How often do you increase your weights?

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swilk627
swilk627 Posts: 245 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Do you try to add new weight each time you lift? Do you stay the same for a few work outs before increasing?

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  • zafferFL
    zafferFL Posts: 402
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    Do you try to add new weight each time you lift? Do you stay the same for a few work outs before increasing?

    As often as you can with still maintaining correct form
  • Articeluvsmemphis
    Articeluvsmemphis Posts: 1,987 Member
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    depends if it's free weights or machines, but yes form is important and depends on how many reps you're trying to crank out or it you do low rep high weight to get to fatigue quicker. but for me I just feel it out, I haven't really increased weight recently, so I say two months (this is machines)
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    it depends.

    typically what i do is when i can start lifting for 12 or so reps fairly easily, its time for me to up my weight. thats just what i do though.

    my legs, the bigger muscles, grow faster, and i can increase the weights every few weeks..my arms however (especially biceps) takes me a few months to increase the weights..but i do constantly switch up my exercises and routine to help stimulate growth.so while i can curl 25lbs a few times, i can cable hammer curl 70 lbs 8-10 reps (both arms). switching up helps me increase strength faster.
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    Do you try to add new weight each time you lift? Do you stay the same for a few work outs before increasing?

    As often as you can with still maintaining correct form

    Pretty much this. It's not every time, that's for sure.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    Attempt to increase every workout session. If I have a particularly sloppy set or a failure, then I'll keep the same weight next session or possibly even decrease; otherwise try to add on, even if it's just 2.5 lbs more than last time. Beginners will see the fastest gains.
  • Daisusaikoro
    Daisusaikoro Posts: 6
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    There is a process called plateau-ing which is when your body adapts to the amount of weight you're using and it seems like it's a piece of cake. The process normally takes 4-8 weeks but I imagine could vary.

    Within that there are different ranges and some people build from 6-8 to 12-15. The heavier weights/lower reps = muscle growth, the lighter weights/higher reps = muscle endurance ... Now I might be a bit off there... My old professor used to teach us a kind of pyramid set where for one set we did the heavier weights, low reps for one set, and then another set somewhere in the middle, and then the last set would be low weights and higher reps so we got all three conditions built into our routine.

    Shrug, long winded way of saying whenever the weights you're working with feel like they're nothing in the range you are working in.
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    There is a process called plateau-ing which is when your body adapts to the amount of weight you're using and it seems like it's a piece of cake. The process normally takes 4-8 weeks but I imagine could vary.

    Within that there are different ranges and some people build from 6-8 to 12-15. The heavier weights/lower reps = muscle growth, the lighter weights/higher reps = muscle endurance ... Now I might be a bit off there... My old professor used to teach us a kind of pyramid set where for one set we did the heavier weights, low reps for one set, and then another set somewhere in the middle, and then the last set would be low weights and higher reps so we got all three conditions built into our routine.

    Shrug, long winded way of saying whenever the weights you're working with feel like they're nothing in the range you are working in.

    ya..working both slow and fast twitch muscle types is ideal..many a times i do drop sets, some days i lift until failure (usually on the last set).

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