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2004/02/23, 12:48 PM
Find a weight that you can use proper form on all of your reps, but that is challenging to finish the last few reps. It takes some playing around with at first, and your strength increases rapidly when you start lifting as your brain learns to recruit more muscle fibers.
All the stuff about 40% and 60% is kind of unnneccesary, your one rep is hard to dtermine without risking injury and how do you know what it is without tetsting for it? There are charts that predict, but you can't really know ithout doing it, which, as I said, is risky.
Stick with weights that challenge your muscle, mke you push yourself and don't go up to fast. When you can do three sets witha weight without feeling like you can't complete the last few reps, it is time to go up.
Increase by 2-5 lbs, depending on what you are using 9dumb bells, plates, machines) the thing about increasing is that your muscles may say it is okay, but your joints and ligaments need more time to adapt. In the long run, small incraeses will do you better.
If you are a beginner, your weights will go up rapidly for a while and you will put on muscle fairly easily for a while, then it will taper off a bit. the important thing is to challenge your muscles, but not be on a mission to decimate, just slightly demolish....:angry:
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"To be able to go to the gym and train hard is a joy and a privelege, even though the hard work necessitates driving yourself through considerable discomfort. Savor this privelege and blessing, and revel in it."
Stuart McRobert, Beyond Brawn
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