How Heavy Should You Lift When You First Start Lifting? Beginner Gym Tips
When it comes to training in the gym, you’ll see two common mistakes in beginners: lifting too heavy and sacrificing form or not lifting heavy enough.
This is understandable, as when you’re first getting started with lifting in the gym, your body doesn’t give efficient feedback as to how heavy the weight really is. Similarly to when you’re learning to walk as a toddler, your body needs practice to become more efficient in providing this feedback to improve your skills in lifting!
This usually means that when you’re first getting started, the weight is going to feel heavy regardless of whether you have five or 20 pound dumbbells in your hands. In addition to this, delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) can also convince you that maybe you lifted too heavy or overdid it (when you probably didn’t if form was correct).
Today we’ll discuss how you can better gauge the intensity of training (aka how much weight you should be lifting at the gym) and the phases of training you should follow step-by-step, all depending on your strength and muscle-building goals!
These are the phases of training you should follow regardless of whether you are a male or female beginner; each phase will help you identify how much weight you should personally lift depending on your specific goals and feedback from your body.
How to Measure How Heavy You’re Lifting
How heavy you’re lifting is referred to as “training intensity.” Training intensity is most commonly measured through training percentages and RPE’s.
Using Percentages of your 1RM to Measure How Much Weight to Use
Training intensity is based off of your one rep max (1RM), which means this is the heaviest you can lift for one rep. For example, if you can squat 200 pounds for one rep as your max, then your 1RM is 200 pounds. This is the number you would use when working with training perecentages to figure out how much weight you should be lifting.
If your training program calls for you to squat 3 sets of 12 reps at 70% and your max is 200 pounds, then you would be squatting 3 sets of 12 reps for 140 pounds for that day.
As a beginner, you won’t know your 1RM (or predicted 1RM) because your body is still learning how to manage weight efficiently. Therefore, testing your maxes won’t be effective or safe yet as a beginner.
Using RPE’s to Measure How Much Weight to Use
Another way you can measure how much weight to use when lifting is through RPE’s. RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion. It is based on a simple scale of 1-10.
RPE 10 = 0 reps left in the tank (you don’t think you can successfully complete anymore reps with this weight)
RPE 9 = 1 rep left in the tank (you think you can only successfully complete one more rep with this weight)
RPE 8 = 2 reps left in the tank (you think you can only successfully complete two more reps with this weight)
RPE 7 = 3 reps left in the tank (you think you can only successfully complete three more reps with this weight)
The scale goes all the way down to 0, but typically anything under RPE 5 is usually seen as warm-up weight.
PHASE 1
YOUR FIRST 1-2 MONTHS AT THE GYM
If you’re someone who is eager to lift heavy, you may try to skip this phase completely and, in return, put yourself at higher risk of injury. On the other hand, if you’re someone who is afraid of lifting heavy and “getting bulky” you may stay in this phase for too long and limit your progress or quickly plateau.
During this phase, your goal is not to lift heavy. In fact, its usually better to be conservative with the weight you use and put all of your focus on form, technique, correcting weaknesses/imbalances, and mind-muscle connection.
Because you’re just getting started, you may feel DOMS for up to a week even after lifting with light weight. Your body, being new to lifting, will need more time for recovery.
In this phase, your aim is to work within 50-70% of your 1RM (which you can use if you cycle back to this phase in the future — we’ll talk about this shortly), but if this is your first month of training, you do not need to worry about your training intensity as much.
Instead, choose a weight that you feel is manageable, but most importantly, that allows you to complete a full range of motion with your movements, allows you to engage the muscles the most (via mind-muscle connection), and allows you to use proper form & technique.
The last one or two reps should feel challenging, but not so much that you’re struggling to complete the lift. Eventually, you will start to choose weight where you struggle with completing the lifts and feel more challenged, but when you’re first starting out, you’ll likely see form breakdown, which is what we want to prevent.
In phase 1, you’ll be working with less sets and higher reps. Sets should range from 1-3 and reps should range from 12-20.
PHASE 2
YOUR FIRST 2-3 MONTHS AT THE GYM
During this phase of training, your body will be more efficient with managing the intensity of your lifts. This means that it’s time for you to begin practicing measuring intensity and choosing which weight you’re using via RPE’s. You won’t be perfect with this and you can anticipate that you’ll make mistakes; this is expected! If you have your form and technique down, it is safe to work with RPE’s, even if/when you over or undershoot the amount of weight you should be lifting.
Your aim is to work with 70-80% of your 1RM. If this is only your second month of training, you still won’t have a good idea of what your 1RM is, so instead you can practice working with RPE’s 7 and 8. This means that your aim is to lift heavier (with good form), but leaving 2-3 reps in the tank.
In phase 2, you’ll be working with 2-4 sets and 8-12 reps per movement.
PHASE 3
YOUR FIRST 3-6 MONTHS AT THE GYM
During this phase, you’re starting to build more noticeable muscle and a stronger base. If your goal is to build muscle or get “toned” (build some muscle while keeping body fat percentage low), this is typically as far as you’ll go in your phases of training. Meaning, you don’t need to progress into phase 4, which is a transition into building strength and lifting much heavier.
At this level, you still shouldn’t have tested your 1RM yet, but your body will have better adapted to lifting weights, which means you can use predicted 1RM calculators (offered in Flex Club coaching) to work with percentages in your program!
You’ll be working with 75-85% of your 1RM. You can also work with RPE’s of 7-9, meaning you’ll have 1-3 reps left in the tank on your lifts.
In this phase, you’re working with sets of 3-5 and reps of 6-12. The less reps you do, the higher the sets and the heavier the weight will be (higher percentages from the range). The less sets you perform, the more reps you’ll do and the lighter the weight will be (lower percentages).
If your goal is to build muscle, you can cycle through phases 1-3 through various different methods and you don’t need to move into phase 4. You can also stay in this phase for 2-3 months (focusing on progressive overload) before progressing to strength as a method for building a better base.
Once you’ve built a base of muscle that you’re happy with, move into phase 4. If you’re just getting started and have the goal of building strength or getting into powerlifting, I would recommend staying in this phase for at least 6 weeks before moving into phase 4.
PHASE 4
YOUR FIRST 5-7 MONTHS AT THE GYM
This phase of training moves us more into true strength training: working with heavy weight and less reps. You’re able to test your 1RM in this phase of training, which tends to be what most beginner powerlifters look forward to when they first get started.
It’s important to wait until this phase of training to test your maxes as a beginner as you’ve now built up your base, trained your body to lift efficiently with proper form, and therefore you’re minimizing your risk of injury.
Your training intensity will be 85-100% of your 1RM or RPE’s of 7-10.
A mistake many beginners make in this phase is attempting to lift too heavy too often and testing their maxes weekly. It’s important that you don’t attempt testing your max each week, although it will be tempting when you’re first getting started. To continue building strength and muscle, it’s crucial that you keep focused on progressive overload; constantly testing a new max won’t be as effective and can tax your CNS much faster while also keeping progressive overload at a minimum. This has the opposite effect and can cause you to temporarily lose or stall your strength progress rather than build.
You’ll work with 4-6 sets and 1-6 reps per movement.
PHASE 5
YOUR FIRST 6-8 MONTHS AT THE GYM
When it comes to lifting heavy, a factor that goes into it is speed and power. This is something you’ll want to incorporate if you’re looking to get more involved with strength sports, such as powerlifting, or take your heavy lifting more seriously as a hobby.
This phase incorporates the same work from phase 4 while adding in technique or speed work days that have focus on light, but explosive movements. The training intensity should be light for your technique and speed work days. You’ll work with 30-75% of your 1RM, with sets of 3-10 and reps of 1-10.
Most beginners in the gym waste 1-2 years of their training by staying in one phase for too long or by completely skipping necessary phases of training for their progress. This will offset progress and put risk of injury even higher. If you’re just getting started and follow these phases step-by-step, you will be putting yourself at an advantage and see progress that I’m certain you’ll feel empowered by and proud of!
