do 5 sets of 5-7 reps, go up when you can do 5 reps on set 5. If you are really new, your neural system will adapt much more quickly than your muscles, and you will be able to add weight to your lifts almost every week, even if you do not get bigger right away.