How Much Weight Should I Lift?

Updated on July 11, 2024

Verywell / Ben Goldstein

Weightlifting requires multiple considerations: Which movement do you perform? Is your form correct? But perhaps one of the initial questions you should answer is "How much weight should I lift?" This question is crucial for both beginners and advanced weightlifters. Choosing an appropriate weight for your current fitness level is essential for achieving fitness goals and minimizing the risk of injury.

Consider your age, gender, and current fitness level and goals when deciding the correct amount of weight you should lift.

Determining How Much Weight to Lift

Figuring out how much your muscles can reasonably handle is often a process of trial and error. You don't want to go too low and not lift the proper amount to build muscles. But you also don't want to go too high and have to swing your body to lift weight.

To pinpoint your ideal weight and know when it's time to lift heavier weights, you need to learn proper form, listen to your body, and keep to an allotted time, neither rushing between exercises nor resting too long.

How to Determine the Ideal Weight for You

A 10-exercise workout program involving three sets of 10 repetitions for each exercise is a good starting point for a general fitness plan. Follow these steps to determine the ideal weight for a specific exercise:

Choose a weight that allows you to do the first set of 10 reps with moderate difficulty. By the end of the 10th rep, you should find it challenging but not so much that you strain, hold your breath, or shake. If that's happening, lower the weight.
Rest for at least 30 seconds but no more than 60 seconds between sets.
Make sure by the 10th lift of the third set that you are struggling to complete the lift but can do so without grunting or breaking form.
Aim to sustain this intensity, whether you are new to weight training or a seasoned veteran.

Determine Your Goals

The first step is figuring out which goals you want to achieve during your weight-training sessions, whether building strength, improving overall fitness, or increasing muscle size. For each goal, there are ideal rep ranges, set numbers, and weekly training schedules.

Gain or Maintain Overall Fitness

A good goal for beginners or those looking to maintain overall fitness is 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps. This means choosing a weight that allows you to complete the reps without struggling to finish the set.

Strength-training sessions that work all muscles—hips, legs, abdomen, chest, back, shoulders, and arms—two to three days weekly will help maintain overall fitness.

Improve Muscle Strength

Any rep range will work for building strength, but for best results include 2 to 5 heavier sets of 3 to 5 reps. The goal should be fewer reps at a higher weight that challenges you during each repetition. However, it is wise to establish a solid overall fitness level before moving on to heavier weights, since heavier weights come with more risk if your form is incorrect. Using a barbell pad can help provide a barrier between your body and the weight.

Aim for 2 to 4 days of strength training per week, and take rest days in between. The heavier weight will break down your muscle tissue, and you will require rest and recovery to repair that damage and build stronger muscles.

Increase Muscle Size

Increasing muscle size, also called hypertrophy, will occur whether you train at the lower rep range with a higher weight or a higher rep range (8 to 12 reps per set) with a moderately challenging weight. The key to increasing muscle size is volume, meaning adding more sets and reps to your workout over time. You can spread these additional sets and reps over your weekly training sessions.

For beginners, 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions per exercise with a moderate load (70% to 85% of one-rep max) is ideal. More advanced individuals looking to develop muscle mass can perform 3 to 6 sets of 1 to 12 repetitions at 70% to 100% of one-rep max. Aim for 12 to 28 sets per muscle group per week spread over 3 to 5 training days for optimal muscle growth.

One-rep max (1RM) measures the weight you can lift for a particular exercise for one repetition. It is often calculated using a 1RM calculator where you can input max weight lifted for multiple reps and it will provide you with an equivalent 1RM estimate. For instance, the weight you can lift to fatigue for 8 repetitions is approximately 80% of your 1RM.

Ensure Proper Form

One of the things people fail to realize when lifting weights is how much their bodies move to assist in moving the weight. Unfortunately, this can undermine the goal of an exercise, which is to isolate and contract a particular muscle or muscle group.

When lifting a weight, you should focus on isolating a muscle. If you swing your body, you use momentum to lift the weight, dispersing energy intended to come from only one muscle.

This is why people who grunt, arch their backs, or drop their weights are doing themselves a disservice (and likely annoying others). By lowering their weight to a reasonable level, they can achieve much more with so much less. Also, wearing shoes for weightlifting can help you stabilize and maintain the correct form so you perform each exercise properly and safely.

Maintain this focus when doing any weightlifting exercise. Keep your back flat, shoulders square, hips level, abs engaged, and head and neck relaxed but lifted. This helps maintain proper form.

If you cannot lift your chosen weight with proper form, it is too heavy and you should use a lighter weight. Seek guidance from a personal trainer.

When to Increase Weight

If you can do the last repetition with little effort, it's time to increase the weight. Progressive overload (adding more weight over time) is a fundamental principle of weight training. If you don't continually challenge your body by increasing weight, you will eventually plateau—even if you increase the number of exercises you do.

If your current weight is not challenging enough and the next one up is too heavy, you have two choices for reaching the right fatigued state:

Use the heavier weight and drop down to eight or nine reps.
Stay with the current weight and increase to 12 or 15 reps.

Here's a trick that can help: Instead of lifting a weight standing unsupported, try pressing your back against a wall or post while performing an exercise. Try it with a biceps curl and you'll be surprised how challenging it is to lift a weight when your back and core muscles are not allowed to assist.