I’ve been wondering when is the proper time for you to increase the weight you are lifting? Like is there an average amount of time I should take before increasing the weight? And is this for all exercises? Alright thanks. Peace.
I’ll take a stab at this, but I don’t think there is any hard and fast rule to follow.
Maybe just when it gets too easy. For example, say you are squatting 2x10 at some weight with good form. In a few weeks maybe you can do 2x12 with good form. The following week, up the weight. This might bring you down to a 3x8 or so with good form. Then you can start pushing for the 2x10 and the 2x12 with that weight.
However, as a beginner, you want to keep the reps up a bit, so if you can’t do a decent volume per set, with good form, you are upping the weight too much.
I don’t want to complicate things too much, so just adjust the example based on your own sets and reps… keeping the total volume where it was. For example, in the above, the reps are between 20 and 24 all the time, assuming you make all your reps on each set.
I’m sure there are many other ways to go about it.
yup what vroom said just make a goal and set it once you can do that then increase the load. It may be doing 3 sets of 12 when you hit that with a said load well you increase it.
It boils down to how and what you train for how long youve been training etc. Me for example every week on ME lower and upper day I look to increase the load get a new PR for 1 rep even if its one damn lb. Or I may try and take an old 1 rm and get a new PR by hitting a triple with it etc.
its all relative the main thing is to always aim to make somew sort of progression be it load reps sets volume shorter rest etc
Phill
Alright, thanks for the help fellas.
when ever you have the reps you want with the weight
[quote]PantherFB87 wrote:
I’ve been wondering when is the proper time for you to increase the weight you are lifting? Like is there an average amount of time I should take before increasing the weight? And is this for all exercises? Alright thanks. Peace.[/quote]
I’m pretty new to training seriously but I can provide one example. I joined a gym 10 weeks ago. I was doing mostly 10x3 and some 5x5 for certain exercises.
I literally tried to add at least 5 lbs and sometimes 10lbs a week to my lifts.
My bench press is a good example. I started doing 10x3 at 135 (sad i know) but finished after 9 weeks doing 10x3 at 190. I was very happy with the improvement and only achieved it by constantly adding the weight. I know I couldn’t continue at the pace I was going so I switched to a 3x10 phase.
however, I know that on my squat I haven’t nearly reached my 10x3 potential and continue to do that and still add weight.
I know I’m new (although I’ve read hundreds of T-Nation articles) but my advice is try adding a couple of 2.5’s each week and you’ll surprise yourself.
-DT
[quote]PantherFB87 wrote:
I’ve been wondering when is the proper time for you to increase the weight you are lifting? Like is there an average amount of time I should take before increasing the weight? And is this for all exercises? Alright thanks. Peace.[/quote]
just remember to increase by small amounts ,5 or 10 lbs, at a time. If you increase by too much you will increase your chances of injury, because your CNS is not use to handling the weight. Too large of an increase at any one time also tends to make people use bad form which will hurt the amount you can lift in the long run. Just be patient and listen to your body. You will know when the weight is too light and you need to increase.