Would you like to have much bigger muscles but don’t know how much weight to lift? Don’t worry, in this article I will explain how to calculate how much weight you have to lift to gain muscle!
Trainers and physical trainers call this intensity, and in fact we have already talked about THE INTENSITY IN TRAINING.
As you know there are all kinds of formulas to find out what intensity is right for your own body. You can even do it by trial and error (although this is not the most efficient way to achieve it).
For example, you can use a load that is heavy enough to provide a challenge, but not so heavy as to jeopardize technique and control.
And if you’re twisting, shaking, shaking, or any other mode of body distortion to complete the movement, you’re lifting too much weight.
Although this is “the method of intuition”, to which we all go in our principles, it is not recommended.
Let’s see then the correct way to calculate the amount of weight that must be lifted to gain muscle mass.
HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE MASS CORRECTLY?
As we saw in the article on how to calculate our strength, the intensity of an exercise is determined by the 1RM method (1 MAXIMUM REPETITION). In case you do not remember what, this is, you can enter the link where I explain how to calculate it.
Basically, “1 maximum repetition” is the absolute maximum weight that can be lifted only once, maintaining the correct technique of the exercise to be performed.
And it is very good to take the time to calculate it because the minimum intensity range in which you will begin to develop strength and muscles is between 60% – 65% percent of your 1RM.
What does this mean? Well, if the maximum weight you can lift only once, for a given exercise (let’s assume in the arm curl), is 20 kg, the minimum weight you should use to gain muscle mass is 12 to 13 kg.
since it will not stimulate your maximum level of strength development, to achieve the maximum level it is recommended to use a load that is between 80-90% of your 1RM.
That is, if you could lift 20 kilos to do a single repetition, this means that the maximum weight range now consists of using between 16 and 18 kg for the case of the bicep curl.
We can affirm that using a weight below these ranges (65% – 80% of your 1RM) will not favor muscle development but you will be focusing more on the development of muscle endurance.
It is very important to know this, as you may want to incorporate lighter loads according to your training periodization, in order to give your muscles a rest, while improving their ability to generate force for longer periods.
HOW DO REPETITIONS INFLUENCE MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT?
We already saw the issue of weight or load, but the number of repetitions, or better the range of repetitions is what ends up giving closure to the issue of knowing how much weight to lift to develop more muscle.
I said that the idea was to train 65% – 85% of the 1RM, but 65 is not the same as 80, right?
Let’s look at it as follows:
- Training at 65% (it was 13 kilos for the bicep curl), and in theory here you would be doing about 14 repetitions before fatigue.
- Training at 85% (which was equivalent to 17 kilos for the same exercise) you could do (in theory) about 4 repetitions before breaking the technique.
WHAT PERCENTAGE SHOULD YOU CHOOSE THEN? 65% OR 85%?
Let’s now incorporate the concept of series and repetitions, so if your goal is to develop muscle mass, it will be neither one nor the other.
- With the 16/17 kilos and 4 repetitions, you would focus on strength.
- While with the 13 kilos and 14 repetitions resistance training will predominate.
The ideal rep value is one that allows you to reach the point of muscle failure between repetition 8 and 12.
Tweet
That is, if you decide to train with 15 kilos for the curl (75% of your 1RM) and in the last series you cannot pass 10 or 11 repetitions maintaining the correct technique of the exercise.
It is there that you will be developing the maximum level of muscle mass possible.
YOU HAVE TO COMBINE WEIGHT AND REPETITIONS TO BUILD MUSCLE MASS!
In short, within this range you must choose the heaviest weight possible but that allows you to reach muscle failure in repetition 9, 10 or 11 of the last series. And this is important huh, always in the last series and not before.
Another important point is that you should not reach failure in each of the exercises of your routine, it is good that you change the scheme so that each week it touches a different exercise by muscle group, in this way you will avoid a picture of overtraining.
Remember that the lower the number of repetitions within that range, the higher the weight you should use, and vice versa.
As you begin to build muscle and become stronger, you will notice that the effort will be less and less and you will begin to perform several more repetitions than scheduled.
This means that your body is improving and adapting to training, and the weight that was once ideal is no longer the right one for your new level.
That’s when it’s time to implement one of the following strategies to continue building muscle optimally.
STRATEGIES TO CONTINUE MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT
- You can increase the weight you’ve been using on that particular exercise by a small increase in load.
- You can increase the number of sets, to reach muscle failure in the aforementioned range.
- Or you can reduce the rest time between sets.
As you can see, there are no excuses, perhaps the most difficult thing is to start, establish the optimal range of repetitions and weight.
But once this is defined, the system follows the same pattern, and it only remains to make small adjustments in the routine to avoid stagnation.
You no longer have excuses to overcome your current limits, and develop more muscle mass, just remember that training is one of the three pillars; do not forget nutrition and rest. The other two pillars also have their specific strategies aimed at muscle development.
- What is Protein or Nitrogen Balance?
- What to Eat to Gain Muscle Mass?
- How many times do you have to eat a day to lose weight or gain weight?
- Metabolism: Catabolism, Anabolism and Muscle Development
- 10 + 1 Tips to build muscle mass
- How Much Muscle Can You Develop Naturally and at What Speed?
- How to gain weight and muscle mass according to your body?
- How much weight do you have to lift to gain muscle mass?