The basis of any training gym- this is the working weight and the number of approaches. These are two inseparable concepts, therefore we will consider them within the framework of one topic. Below we will analyze the principles and rules of weight selection for different categories of athletes.
For those who are in the hall for the first time
If this is your first time going to the gym, you need to take into account your preparation. Often there is none at all. How to determine the working weight in this case? So far - no way.
People from that and go to swing, which is "already impatient." Therefore, the first training is very important point. If you get a bad impression from (or after) it, you will not come here a second time.
Usually the number of approaches and weight is selected by the trainer. Wait! Does the coach have the necessary education, courses? Or is it just a homegrown jock who made rapid progression in bad ways? They are to be feared.
The first workout should be introductory. We recommend that you do not select weights yet, but take what is for you. this moment is not heavy. That is, if this is a barbell, then one that you can easily lift. After all, you will lift the barbell repeatedly, so even the weight that seems too light for one concept will give a noticeable load on the muscles. This is important not only for beginners, but also for children weakened by a long break.
So, why is it important to work with minimal weights in the first workout:
- Your muscles don't know what iron is.
- You don't have enough stamina yet.
- You don't know how to exercise.
Simply put, you will easily develop a strain, or your muscles will be sore for a week after a workout. Believe me, after such a second time, you are unlikely to want to come to the gym.
Competent selection of weight at the first visit - an empty neck for the bench press, dumbbells 2-5 kg for other exercises. If you want to squat, empty bar. Learn the technique! And if the trainer tells you that the weight is light and you need to add - do not listen to him. This is the first workout.
There have been many cases when, after such training, a person has a fever for a week, and he cannot either bend his arms or straighten them. Why do you need it?
The first workout is a minimum of weights. The same applies to the number of approaches. We recommend doing 2 sets. But the program can be taken from the coach. Or let the coach show you what to do that day.
Example for beginners
The trainer told you to do 3 sets for all exercises. Reps 10-15. Your task is to do 2 sets with the same number of repetitions. For bench/squat/deadlift it is better to take an empty neck or add 10 kg. Flexion-extension of arms, dumbbell press - 5-6 kg. A isolated exercises on the shoulders it is better to do with 3-4 kg. You will understand why.
If everything will be given very easily, most likely you are doing it wrong. In the case of, for example, if it’s easy for you, then most likely you bend your arms a lot, or you didn’t turn your elbows up. Wrong technique is easier to do. Remember!
After a long break
After a forced break in training, we recommend doing 2 sets, instead of 3 or 4. And take 50% of the weights that you were doing when you were still training. Yes, muscles will ache after training. Strongly. But it's not like you're off the schedule for a week.
In the future, you will gradually return to your working weights and begin to progress.
Start small and increase the weight in each approach: for a barbell - by 10 kg, for dumbbells - by 2. You definitely won't miss!
Bench press example
Warm-up - empty bar, 20 times. We hang 10 kg, do the approach. We hang 10 more, we work. And so we reach 60 kg. If in some approach it became difficult, then you do not need to increase the weight in this workout. In the future, when it becomes difficult, add 1-2 kg and look at the result.
Weight selection during training
Now you know where to start training for the first time or after a long break.
What to do next? And then we will learn to listen to your body and predict the desired weight.
The principle of any progress is to work at the maximum, “to failure”. The state of "failure" is a special feeling when you can no longer do a single repetition. Failure may come earlier than planned if you have chosen too big weight. And later, if you made a mistake in the smaller side.
For muscle growth, failure should occur within 6-12 repetitions. If less, you work for strength, if more, for endurance. Therefore, the weight is selected so that you can do at least 6 repetitions with it, but you cannot do more than 12. How to guess this weight? Trial and error method.
The first approach in any exercise is a warm-up. For example, before a bench press, you take an empty bar and do 15-20 repetitions with it. At this point, you can already feel how easy it is for you. You can compare this feeling with the last workout and roughly calculate the weight for this one.
When you start with light weights and gradually increase them, at some point you will get that precious number of kg with which you will work "to failure". This must come to pass.
From workout to workout, this weight will increase. Slowly, but it will, believe me. Thus, when the desired number of repetitions (6-12) and this weight is easy for you - a good sign to add 1-2 kg to the bar. Or increase the number of repetitions if you do them less than 12. And then increase the working weight anyway, returning to the previous number of repetitions.
Picking up the right weight right away, especially during the first workouts, is a mission impossible. That is why we start small. And the body already decides for itself what it has a lot of, and what is just right.
The dependence of weights on training goals
When choosing weight, you can focus on the following criteria:
- If your goal is muscle and mass growth, failure should occur at 6-12 repetitions, as mentioned earlier. If it comes, say, on the eighth repetition - try to perform the next workout 9. Then 10, 11, 12. After you master 12 approaches - add weight to the bar.
- If your task is to increase strength, weights are taken more significant. Failure should occur up to 6 repetitions. And there are few repetitions in the approaches.
- If you are working on endurance, the working weight is reduced so that you can do more reps. Failure should not occur at 12 repetitions, but at 30. In general, it’s better to start running. In your case, it is important to choose the sport, not the number of kg.
- Recovery from sprains requires light weights. For a very long time (months) you need to deal with light weights, strengthening the healed ligaments. Haste is dangerous and inappropriate.
How to be girls
It doesn't matter what gender you are. The mechanism of muscle progress is the same for everyone. It's just that the weights will be different. A man squats with a weight of 100 kg, and a woman - 30-50, for example. The feeling is the same, the rejection is the same. The principles are the same, so feel free to use the above recommendations.
Choosing the weight of dumbbells for women is devoted to a separate article on our website.
What to do during the plateau
When you for a long time you don’t feel a surge of strength, and your results barely keep at the same level, this means one thing - you have reached a plateau of your capabilities. Strength is not growing, there is no progress. A Bad mood and weak self-confidence often leads to a "rollback" of the power ones.
Now you need to be patient and work hard in the gym. Let the weights be the same. Try to increase them by 0.5 kg, at a minimum. Review your lifestyle. Maybe it's not about training at all?
There is an opinion that in order to overcome the plateau during training, you need to lose working weight. As a rule, this option is good for those who take pharmacology, that is, for professional bodybuilders. Therefore, just be patient and keep the level that you have achieved. In 90% of cases progress will come.
- Keep a workout diary. It should contain the date of the lesson, the name of the exercise, the number of approaches and repetitions done, weights. You can choose the right working weight based on your own records. Your diary is the best guide to how much weight to start with after a break, or where to start your next workout.
- Don't drastically increase weight. Many beginners do this: in the first workout they shook an empty bar (20 kg), in the second it was already 50 kg. This is stress on the muscles. Not everyone will get through this easily. It is optimal to take a step of 10 kg. And if you have already been engaged, you can raise the working weight by 40 kg in 4 sets. At the same time, you will learn what your muscles are capable of now.
- When you immediately take the weight that you think you need, you can make a mistake. That is, choose a heavy barbell weight. This will cause you to get tired before the working sets are over. There is no need for any perseverance - remove a couple of pancakes from the bar.
- Working "to failure" in the first workout is very dangerous. Like the second one. The body should get used to the loads within a month. During this period, your task is not to chase the weights, but to work out the technique. If you can do more, that's good (which is what happens most of the time). Work on the movements, strengthen the ligaments.
When starting their first workouts, most beginners who cannot afford personal training with a trainer in the gym are faced not only with choosing the right one, but also with the fact how to determine the working weight in the exercise? Indeed, the question is very important, because the weight of the burden directly affects your further achievements in building the body of your dreams.
Before answering the question of how to determine the working weight, you need to find out what it is. In fact, everything is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. Simply put, the working weight is the maximum possible weight in a particular exercise with which an athlete can perform the required number of repetitions and approaches, subject to correct technique performing weight-bearing exercises.
For example, you have in the gym, where in front of all exercises it is indicated how many approaches to do and. Take, for example, the barbell squat 2-3x8-12. You need to complete 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps each. It's clear. But, usually beginners have questions about how much weight to squat with, etc. That is, in fact, they are interested in how to determine the working weight in a particular exercise.
How to determine the working weight in the exercise?
Experienced athletes can easily determine their working weight in any free weight exercise. For beginners, it is possible to determine the initial working weights in all exercises only by enumeration of options, also known as the trial and error method.
For example, take the same squats. Start with an empty bar and try to do 10 reps. If you don't even feel the weight of the empty bar, then try doing 10 squats with a weight of 30-40 kg. Usually beginners start with about this working weight in barbell squats. If you have done 10 reps with this weight without any problems, then increase the weight of the weight to 50 kg. Rest 2-3 minutes and try again to do the specified number of repetitions.
Sit down only 8 times? Great, you have picked up your working weight in squats with a barbell and the next workout you will already know what weight to squat with. If you did less than 8 repetitions, then you need to reduce the weight of the weight by 5-10 kg so that you can do the required number of sets and repetitions.
There are other similar ways to determine the optimal working weight, which are used by both beginners and more experienced athletes. Let's say you need to complete 3 to 10. You assume that your working weight in this exercise for pecs for 10 reps is about 50 kg.
To begin, perform 1 warm-up set with 50% of the intended working weight (25-30 kg) for 8-10 repetitions to warm up the muscles and more smoothly approach the working weights. Then perform a maximum with an estimated working weight of 50 kg. We did 2 repetitions more - then at the next workout try to do 3 to 10 with a weight of 55 kg. If you did fewer repetitions, slightly reduce the weight of the projectile. Completed the required number of repetitions - this is your working weight in this exercise.
conclusions
As you understand, the working weight in the exercise is the one Weight Limit weights or sports equipment, with which you are able to master a given number of repetitions and approaches, without violating the execution technique.
For each person for each specific exercise, the working weight must be selected individually. At the same time, consider a simple pattern: the more repetitions in the approach you need to do, the smaller the working weights in the exercise and vice versa.
Please note that training for beginners in the gym should contribute, first of all, to the correct technique for performing all exercises, and not the maximum increase in working weights. Therefore, in the first months of training, very carefully increase the weight of the weights in order to perform the exercises technically flawlessly, without helping yourself with your whole body, but concentrating on the work of the target muscles.
The standard recommendation is "let iterations define training weight» does not work for those who first came to the gym. They do not always understand how to train properly and what “hard” means. And if there is no trainer nearby who could tell you how much weight to perform the exercise with, then it’s a disaster. Let's clarify once and for all how to choose the right weight for training in the gym.
The main rules for selecting weights
- The choice of weights depends on how many repetitions you need to perform. The dumbbell/barbell should be heavy enough to fit exactly into the right one, no more and no less. If you have enough strength to do more repetitions, you need to raise the weight, if you cannot reach the required number of repetitions, reduce it.
- The weight of the weights should be unusual for you. If you are a girl, a mother and you constantly carry your child in your arms, then 2 kg dumbbells will be useless. But if you haven't been holding anything heavier than a ballpoint pen, then 2kg might be fine.
- For large muscle groups (muscles of the back, chest, thighs and buttocks), more heavy weights than for small muscle groups (muscles of the shoulders, arms, press).
- On block and other simulators, you can lift more than in exercises with a barbell or dumbbells. Therefore, never compare the row of dumbbells in an incline and horizontal. block traction, squats and leg presses.
- It is much more important for a beginner to learn the movements than to increase the weight. But this does not mean that you need to systematically underperform.
Selection of projectile weight in accordance with body weight
In order not to spend a lot of time looking for the same dumbbell by Ekaterina Golovina, you can use a simple method of selecting weights - based on your own weight. If you decide to work out in the gym, then you have a rough idea of what you will do there.
I’ll make a reservation right away, this method will not work for trained people, because. they have more strength relative to their body mass than beginners with low level physical training.
So below is the table.
1. Choose an exercise. The table shows three types of exercises - free weights(CB), on simulators with a lever mechanism (RS) and with an eccentric mechanism (EM).
2. Multiply your body weight by the factor next to your chosen exercise. The rates for women and men are different. Weights above 79 for men and 64 for women are not used in the calculations. That is, if you are a man and weigh 85 kg, then use 79 to select weights, if you are a woman and weigh 65 kg or more, then take 64 kg as a basis.
For example, a 50 kg woman wants to know how many pancakes she needs to put on the leg press machine: 50 kg × 1.0 = 50 kg. A 90 kg beginner male decided to bench press for the first time. horizontal bench: 79 × 0.35 = 27.6. We round up to 27-28 kg. The approach is carried out on maximum amount repetitions, and the result is recorded in the training diary.
This is not yet a working weight in training, but only a test.
Go ahead.
The choice of working weight weights for a beginner
Let's look at the following table. Let's say 27 kg in the bench press is ridiculous to tears for our conditional man - he was able to squeeze out 17 times, and for his goals (hypertrophy) he needs 10-11 repetitions.
1. In the new table, find the number of repetitions that were done with the test load.
2. On the left, we are looking for the required number of repetitions.
3. At the point of contact between the real and the desired, we have +7.5. This means that he needs to add another 7.5 kg to his test weight.
Even beginners have different backgrounds, and the tables are drawn up so that an untrained person does not somehow accidentally kill himself (and, to tell the truth, a little clumsily). Here it would be appropriate to add: focus on your feelings, let the number of repetitions determine the weight of the projectile, the last 3-4 repetitions should be heavy, if you do more than you need and quickly recover between sets, then add weight. If you can't complete a set, then decrease. Let tests be your starting point.
In this article, we will talk about such a problem and the eternal question among beginner athletes - “How to choose the right weight for training?”. This is perhaps the first problem that a beginner who has come to the gym has to face. Choosing the right weight for each exercise is quite a challenge for a beginner.
To choose the right weight, you must first determine the goals that you are pursuing. For example, if you need to type muscle mass, then you need to perform exercises for a minimum number of repetitions with a large weight. If you want to lose weight, then you need to use smaller weights for a large number of repetitions, plus cardio loads that need to be included in any one in order to pump not only the muscles of the body, but also expand the volume of the heart.
Let's figure it out. If you just came to the gym and are generally not aware of everything that is happening around, are not familiar with exercise techniques, do not know how certain simulators work and which muscle groups are pumped, in this case you should take the minimum weights and learn the technique of each exercises, and then gradually increase the load. First, you must familiarize yourself with each exercise, understand what you can do, what you should not do, so as not to injure yourself. If you are one of the beginner athletes, I advise you to familiarize yourself with the technique of each exercise in more detail in this section -.
So let's say you are familiar with correct execution exercises. How to choose the right weight for a barbell or dumbbell? First of all, you should choose such a burden so that the last repetition is really the last. You should not be enough for 13 repetitions if there are only 12 repetitions. At the same time, if you aim to do 10-12 repetitions, it turns out to perform somehow 6-8 repetitions. In the first case, if you do more reps than you intended, the weight is too light. In the second option, the weight of the barbell or dumbbell was chosen too large.
How to solve this problem and choose the working weight? That's how! Take the load that you think is on your shoulder and start moving from the starting position, bringing the weight to the extreme position. At the top point, hold the dumbbell or barbell for 1-2 seconds, then start moving in the reverse order. If you were unable to hold the weight at the top point, where your muscles are maximally contracted, this means that you need to take a few pounds less.
Now start a full lesson consisting of, say, 10 . If you feel like you can't hold the weight at 5 reps, drop it. Well, if everything is good, and you can continue to 13 repetitions, the weight should be increased. Again, it all depends on the goals that you are pursuing and on the method of training. For example, there are workouts that involve performing several exercises in one go. There are also workouts that involve performing exercises with low weight for a large number of repetitions. This method allows you to increase blood flow to a specific muscle group. If you expect to do 12 reps, but feel like you can do more, then you should use more weight. If you are doing basic exercise for the minimum number of repetitions, let's say 4-6. Here the situation is the same, you feel that you can do more repetitions, movements are easy for you, lift the weight.
Also, you should consider what exercise you are doing. If you intend to perform an isolation exercise with a short range of motion, there you need to take a weight where you can do from 12-20 repetitions. For example, take “ ” or “ “.
This is how the scheme for selecting the correct weight for a barbell or dumbbell works. I recommend everyone not to chase kilograms, because in many cases, the pursuit of great power leads to a violation of technique, and consequently to injury.
Operating weight- a term used in bodybuilding and other power types sports, characterizes such a weight of weight with which you can perform a given number of repetitions without violating the execution technique.
There is one thing in bodybuilding the most important rule- how more repetitions in the exercise, the less working weight you need to use, and vice versa. However, there is a small caveat here - the working weight should be maximum for a given number of repetitions. This means that with the chosen weight, you should be able to master only the required number of repetitions - no more and no less. Obviously, if you take the working weight with which you do 15 repetitions, but you perform, for example, 6 repetitions, there will be no benefit from this. The rule also works in reverse: that is, if you take a weight with which you do 6 repetitions, but try to perform 15 repetitions with it, you will not succeed.
Remember: the fewer repetitions we perform, the higher the intensity and, as a result, the working weight used. How more quantity The repetitions we perform, the lower the intensity and working weight.
Correct calculation of working weight
How to choose the right working weight? Unfortunately, only by trial and error. It is not difficult for experienced athletes to correctly calculate the value of their working weight, so over time this ability will come to you.
In the meantime, a simple algorithm can help you choose the optimal working weight.
Step-by-step algorithm for selecting the working weight:
Features of using the algorithm:
- Rest between attempts - at least 3-4 minutes;
- If within 2-3 attempts you were unable to determine your working weight, leave it until the next workout, writing down the results in a diary;
- This algorithm is suitable for determining the working weight in exercises performed in the range of 6-12 repetitions.
