Should Women Lift Heavy?
Lifting “heavy” is such a relative term.
What’s heavy for one exercise is different from what’s heavy for another. Also based on experience level and strength, your opinion of what’s “heavy” could change over time.
When I started in fitness I thought 8lb dumbbells were heavy – now I consider them light.
The weights you select for an exercise or total workout are going to depend on not just which exercise, but also on the total volume and style of that workout.
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Your goal should be to challenge yourself. Adding resistance is just one way of doing that, but there are other ways to challenge yourself in fitness as well.
Check out the video to see clips of me lifting weights and you can decide if they are heavy or not.
In the end it’s all about feeling it. The only way you can know what weights to lift is by how it feels.
For complete beginners: I suggest choosing a weight you know you can handle, with good form, for the number of reps the exercise calls for. If that feels easy on your first set, then increase the weight for the remaining sets. You can always go back down if you feel the weight you’ve chosen is too heavy to allow you to complete all reps with proper form.
With more time and experience, you will get better at selecting the right weights and doing the right type of workouts to match your goals.
Getting lean is a goal. Make sure you’re on the right program to help you do that.
Take the quiz below to find out which program is best for you.
xo -Jess
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