Have you been lifting weights but you are still not seeing the results you want? There are fewer things more frustrating than putting in effort and not getting the reward. So I am going to share with you five must do’s to get results from lifting weights.
Put these to work right away and watch the magic happen before your eyes!
1. Make sure your program follows progressive overload style of training.
I write my clients’ programming in four week blocks. We follow the same strength workouts for four weeks then change. I find this is often enough to keep things from getting boring, but a long enough period where they can make progress.
The way we can progress with the same movements over the four week period is to increase the load, the reps or time under tension or decrease the rest periods (or increase intensity.) For example, if your workout has 3×10 dumbbell chest press week one, week two make be 3×10 but add a pause at the top of each rep for additional time under tension, week three may be 3×12 so reps are increasing and week 4 may be 3×12 again, but increase load.
There’s one caveat to this – the volume (sets and reps) does need to be 3-4 sets or 8-12 reps to prioritize hypertrophy or muscle gains. This has been proven to create the most bang for your buck when it comes to building muscle.
2. You need to track your weights.
That’s great if each week your program is more challenging, but how do you know if you are increasing your weight if you don’t know what you lifting last week? Or, how do you know if you are recovering faster between sets unless you actually track your rest periods? Or maybe you can just jot down that week 1, you were able to complete 12 tricep dips without stopping but you had to keep your feet under your hips, and by week 4 you see that you can do all 12 tricep dips with your legs extended. Bottom line is that you can’t push harder if you don’t know your baseline.
3. Recognize your rate of perceived exertion.
Rate of perceived exertion or RPE, is how challenging each movement, load or workout feels. Let’s use the chest press example again. Let’s say you have 3×10 db chest press and you grab 5’s and you realize you could do 30+ reps and eventually get more tired of counting than you have muscle fatigue – that means your RPE is low, like a 1. But you pick up 40’s and can barely eke out one rep – that means your RPE is 10, and not ideal either. If you need to do 3 x 10, you should be able to get all 10 reps for sure, maybe another 1 – 3 good reps before you start breaking down form.
That’s the RPE of 7-9 sweet spot where you should be spending most of your training. This is what will promote stimulus for your muscles without causing you to go too far over the line where you are having to spend too much time/ energy or recovery, feel too sore to function in your daily life or risk injury. But again, you can’t keep up with what weights are right if you are not tracking!
4. You want to feel fatigue.
After a workout, you should feel heavy in the legs.. like stairs suck, but sitting down shouldn’t make you scream. Perhaps sometimes this happens if you perform a brand new movement, for example. But ideally, you should feel sore, like you worked your hamstrings after deadlift day. Or putting something up on a high shelf may feel tiring to your arms after a shoulder workout. This tells us that your muscles have been used.
5. You are only as good as your recovery.
This means you can lift all you want, but you still need to focus on nutrition, sleep, hydration and stress. If you are overly stressed all the time and not sleeping well you aren’t likely going to build muscle. If you are ensuring you eat adequate calories, eat plenty of starchy carbs and protein, you are well hydrated and sleep 7-9 hours a night you will get the results you want.
Lifting breaks down your muscle fibers, and they have to repair themselves and that’s how muscle is built. If they cannot effectively repair themselves then you won’t make progress.
If you are not getting the results you want, let’s work together! Learn more about how we can work together at KyraWilliamsFitness.com/signup – I have 1:1 mentorship spots as well as DIY workouts you can do on your own.