Should you choose the 5, 10 or 12.5 pound dumbbell? When should you use a Kettlebell or (eeek!) a Slam ball? For which exercise? When do you progress to a heavier weight? Do I simply decrease weight and add more reps? Is there an easy formula you can use so you aren’t so lost in a gym or in your favorite class? You’ve come to the right place, because this is a topic I LOVE to teach and hope you’ll walk away with greater clarity and confidence!
Often, members who have been working with me for a decade look at me with that sort of stunned-combine-with-embarrassed look when I share the program for the group session. I demonstrate the movements they’ll complete. I’ll offer a guideline, like “I’d like 75% of your maximum” or a weight you can use “between 4-6 reps for five rounds”. Then I say “GO!”.
I know they know their loads (“weights” in strength training parlance). Yet, they still give me THAT look of utter terror, because even the veterans are confused what to choose.
I say this slightly in jest – and you all know who you are – because we have spent the better part of five years defining every member’s personal best/maximum load for our five foundational movements. They know their loads. Most of them have met their goals and then some. And, even THEY are still confused about what to choose.
Let me be super clear. This article is intended for someone who wants to build muscle. Someone who isn’t afraid to build muscle. And, best, someone who understands the importance of muscle to your longevity, your hormonal balance, your brain and mental health, bone density and yes, your weight maintenance.
Now that we’ve covered if it is YOU who wants to build muscle, let’s dive into the meat of the issue.
We as women tend to underestimate our weights in the gym. I digress, yet I find we can even tend to underestimate ourselves in many areas of our lives. Most of us grew up in an era when three sets of ten reps were the magic formula, where a fifteen-pound dumbbell was considered super heavy and when the more reps the better for our body composition. We thought our workout had to “get our cardio” to be considered a success. Or the most reps, wins. We also believed that muscle would make us look bulky and appear bigger.
All these myths have been scientifically dispelled. This same science has proven the more muscle we have, the more likely we will fend off illness, live a longer life and recover from injury far faster than others who have little We now know the fewer reps, the better, correct and tighter reps, will lead to serious muscle growth.
If you are still on board with building muscle, the following guidelines are what we use in my community:
Let’s always start with your body weight. Compare your body weight to the loads you lift. We carry around our body weight all day, all week, and all life long. So why not use it as a baseline? The general – and I mean very general – guidelines are that we ALL should be able to deadlift our body weight, squat 65% of our bodyweight, and press overhead 25% of our body weight.
For one rep. Yes, just once.
This is what a personal best or maximum load set looks like in a serious strength training program like mine. One rep Max. Yet we continue to choose weights that are far inferior to what we can really accomplish. I can hear the gasps from afar. WHAT?! You want me to lift my own bodyweight? Yes.
As women who want to build muscle, we need to shock our system. We need to push against the limits. We must push and pull against a force. And we must recognize we can lift far more than we think. Over time, you gain strength, confidence and a body that shows you take your lifting seriously.
Any strength training program worth its weight (no pun) will tell you the same thing. Deadlift your body weight, squat 65% of your body weight and overhead press 25% of it. This applies to every woman, any age, at any fitness level. You give me a year, you will get there.
Any good strength training program for women over 40 includes repetition schemes with six or fewer reps. This way, we can use heavier loads, increase the number of sets we practice and we get simply super strong. Does this need to be accomplished today? No. Absolutely not. One of the tenets of my approach is that our work is about the journey, not the destination. We set annual goals in our program and at last 75% of our members are now deadlifting their body weight. We give each other one year to get there. We take a year of consistently three training sessions each week to get there.
Let’s take that squat goal as an example. Let’s say I weigh 150 pounds. This is 97.5 pounds.
Don’t panic. This does not mean you will be successful trying 97.5 pounds at your gym tomorrow. What is does mean is you can PATTERN your movements. This means you progress through what we call “progressive overload”. Progressive overload means, gradually increasing the stress placed on the body during training so it is FORCED TO ADAPT. You can build the foundation for this 97.5 squat through a variety of movements, including planks and push ups and jumps.
You may never get to 97.5 pounds. Yet, over time, you will build more muscle, you will increase the loads/weights to those you can accomplish with fewer than five repetitions and you will get STRONGER.
Not only have my members deadlifted, but they’ve also completed hundreds of big girl push-ups, hundreds of jumps, hours of planks. All of which help them achieve the BIG THREE lifts.
Join us soon and see how you too can lift more than you think! I encourage you to schedule a FREE consultation call to see if you want to build muscle this year.
