I see the weights; now what?

Weight lifting seems confusing at first.  What are we supposed to do?  How do we choose the right weight?  How long are we supposed to keep on going?  Let me help.

When we do a weight workout, we want to work out all the muscle groups.  (If our goal is body-building, it gets more complicated and we might work out different muscle groups on different days, but for most of us, we want the whole body on one day.)  That means we want to work lower body, upper body, and abdominals, ensuring that we work both the front and back of the body.  That means that we want to push and pull with all our extremities and bend both forward and back.  There are many ways to do all those things, which is good: we won’t get bored.  I’m not going to go into detail here, just give the principle and we can all go home and apply it.

At first, we choose the right weight by pure guesswork.  If we choose something too light, we will know because we will feel like we could lift all day.  A choice of something too heavy will be even more obvious by the second or third repetition.

How heavy a weight we choose also relates to what we want to accomplish and how many times we intend to lift it.  If the goal is increasing strength, we want to pick heavier weights and lift them fewer times (no more than 10 reps, and sometimes as few as 1!).  If our goal is to improve our endurance or to look more “toned,” we will choose lighter weights and lift them lots of times (12 to 20 reps).

If we belong to a gym, odds are that there is at least some kind of orientation program that can walk us through the basics of the weight room and give us a basic routine.  If we’re working out at home, there are lots of resources available.  And there is always the option of hiring a trainer to tailor workouts to our needs and goals.