What Weights Should You Be Using in The Gym to Lose Fat and Build Muscle

Do you get confused or anxious about not only what exercises you should be doing but how much weight and how many reps/sets? Completely normal when starting out there is so much information out there, we tend to get a little lost. Should we be doing light weight and high reps to tone? Or heavy weight with less reps to build muscle? What weight exactly should I be doing. 

What is light to one person could be heavy to another and vice versa so asking someone how much you should be lifting is not ideal. No one can determine that but you, now an experienced trainer can recommend where you should start but no one is going to know exactly how a weight or reps/sets feel to you but you. 

So, let's get into reps and sets first and then we can get into weights, because ultimately the reps/sets you do is going to determine what weights you chose. 

For power you will want to train in the 4-6 rep range 4-6sets 

For strength and hypertrophy (building muscle) you will want to train in the 8-12 rep range 3-4 sets 

For muscular endurance you will want to train in the 12-20 rep ranges 2-3 sets 

Each of these ranges are going to help you in your goals but you don't want to focus on the power training until you have mastered some very good form. Power with such low rep ranges requires a heavier load, and with a heavier load you can get hurt without proper form and technique. 

With that being said most generally people are wanting to lose some fat, maybe gain some muscle, and just be healthier you want to start incorporating both strength and endurance rep ranges in your workouts. 

Now let's talk about the weights you need for these specific ranges and what that means for you. If you are doing sets of 12reps you need to choose a weight that is going to be a challenge at about 9 or 10reps so that the last few reps feel almost like you can't do it, but ultimately you can AND with good form. 

Do you see how someone's hypertrophy weight can be different then someone else's? And it doesn't mean either are doing it wrong. But someone could need a 20lb db to get a challenging set at 12reps of squats while someone could use a 50lb db and that is there challenging weight. Either way they are BOTH in the hypertrophy and lifting the right amount of weight. FOR THEM!

The same rule applies to all rep ranges. If you are going to 20reps than you need to choose a weight that is going to again challenge, you and feel really hard at around 18 reps, the last few reps should be hard but possible with good form. 

Similar to the 4 rep range, you need to choose a weight that is basically hard from the beginning. lol no seriously. So that is why I recommend the power phase for more advanced gym goes who have executed very good form on the said movements and feel really confident they will not get hurt. 

So now that you know where to start you need to understand that in order for your body to grow and build muscle you cannot use those same weights forever you need to overtime load your body with more volume whether that means doing 15 reps instead of 12 reps with the same weight or using 3-5lbs more on an exercise then you did last time. 

In order for those rep ranges to be the most effective you have to continue to use that method of choosing weights. 

Hope this helps, share it with someone who might need it and as always please reach out if you need anything. 

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