What Is The Right Weight To Use In Bodybuilding?
Posted by Drakudemine in Muscle BuildingA lot of bodybuilders have some problems with choosing the right weights to use when bodybuilding or basically said, strength training. You need to understand that any exercise you do against resistance is strength training. There are various types of resistances, in our case the most common being free weights, tubing, machines or even our own body weight. Through strength training you can lose weight as calories are burned faster and you can even aid your body in preventing injuries while also alleviating chronic and joint back pain.
The difficult part is that the most benefit you can obtain through strength training comes from using the right weights, something that is sometimes hard to understand and acknowledge properly.
A lot of individuals, especially women, are afraid to use as much weight as needed to obtain benefits as there is a concern of building large muscles. You need to understand that a regular strength training workout will not bulk you up. Believe it or not, this is mostly true for women because their body does not produce enough quantities of the right hormones that allow bulking up.
A basic rule of thumb is that strength training requires the weights used to be heavy enough for the muscle to be challenges. Weights that are too light will not put enough stress on the muscles and no change will appear in the future.
We also need to understand that in order to gain the muscle mass you see in professional bodybuilders you will need to put in a lot of time and effort (not to mention money in most cases). Most bodybuilders out there will be seen in the gym, working out around 6 days per week and the workout session does not last 20 minutes.
Multiple sets of each exercise are performed and they use heavy weights. A simple strength training routine that aims at performing 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise, 2 to 3 days per week is simply not enough to build large muscles.
In order to find the right weights to use for bodybuilding we recommend that you try to first find the weight that permits you to perform the given exercise and do 10 repetitions while maintaining perfect form, before you are too tired to continue or do it correctly. If you use weights that are too heavy or not heavy enough you will not gain the benefits you are probably looking for.
It is true that the body can become used to a workout if you keep on doing the same exercises over and over again and you use the same weight. In order to maintain efficiency you will need to change the workout routine. If you can do 12 repetitions of a given exercise then you will need to put an extra pound or two to the weight you are used to. Keep your focus around the ten repetitions maximum technique mentioned above and increase the workout weight accordingly.
Alternatively you can change the exercises so that you can work the muscles from different angles, you can use tubes, machines or even your own body weight. Keep in mind that these advices are especially valid for medium level bodybuilders or regular people training. In order to go for bodybuilding competitions and similar activities (or maybe you are just looking for bulking up as much as possible) you might want advanced bodybuilding techniques.
Article first written for the Great Bodies Nutrition and Bodybuilding blog. More high quality workout articles there.
