Strength Training-Weight lifting Guidelines for Athletes

 

In this article we will talk about strength training and how much weight I should lift.

So, a lot of people don't understand this.

There are a lot of trainers out there who will tell you to do ten reps. People don't always understand why. So I'll try to tell you why.

 Some basic rules from strength training suggest that number.

So let's just use a 1,5 kilos weight as an example.

If I were to lift a weight that was three pounds, I could probably do 50 or 40 repetitions.

I could do a lot of them, so if I can do this many repetitions until I can't do anymore, how many can I do? Until my muscles get tired, so if I can do 20 or more, that's cardio. 

Cardio is a light activity that you do over and over again, like riding a bike, where you push against four or five pounds of resistance a thousand times. So, cardio is a light activity with a lot of repetitions.

If I use a heavier weight, like 4 kilos for me, I can do 19 and 20 reps, so my muscles would be tired after 20 reps. I would be building muscular endurance.

There are energy makers in your muscle cells, so what we're building is the muscle's ability to make energy. If I use a heavier weight, like 12 kilos, and you can do one, two, three, four, and ten reps, you are going to build muscle, so that's going to cause small tears in your muscles. Over the next one to two days, protein will fill those holes, making your muscles bigger and stronger. That amount of weight for each exercise that causes your muscles to fail will build your muscle.

 

Finally, we have strength.

 

Strength is very heavy, so if I were to lift 20 kilos and I'm like one, two, three, that would be a strength. I can barely get there, so that's three reps that would build strength. This is mostly working on a neurological change in my brain to recruit more muscle fibers.

 Most people don't need or should go here. This is for advanced weight training and advanced weight lifters because there is a very high chance of injury. The heavier the weight, the higher the chance of injury. 

The important thing with all of these and reps to failure is that reps to failure mean how many repetitions can you do with perfect form and perfect technique.

I always say that I want your last rep to look exactly like your first rep. When it stops looking like your first rep, you're done. You must only count how many reps have perfect technique, perfect form, and no or only a slight increase in pain.

 As a general rule, I suggest doing 10 to 20 reps until you can't do anymore. This way, you'll alternate between building muscle and building muscular endurance, both of which are good for athletics.

But now you know that the heavier the weight, the fewer reps you can do, and we get different benefits from each repetition range. 

This is a general rule of thumb for how much weight you should use when lifting.