How Much Weight Should I Lift? Menu Verywell Fit Nutrition Weight Management Nutrition Facts Nutrition Basics Diets Meal Plans Meal Delivery Services View All News Fitness and Nutrition What to Buy How We Test Products Fitness Gear Nutrition Products Tools Recipe Nutrition Calculator Weight Loss Calorie Goal BMI Calculator Body Fat Percentage Calculator Calories Burned by Activity Daily Calories Burned Pace Calculator About Us Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Search Strength Beginners How Much Weight Should I Lift? By Paul Rogers Paul Rogers Paul Rogers is a personal trainer with experience in a wide range of sports, including track, triathlon, marathon, hockey, tennis, and baseball. Learn about our editorial process Updated on April 24, 2021 Reviewed Verywell Fit articles are reviewed by nutrition and exercise professionals. Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Learn more. by Tara Laferrara, CPT Reviewed by Tara Laferrara, CPT Tara Laferrara is a certified NASM personal trainer, yoga teacher, and fitness coach. She also created her own online training program, the TL Method. Learn about our Review Board Print Verywell / Ben Goldstein Table of Contents View All Table of Contents How Much Weight Should You Lift Determine Your Goals Ensure Proper Form When to Increase Weight Wondering how much weight to lift is a common question for both beginner and advanced weight lifters, for good reason. Choosing an appropriate weight for your current fitness level is essential for achieving fitness goals and minimizing the risk of injury. To properly choose the correct amount of weight to lift, you'll need to consider several factors. These include your age and sex, in addition to your current ability level and fitness goals. How Much Weight Should You Lift Determining how much weight you should lift will be based on your goals. To focus on building strength, you will need to lift heavier weights for at least some of your training. Meanwhile, to build muscle mass you can use a variety of weights including lighter weights with more repetitions and/or sets, and moderate to heavy weights. In either case, you should progress your training over time. Adding more weight is one way to do this. Figuring out how much your muscles can reasonably handle is often a process of trial and error. You don't want to go too low and avoid the tension needed to build muscles. But you also don't want to go too high and have to swing your body to lift a weight. To pinpoint your ideal weight and know when it's time to lift heavier weights, you need to learn proper form, listen to your body, and keep to an allotted time, neither rushing between exercises nor resting too long. How to Determine the Ideal Weight for You A 10-exercise workout program involving three sets of 10 repetitions for each exercise is a good starting point for a general fitness plan. To determine the ideal weight for a specific exercise for these steps. Choose a weight that allows you to do the first set of 10 reps with moderate difficulty. By the end of the tenth rep, you should find it somewhat difficult to lift but not so difficult that you are straining, holding your breath, or shaking excessively. If that's happening, drop down a little. Rest for at least 30 seconds but no more than 60 seconds between sets. Make sure by the 10th lift of the third set that you are struggling to complete the lift but still able to do so without grunting or breaking form. Aim to sustain this intensity, whether you are new to weight training or a seasoned veteran. Top Reasons to Lift Weights and Strength Train Determine Your Goals The first step is figuring out which goals you want to achieve during your weight-training sessions, whether that is building strength, improving overall fitness, or increasing muscle size. For each goal, there are ideal rep ranges, set numbers, and weekly training schedules. Gain or Maintain Overall Fitness For beginners or people looking to maintain overall fitness, a good goal is to do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps. This means choosing a weight that allows you to complete this many reps without struggling to finish the set. A strength training session that works all the muscles of the body, including the hips, legs, abdomen, chest, back, shoulders, and arms, two to three days per week is plenty for maintaining overall fitness. Improve Muscle Strength For building strength, any rep range will work, but for best results, be sure to include 2 to 5 heavier sets of 3 to 5 reps. To build strength, the goal should be fewer reps at a higher weight that challenges you during each repetition. However, it is wise to establish a solid overall fitness level before moving on to heavier weights, since heavier weights come with more risk if your form is not correct. Aim for 2 to 4 days of strength training per week, and be sure to take rest days in between. The heavier weight will break down your muscle tissue, and you will require rest and recovery to repair that damage. That repair process helps build stronger muscles. Increase Muscle Size Increasing muscle size, also called hypertrophy, will occur whether you train at the lower rep range with higher weight or a higher rep range (8 to 12 reps per set) with a moderately challenging weight. The key to increasing muscle size is volume, meaning adding more sets and reps to your workout over time. You can spread these additional sets and reps over your weekly training sessions. For beginners, 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions per exercise with a moderate load (70% to 85% of one-rep max) is ideal. More advanced individuals looking to further develop muscle mass can perform 3 to 6 sets of 1 to 12 repetitions at 70% to 100% of one-rep max. Aim for 12 to 28 sets per muscle group per week, spread over 3 to 5 training days, for optimal muscle growth. One-rep max (1RM) is a measure of the amount of weight you can lift for a particular exercise for one repetition. It is often calculated using a 1RM calculator where you can input max weight lifted for multiple reps and it will provide you with an equivalent 1RM estimate. For instance, the amount of weight you can lift to fatigue for 8 repetitions is approximately 80% of your 1RM. Ensure Proper Form One of the things people fail to realize when lifting weights is how much their bodies move to assist in moving the weight. Unfortunately, this can undermine the very goal of an exercise, which is to isolate and contract a particular muscle or muscle group. When lifting a weight, you always need to focus on isolating a muscle during the movement. If you swing your body, you are using momentum to lift the weight. By doing so, you are dispersing the energy meant for one muscle to many muscles. This is why people who grunt, arch their backs, or drop their weights are doing themselves a disservice (and likely annoying others in the process). By simply lowering their weight to a reasonable level, they can achieve so much more with so much less. Maintain this focus when doing any weightlifting exercise. Keep your back flat, shoulders square, hips level, abdomen taut, and head and neck relaxed but lifted. Not only will this help you maintain proper form, but it can also help direct which weight is appropriate for the exercise you are doing. If you cannot lift your chosen weight with proper form, it is too heavy, and you should use a lighter weight. Seek the guidance of a personal trainer if you are unsure about your form. How Slow Weight Lifting Challenges Your Body When to Increase Weight If you find you can do the last lift with little effort, then it's time to increase the weight. Progressive overload (adding more weight over time) is a fundamental principle of weight training. If you don't continually challenge your body by increasing your weights, you will eventually plateau even if you increase the number of exercises you do. If your current weight is not challenging enough, but the next one up is too heavy, you have two choices for reaching the right fatigued state:Use the heavier weight and drop down to eight or nine reps.Stay with the current weight and increase to 12 or 15 reps. Here's a trick that can help: Instead of lifting a weight standing unsupported, try pressing your back against a wall or post while doing an exercise. Try it with a bicep curl as an example. You'll be surprised how much more difficult it is to lift a weight when your back and core muscles are not allowed to assist. 5 Benefits of Lifting Heavy Weights, According to Experts A Word From Verywell If in doubt, work with a personal trainer for a few weeks to learn proper form and technique. Exercise is not always intuitive. Learning good habits at the start is always better than correcting mistakes later. You should always listen to your body when performing any exercise when lifting weights. If it feels like too much or if you are experiencing pain, stop immediately. 8 Sources Verywell Fit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Hunter GR, Fisher G, Neumeier WH, Carter SJ, Plaisance EP. Exercise training and energy expenditure following weight loss. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2015;47(9):1950–1957. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000622 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How much physical activity do adults need?. Ghoual A. The effect of repetition ranges on maximal strength and hypertrophy. Int J Phys Educ Fitness Sports. 2019;8(4):149-157. doi:10.26524/ijpefs19415 Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, et al. Resistance training volume enhances muscle hypertrophy but not strength in trained men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019;51(1):94-103. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764 Schoenfeld B, Grgic J. Evidence-based guidelines for resistance training volume to maximize muscle hypertrophy. Strength Cond J. 2018;40(4):107-112. doi:10.1519/ssc.0000000000000363 Thomas MH, Burns SP. Increasing lean mass and strength: A comparison of high frequency strength training to lower frequency strength training. Int J Exerc Sci. 2016;9(2):159–167. Lorenz DS, Reiman MP, Walker JC. Periodization: Current review and suggested implementation for athletic rehabilitation. Sports Health. 2010;2(6):509–518. doi:10.1177/1941738110375910 McClaran SR. The effectiveness of personal training on changing attitudes towards physical activity. J Sports Sci Med. 2003;2(1):10–14. By Paul Rogers Paul Rogers is a personal trainer with experience in a wide range of sports, including track, triathlon, marathon, hockey, tennis, and baseball. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? 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