how often should you add weight?

[El Don]

WHen I go workout I have always been curious as to how often you are suppose to add more weight to your lifts. Should it be every week or everytime you workout or something?

 

[spesmilitis]

Every time you do the exersice, add either a small increment of weight or small increment of reps. If you can't, i'd say you're probably not getting enough recovery, or not enough nutrition to rebuild the muscles better and stronger, or maybe you're not working hard enough at your lifts. The last one is the most rare.

Look at my workout journal in november. There was a personal best for almost every exersice. Not so much now since jujitsu is taking a pretty big toll on my body. Hopefully i'll get back in the groove by next week.

 

[guayaballer]

since we are suppose to increase the weight everytime with that being said is it possible to gain superhuman like strength? like hurling cars around i know it is a stupid question but i have always wondered but if you keep increasing the weight by 5 lbs every week for 10 to 15 years

 

[Skilla_Staz]

Well at first the gains will come very quickly, and very steadily. Overtime, your gains will slow, and eventually halt.


If you could increase your weights by 5lbs, hell, even 1lb every week for the rest of your life...

Lets start at age 18.

Let's say you squat 150lbs for the heck of it. 1lb a week?

Age 19 - 202lbs
Age 20 - 252lbs
Age 21 - 302lbs
Age 22 - 352lbs
Age 23 - 402lbs
Age 24 - 452lbs
Age 25 - 502lbs
Age 26 - 552lbs
Age 27 - 602lbs
Age 28 - 652lbs
Age 29 - 702lbs
Age 30 - 752lbs

etc...by the time you hit 40, you'd be squatting 1272lbs.

Now, if you gained 5lbs each week, you'd hit the 1200 mark in just over 4 years. Obviously thats not the case. Just take your gains as they come. Eventually you will have to fight for them.

Over 15 years, btw, youd have a 4050lb squat...yeah...not happening anytime soon.

 

[danno1]

invest in microweights or bolts or whatever

sometimes you cant add 5 pounds, but you could add a .5 or at least a pound

 

[spesmilitis]

what I like to do is:

start at 5 reps. next i do it, 6 reps, next time 7 reps. add 2.5-5 pounds, do 5 reps. repeat.

 

[md3sign]

I either add weight or do more reps with a previous weight on as many excersizes as possible every workout. if you're eating enough, you should be able to set some sort of PR on something every workout. but yea sometimes you need to lay off the weight a bit ... I was stuck at 280x5 on deadlifts for a long time, then I switched grips, switched my routine, did more rep work, and ended up adding another 100lbs for reps in about 2 months.

after you train for a certain period of time you'll begin to realize what your body can and can't handle and will start adding weight intuitively. some weeks I add 5lbs. some weeks I don't add any just do more reps. some weeks I'll add 15 or 20. it really depends.

 

[mrRuckus]

what I like to do is:

start at 5 reps. next i do it, 6 reps, next time 7 reps. add 2.5-5 pounds, do 5 reps. repeat.

Except at low weights, adding a rep adds more workload than adding weight does.

Example with the way you set it up.
100 lbs x 5 = 500
100 x 6 = 600
100 x 7 = 700
105 x 5 = 525

Doing 105x5 should be easier than doing 100 lbs for 6 or 7 the previous two weeks. It's even more pronounced of a difference at higher weights.

 

[Skilla_Staz]

I'd rather just do the same amount of reps, but add weight each week.

Enough of this "Take one weight, do an extra rep until you hit X rep, then drop down to Y rep with more weight"

For example...

315x5 deadlift this week
next week, 325
335?
345?
355?
365?

Now, if I can't get the weight for the set number of reps, i'll return to it next week and keep doing that until i get the number of reps

 

[blinkwatt]

When to add weight? That's all up to YOU AND YOUR GOALS. I dont add weight for a long time anymore. My sets start off in reps of 8,6,5,4 until I can build them up to 12,10,10,8 ONLY THEN DO I ADD WEIGHT! I'm not saying I'm doing it the right way or wrong way,but make sure you don't feel like you have more left in you when you leave the gym! I have ended up finishing a workout,putting my jacket on and getting ready to leave only to find out that I still have some left in me and I will pull out 4 or 5 more pull ups. If you push yourself and eating right,either way you will gain size & strength. Good Luck!:rockon: