Excercise and Fitness

critiry3

When do increase your weights on your workout and how much do you increase it by?
When do you know when the weight is enough? Is it better to increase the reps if so by how much and when?

WifeMomDVM

Read the book "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Schuler ($10 on Amazon.com)

But, the short answers:

Lift as heavy as you can. As a GENERAL rule (not always!) - you should be able to lift the weight at least 8 times, but not more than 12. If you can't do 8, it's too heavy. If you can do more than 12, it's probably too light. Do 2-3 sets.

Ideally, you want to do compound movements - movements that utilize many muscle groups of the body at one time. And movements that mimic natural movements of your body.

Try to increase your weights as soon as you can. An increase of about 5% a week is pretty good. So if you lifted 50 lbs on the barbell your first week, try 52.5 lbs next week. Again, a general rule.

Hope this is helpful.

Lift HEAVY!

WifeMomDVM

This is a great website to help you get started:

http://www.answerfitness.com/150/full-body-workout-plan-workout-routines/

critiry3

Thank you for the feedback and the site.

coolsmartygirl

I'm really glad someone asked this because it's a very good question!

JNick77

This is a great website to help you get started:

http://www.answerfitness.com/150/full-body-workout-plan-workout-routines/

That's not a bad write-up but some points are pretty debatable (e.g. only 3 sets?), however; I can see somebody plateauing very quickly on this. I would also recommend taking a look at this,

http://velocity.t-nation.com/free_online_program/sports_body_training_diet_velocity/velocity_diet_30#velocity-training/secrets-to-velocity-training

There's a whole diet associated to this but you don't NEED to do the diet too. Click on the Velocity Training tab --> Click on the Training Program tab --> Click on the Beginner Program tab. Each program is split into two phase and has a workout for different days of the week along with video tutorials of the lifts involved.

The gentlemen that put this together is Chad Waterbury who is not only a professional trainer he has a Masters in Kiniesiology and really knows how to stimulate the body. It's pretty cool, I highly recommend this for reading too.

Lyadeia

BUMP to read the articles later.