3361: When Should I Lift Heavier Weights by Mark Fisher Fitness on Strength Progression

This is Optimal Health Daily.

When should I lift heavier weights by Mark Fischer of MarkFischerFitness.com and I'm Dr.

Neal.

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Again, should I lift heavier weights by MarkFischer of MarkFischerFitness.com.

Today, I wanted to share some teachings on a common question from Ninjas.

How do I know when I should lift heavier weights?

First, let's unpack why you'd want to go heavier with your weights.

Within reason, the heavier loads you lift, the more pronounced your fitness outcomes.

You'll do more mechanical work and therefore burn more calories, which can contribute to

fat loss.

You'll provide a bigger global challenge to the body, which lead to a modest afterburn

effect that increases total calories burned, as well as provides a training effect for

the heart and nervous system.

You'll provide sufficient stimuli to gain muscle if you're eating enough food and doing

enough total volume of training, of course.

And you'll be stronger, generally more useful, and harder to kill in the event of, you know,

a zombie apocalypse.

When your goal is general health, hotness, and happiness, we don't need to be powerlifters.

And once you're an intermediate trainee, we don't want to shoot for a personal record

each and every workout.

At a certain point, your strength gains will plateau, unless you implement specific programming

protocols that are beyond the interest of your average human just looking to be fit.

Like fancy periodization schemes, the use of bands and chains, very low rep sets and

so on.

On the other hand, if we get comfortable lifting the same weights all the time, we can inadvertently

lull ourselves into fitness complacency.

So what if you're a non-performance focused human, merely using fitness to live your best

life?

Well, there's a time and a place for seeing what gas you've gotten the tank and pushing

up your weights.

So let's now address this question.

How do you know when the weight is too heavy?

When you're using a well-designed program, you'll usually have a specific number of reps

to hit in a given set when weight training.

In classes, here at Markfisher Fitness, we often use time-based intervals.

This is the same idea, but the goal is to be able to keep repping until the time for

that set ends.

How do we know when we should stop a set and not shoot for any more reps?

Well, at Markfisher Fitness, we look for three things that suggest a set should end.

While it's helpful to have an outside eye to keep you honest, you can also look out for

any of the following three signs.

1.

The weight slows down in a dramatic fashion.

2.

The range of motion shortens, and you're no longer doing complete repetitions.

Or 3.

You're unable to maintain solid technique.

Now this last one about technique is the most subjective, as there's room for debate

as to how much variance you can allow with technique.

On the other hand, if your technique is letter-perfect on the very last rep, you are almost

certainly lifting too light for a true working set.

On the other hand, allow too much slop in your movement, and you can ingrain subpar movement

patterns that can lead to injury over time.

Furthermore, we don't want to push every single working set to failure.

Again, this is all a bit subjective.

This is why having a coach is so helpful.

And with that, we return to our original question.

How do I know when I should go heavier with my weights?

Provided you're not seeing any of the previously mentioned signs that your set should stop,

the best way to know is to periodically rep out.

Let's say a set is prescribed for 10 repetitions.

Your chosen weight feels kind of hard, but you suspect you may have more gas in the tank.

This would be a great time to take a single set and see how many reps you can do before

reaching failure and can no longer complete another repetition.

Let's say you were truly only able to do 11 or 12 reps before reaching failure.

Well then maybe the weight you're using is okay.

But let's say you were able to do 27 repetitions before reaching failure.

Well now it's definitely time to grab a heavier weight.

Reminder

Having to failure can serve its place in your training, but it will always have a cost

on the body.

We usually like ninjas to leave a rep or two in the tank most of the time for most fitness

goals.

So while you can and should periodically rep out to make sure you're not lifting too light,

don't get in the habit of doing this on every single set forever and ever amen.

A final point.

There's a massive psychological element to the weight's people choose.

In my experience working with everyday humans, meaning non-performance focused athlete types,

20% of people tend to go too heavy, get too attached to numbers and push past the point

of acceptable technical degradation.

Another 20% of people tend to choose the appropriate weight to create a solid training effect.

And about 60% of people tend to go too light either because they're not used to the discomfort

of lifting with intensity or they don't want to or don't feel mentally safe to push

as hard as they're capable.

And at the risk of making this all even more complicated, it's important to appreciate

that too heavy or too light can be assessed best in light of progress towards the goal

and question.

A choice of weight could be too light to make you a successful power lifter, but totally

appropriate to build bone density and enough strength to live your personal best life.

Admittedly, the observation of 20% 20% and 60% of gym goers is not a scientific breakdown,

just my anecdotal experience.

However, the key point is that some people do actually lift too heavy and the majority

probably lift too light.

Happily, now you've got a framework for thinking about this and applying it to your training.

Hazaa!

You just listened to the post titled, When Should I Lift Have Your Wates by Mark Fisher

of MarkFisherFitness.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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Dr. Neal here for my commentary.

Today's author, Mark, said something that's so true and something I personally experienced.

Mark said, quote, at a certain point, your strength gains will plateau end quote.

This happened to me when I first started getting in a weightlifting.

My buddy and I were all about building strength.

We were all about bench pressing as the way to build strength.

We completely ignored working our legs by the way.

And just as Mark predicted, we plateaued.

Meaning, there was a point where we simply could not bench press any more weight.

Had I known back then what I know now, I could have surpassed that weight really quickly.

How?

Well just as Mark said, you have to mix things up a bit.

My buddy and I never did that.

We just kept doing the same thing over and over, hoping that somehow, some way, we would

miraculously break through our plateaus.

And when we look at published studies, we find that mixing up the routine makes all the

difference.

It can be something as simple as incorporating one of my favorites, weightlifting ladders.

That means instead of doing something like three sets of bench presses with six repetitions

for each set, instead on your first set, you use a weight that you can lift 10 times

without reaching failure.

Then you rest for 10 seconds and lift that weight nine times.

Then rest for another 10 seconds and then lift the weight eight times.

Continue this pattern until you get down to one repetition, meaning you lift the weight

just one time.

This is training for volume and works your muscles in a different way.

It forces them to adapt to something new.

Believe it or not, this can help add strength.

But as Mark said, don't get complacent and only do ladders for the rest of your life.

Switch up the routine again at some point down the road, like lifting heavy again.

If you mix things up, I have a feeling you'll find you're much stronger than you were before.

Alright, that'll do it for today.

I hope you have a great rest of your Tuesday.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you for sharing this show with someone and I'll be back here tomorrow as usual.

So I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits.