How Much Weight Should I be Lifting?

How much weight should I be lifting?

Deciding to go into weightlifting does not mean you pick up any weight you see and start lifting. A lot of people have found it difficult to know what weight they should begin with; some do not bother about weight-lifting at all. Since you are determined to start and you have the same question about how much weight you should be lifting, we are more than happy to help.

We have heard questions like “What weight is okay for me to start with?”, “How much weight should I be lifting?”, “How do I know what weight I should be lifting?”

All of these questions are valid, and they should be asked for both clarification and education purposes. We will be walking you through the most important things regarding your weight training in this article.

How well can you carry yourself?

This is extremely important because how well you carry yourself without weight will determine how you will carry yourself with a load. So, before you try to find out how much weight you can lift, how about you try the movement of lifting the weight without carrying any weight and see how you fare? So, the first step is to do the weightlifting movements without carrying any weight at all.

You might ask, how do you do this?

Get something light such as a broomstick, mop stick or PVC pipe and lift them like a barbell. If you are trying to replicate the dumbbell movement, get PVC or a short dowel and pretend you are holding a dumbbell and do the movement. You can as well make a fist with your hands as if you are holding a dumbbell and do the movement. You’re thinking it’s not the same as carrying real weight, that is correct. The goal of doing this is to get the positions right.

Proceed to the bar

Once you have gotten the training movement down pat with a PVC or mop handle, you should proceed to use the bar. The bar does not have any weight attached to it, and a standard barbell can weigh 45lbs. This seems heavy, but it should not discourage you. If the bar you find looks too heavy for you, you should look around for a lighter barbell, preferably a “training or women’s bar” which weighs about 15lbs and 35lbs respectively. Training bars and women's bars are usually shorter, but the only thing that matters is the straightness of the bar. After dumbbell movements, focus on bodyweight training exercises such as pushups, squats, lunges, and pull-ups so you can create the suitable buildup to handle the bar the right way.

Now proceed to actual weight training – What is the right weight for you?

The simple answer is that you should carry the weight that you can lift. Weight-training is a personal race, and you are not in competition with anybody. You are competing with only yourself, and that is to get better than you were during your last training session. There is no specified standard; it all depends on your body, the type of body you have, your athletic and weight training experience, genetics, etc.

If you lifted a specific weight in the previous week, you should be trying to lift more the following week, and if you cannot lift more, you should reduce your rest period in between sets. That is all there is to it.

In your weight training journey you should forget about set strength standards and not pay attention to anybody around you. Don’t be pressured into trying to do what the next guy to you is doing. If all you can do is 50 lb and you find that challenging, it does not matter if someone in the same gym is lifting 200 lb. What you can do is what you should be doing. Do not increase the weight to impress anybody. You should not be judged based on what you are lifting and if anybody judges you, pay no attention to them. Ignore them entirely and do your thing.

Here are some facts about weightlifting to keep you motivated

• The strongest weightlifters started with beginner weightlifting programs like you.
• The strongest weightlifters don’t get ashamed of lifting a weight lesser than other people in the gym.
• The strongest weightlifters take their time to get things right even if they have to lift weight far below the amount of weight they can generally lift.
• The strongest weightlifters start slowly, increase their weight steadily and conserve as much energy as possible.

Even if you use SARMS (Selective Androgen Receptor Modules), it’s hard to say a specific amount of weight you can lift. If you gain some muscle with SARM, all you need to do is stick to your nutrition and diet in most cases. You do not have to keep working out excessively or maintain a certain amount of weightlifting.

 About the author: Steven Sanders is a writer and blogger. He lives in Los Angeles, California and enjoys spending time with family and friends, and plays baseball in his free time. Steven is a health and fitness enthusiast, always looking for a new way to better himself. He writes for NootropicUnderground.