How To Choose The Right Weights For Your Workouts
Someone asked us:
“How do I pick the right weight to use on the machines at the gym?”
Great question!
Ever since hitting the road in our Airstream back in February, we’ve been in a dozen different gyms with just as many different brands of machines.
So, how do you know what weight to use so you’ll build muscle and get stronger, without wasting time or getting hurt?
The easiest way… hire us to coach you 1:1 😜
The second-best way…
Decide what rep range you want your sets to be in.
A good rule of thumb is to do your compound lifts—like leg press, shoulder press, and chest press in the 5–8 rep range.
Then keep your single-joint accessory exercises like triceps pushdowns, cable curls, lat pulldowns, and cable rows in the 8–15 rep range.
With your target rep range in mind, we’re going to use your warm-up sets to find the right weight for your working sets.
Pick a weight on the stack that’s pretty light and do a set of 8–10 reps.
If it felt like you weren’t even working, go up 2–3 settings.
If you were struggling, knock the weight down 2–3 notches.
Do another warm-up set of 5–10 reps, noting how it felt.
Super easy? Keep adding. Barely moving? You went too far.
By now, you’re getting a sense of how many reps you can probably do.
Think about the rep range you're aiming for as you make your final weight selection.
I want your first working set to be really challenging when you get to the top end of your rep range.
So if you’re doing leg presses, your first set should be SUPER HARD by rep 7 or 8.
If you’re doing cable curls, reps 13 and 14 should be really slow and challenging.
If you hit the top end of your rep range and you could’ve done 5 more reps, you went too light.
If you didn’t hit the bottom of the rep range, you went too heavy.
The goal is to make every set HARD, coming close to failure.
And if you’re doing that right, it’s totally normal for your reps to go down on each set as you fatigue.
Why does all of this matter?
Our goal with our clients is to help them make better progress than ever, without spending extra time in the gym (or their home gyms).
And a massive part of that is helping them choose the right weights and work at the right effort level.
Add in the fact that our clients get daily coaching and accountability, and it’s no wonder why they’re killing it.
Give the tips in this email a try, or ya know… hire us and we’ll take away all of the guesswork 😁
Until next time… lift heavy (at the right weight), and be nice!
Jonathan