Lifting "heavy"

KristenJoy1989

I want to start lifting "heavy" as i slowly bring up my calories but i'm not sure what that means? If you're lifting "heavy" enough how many sets do you do and how many reps per set? and when lifting heavy do you do a fullbody or do you need to break the days up? Like would you do heavy full body 3 or 4 times a week or would you do like 2 upper heavy days and 2 lower heavy days in the week. I'm so confused about weights and what to do. I need some tips please. Thank you!!

jbnl1991

I started New Rules of Lifting for Women about three weeks ago. I had always done tons of reps with my barbie weights, but wanted to start lifing heavy. The book gave me a step by step plan to take me from beginner to (hopefully) confident lifter with a six month program. It has pictures and descriptions of the moves which helped me as well. I am sure others will chime in with other programs that worked for them.

AnitraSoto

The amount you will choose will depend on your strength but as a rough guide, if you can easily do more than, say, 3 sets of 10 (or more), then they're too light. Ideally you want to be following a 3x6 or 5x5 routine - your final rep of your final set should be a killer.

How you split up your days will depend on the program you are following. Some concentrate on full body 3 times a week, some do upper and lower body splits, while others rotate around, not repeating the same areas on back to back days, allowing for recovery.

Check out New Rules of Lifting for Women, or Strong Lifts, or Cathe Friedrich's STS or Gym Style Series of DVDs

natini

Ditto on New Rules of Lifting for Women. That is where I started when I wanted to learn about weight lifting. It is a great book!

heybales

Heavy part means you are eventually overloading the muscles enough that they get stronger, eventually needing more of them to accomplish the load you are putting on them.

It means almost failing with good form near the end of your desired sets and reps.

Anything up to 20 reps still causes new muscle growth if eating in surplus. Past that and it's really cardio with side benefit of strength. Body's response to that is mainly more carbs for sustained effort.

As to sets and reps, depends on focus. Power is few reps, strength is more, endurance is more. Usually rough guideline says 1 - 6 reps, 7 - 12 reps, 12 - 20 reps.

You may do a range in there, when you hit the upper number, you increase weight and drop back to the lower number.

As to sets, depends on the time available. If you have less time, you do less sets, which also means you'd be doing more weight. More sets also means less rest time between since you aren't as heavy. Less sets means more rest time so you are as full for the next heavy set.

Starting out should be higher reps to confirm good form, get muscles and tendons used to this workout, then you can move to whatever range you want for focus.