Let’s dive into the art of choosing the right weight for your workouts! As coaches, we often encounter the pivotal query, ‘Which weight should I opt for?’ My aim in sharing this information is to encourage you to engage in thoughtful consideration. Reflect on whether your current weight choices truly align with your prescribed repetitions and overall fitness goals.

Why is this question important?

How much we lift can be essential in determining what we get out of our workouts. Research does tell us that we can get bigger and stronger with lighter weights performed for higher repetitions and vice versa.

The American College of Sports medicine currently recommends that people should lift around 60-80% of their 1RM during training when looking at improving strength and hypertrophy. You have probably heard the trainers suggest the ‘golden rule’ of having 1-3 reps (max) in the tank. That means training 1-3 repetitions shy of momentary failure. This is a great concept because we also know that, especially for women, our strength will not always be the same on any particular day.

Do people lift heavy enough when left to self-select?

So do people self-select enough weight? In a review by Steele et al. (2022) they found that, on average, people self-selected loads corresponding to approximately 53%1RM, which would be classified as light to moderate. This is alright, but this is too light if you aim for 8-12 reps.