How Much Weight Should You Use???

For this week’s tip, I’m going to address one of the most common questions I receive as succinctly as possible. There are several variations of the question… but in essence they’re all asking, “How much weight should I use in order to get the best results??”

The answer is always the same: “IT DEPENDS!”

Before I simplify it, understand that in reality it depends on a PLETHORA of factors, including what your individual goals are, your level of training experience, your joint health, the specific lift in question, the specific muscle you’re working, the equipment you’re using, how many times per week you’re working each muscle, which muscles you’re working together (particularly agonists vs antagonists), number of sets, between-set rest times, contraction type, your diet, your age, your gender, and more ALL make a difference!!

But to keep it simple, the MOST important factor is what your goals are, and here is a fairly reliable rule of thumb to go by:

For Max STRENGTH Gains – Very Heavy (85% – 100% 1RM)
For Max SIZE Gains – Heavy (60% – 85% 1RM)
For Max ENDURANCE Gains – Light to Medium (15% – 50% 1RM)

To avoid having to actually measure your one-rep maximum strength (“1RM”) for each lift, you can roughly judge it by the number of reps you can do before failure (see Image 1 below).  And understand that this is NOT an exact science by any means… there is significant overlap between the three, and exceptions exist (with the most notable BY FAR being Blood Flow Restriction / Occlusion Training, which allows you to train with  LIGHT weight yet achieve the same size AND strength gains that HEAVY weight training would, but with a fraction of the stress on the joints (I’ve compiled a list of mind-blowing  BFR studies and research articles on this page). But with that aside, it IS a pretty good rule of thumb to use if you want an answer that’s as simple and easy to follow as possible! 💪

Relevant Research Article(s):
      1) Resistance Training Load Effects on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain: Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis
      2) Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods
      3) Effects of three resistance training programs on muscular strength and absolute and relative endurance
      4) Influence of resistance training load on measures of skeletal muscle hypertrophy and improvements in maximal strength and neuromuscular task performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Related Dr. Gains YouTube Video(s):   
      1) “Biceps Curls” AREN’T Effective! DO THIS INSTEAD & Boost Bicep Growth By 200% (Proven in EMG Study) – Contains BFR Use-Case
      2) YES, You CAN Work Your “INNER” CHEST – Here’s How! (Region-Specific Hypertrophy – 6 Studies)