What is considered low weight in low weight / high reps ?

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sabulaboys4
sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I use a bow flex machine at home and was wondering what is considered low weight ? I do 30 reps twice with weight ranges from 55 for chest fly and shoulder raise to 115 for lat rows. This is for each arm.

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  • Chadxx
    Chadxx Posts: 1,199 Member
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    Low weight is whatever you can do for higher reps
  • HealthierRayne
    HealthierRayne Posts: 268 Member
    edited May 2017
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    If you are aiming for 30 reps then by rep 28-29 it should start to get quite difficult to move the weight.

    It's all very subjective, if you can bang out 30 reps easily and could probably go for more then it's a little too light. If you can barely get to 25 and have terrible form for the last 5 then it's too heavy.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    If you can only do it 5 times- it's to heavy for low weight

    If you can do it 50 times- then its light enough.

    There is no right answer here. it's a relative rep/weight range issue that's going to be person dependent.

    Shoulder work for me is 15-20 pounds- when I train with my friends it's 20-25 pounds for them. We both do approximately the same reps.
  • sabulaboys4
    sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
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    When I hit 30 reps my muscles are starting to fatigue some. I'm just not exactly sure which direction I should go. More sets or increase weight and which would be more beneficial? I have balance issues after having a stroke about 3 years ago. Every couple months I have been trying to increase weight.
  • ScottishRob1
    ScottishRob1 Posts: 49 Member
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    Not sure how you would do it on a bowflex but 20-30% of your max would be low weight. You determine the maximum you can lift once for a particular lift, then take 20-30% of that weight. Recheck your max every couple of months and recalculate your percentage.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    sabulaboys4 wrote: »
    When I hit 30 reps my muscles are starting to fatigue some. I'm just not exactly sure which direction I should go. More sets or increase weight and which would be more beneficial? I have balance issues after having a stroke about 3 years ago. Every couple months I have been trying to increase weight.

    if you are doing 30 reps and you are "starting to fatigue some" then you need do heavier weight.
  • sabulaboys4
    sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
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    if you are doing 30 reps and you are "starting to fatigue some" then you need do heavier weight. [/quote]


    How fatigued should I feel ?I will increase the weight the first of the month.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    There is no good answer to that.

    What are you trying to accomplish here?
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    A weight that's low for you might be high for me. What's high for you today might be low next year. It's all relative to your individual ablity at the moment.
  • sabulaboys4
    sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
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    What are you trying to accomplish here? [/quote]


    I'm not sure what I am trying to accomplish. I know I would like to stay ahead of my kids so increase some I guess
  • Lizarking
    Lizarking Posts: 507 Member
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    Add weight every workout until you can only get 8 reps in, where the 9th would either be literally impossible, or with totally screwed up form. About 50% of that would be "light"
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
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    sabulaboys4 wrote: »

    What are you trying to accomplish here?


    I'm not sure what I am trying to accomplish. I know I would like to stay ahead of my kids so increase some I guess
    [/quote]

    increase what? muscle? if so, why are you doing low weight high rep? never a good idea to do stuff without knowing what you are trying to accomplish
  • sabulaboys4
    sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
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    increase what? muscle? if so, why are you doing low weight high rep? never a good idea to do stuff without knowing what you are trying to accomplish[/quote]

    Probably why I was asking
  • JohnnyPenso
    JohnnyPenso Posts: 412 Member
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    sabulaboys4 wrote: »
    I use a bow flex machine at home and was wondering what is considered low weight ? I do 30 reps twice with weight ranges from 55 for chest fly and shoulder raise to 115 for lat rows. This is for each arm.
    If you goal is strength building you'll get very little muscle building benefit, if any, if long term you are doing 30 reps of the same exercise over and over. You need more weight and less reps and perhaps another set or two. I would start increasing the weights every workout by the minimum possible until you reach a weight that you can only do 3-5 sets of 5-6 reps. Then stay at that weight but increase the number of reps as you can until you can do 3-5 sets of 8 or 9 and then increase the weights again and go back to 3-5x5.
  • sabulaboys4
    sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
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    If you goal is strength building you'll get very little muscle building benefit, if any, if long term you are doing 30 reps of the same exercise over and over. You need more weight and less reps and perhaps another set or two. I would start increasing the weights every workout by the minimum possible until you reach a weight that you can only do 3-5 sets of 5-6 reps. Then stay at that weight but increase the number of reps as you can until you can do 3-5 sets of 8 or 9 and then increase the weights again and go back to 3-5x5.
    [/quote]

    Thank you for your help

  • sabulaboys4
    sabulaboys4 Posts: 160 Member
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    Thank you everyone for your input. I is appreciated.

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