What Percentage of Weight Should You Increase When Lifting?
- There is no exact correct percentage of weight that you should always increase. The amount of resistance you add depends on your particular strengths and body type, the specific exercise you are performing and the available equipment.
A good guideline is to increase your weight by approximately 10 percent once you're ready to make the progression. When you decide to increase weight depends on your individual goals. If you're sticking with heavy weights for maximum size and strength, you should increase weights by 10 percent as soon as you can comfortably perform six repetitions. For toning programs, weight doesn't have to be increased until 12 or 15 repetitions no longer is difficult. - You also need to know how much to increase weights when you are in the middle of the workout. This refers to how much weight you do in a warmup set compared with your working sets. Again, individual circumstances ultimately dictate the final numbers, but a good rule is to increase your weight by about 30 to 35 percent from your warmup to your regular sets. Therefore, if you do 15 repetitions of 135 pounds on the bench press to warmup, a logical weight for your real sets will be about 175 to 185 pounds to do for six to eight reps.
- Start slowly when increasing weight and always test yourself to ensure that the weight won't be too much. When you're first learning an exercise, take the time to master the movement completely with several stages of lighter weights before advancing to a weight that will be difficult to complete. You also should have a spotter handy when increasing weight on an exercise such as the bench press or squat, to avoid the risk of injury.