How to choose the right weights in your training

by Amy Bowe | Oct 28, 2022 | Articles, Warrior Articles | 0 comments

The other night over two wood-fired pizzas, Karson and I were talking about future podcast topics for The Warrior School Podcast.

I mentioned that I am going to do a lot more solo episodes, and had been writing a plan for future topics that day. I asked if he had any ideas. He said “how to choose the right weights in your training”.

Afterward, we laughed a little, as it’s pretty easy for us to know what weight to use, but then we paused. As this is an important topic.

All too often I see women not getting stronger because they don’t know how to progress their training. They don’t feel confident in choosing the right weights or they don’t know when to add more weight.

So you’re training because you want to get stronger AND feel really good in your body. And…

If you’re anything like most of the women I work with, training and feeling good in your body means a lot to you. Like you, these women previously tried all kinds of stuff: HITT, running, Crossfit, F45, yoga, personal training.

However, even after trying all that stuff, they still weren’t stronger and they didn’t feel good in their bodies.

When I started working with my coach in 2012 I realised the real problem is that a lot of women aren’t taught the fundamentals of training. They actually don’t know how to train properly to get the results they want.

I looked around, and saw that all of the women that were getting results had spent the time learning these fundamentals AND they understood how to choose the right weights to progress their training. It was simple, but nobody was talking about it.

So I created a framework.

In Warrior School I teach the fundamentals of training so you can get stronger and feel really good in your body. It’s like a foundation of needs that will help you get strong. We call it the ‘The Warrior Foundation’.

Let’s have a look at her.

A strong metabolism and sufficient energy availability are KEY if we want to build strength and get results. Making sure our body feels safe, and is nourished, helps our stress tolerance. And walking helps build our recovery base. If we don’t have the base it’s going to be really hard to get stronger and get those badass results we want.

Once safety and energy availability needs have been considered – we need to learn about key characteristics that are essential for a successful training practice. I call them the warrior superpowers – heart, respect, quality, effort and humility. This will help you learn how to approach your training

The first 6-9 months in Warrior School are building a strong foundation through learning to support our nervous system through food and stress management.

We focus on mobility, flexibility, learning basic movement patterns, and technical execution. I teach her about exercise selection, training frequency, intensity, and volume.

From here we move into performance. We increase the intensity and complexity of the training. We learn how to start adding weight. Knowing how to choose your weights gives you confidence in your training and greater results.

When training, you should ensure all lower components of your pyramid are achieved, before stepping up. We call it “building the body from the ground up”, or building a foundation. Which is why Warrior School isn’t a 6-week, or 12-week program. It’s why I ask for a 9-month minimum investment.

If you want to get stronger and feel good in your body, then check out the information below.

I’m going to show you how to choose the right weights in your training so you’ll feel strong all year round and get results!

Bodyweight strength and mobility are the foundation in which all your training should be built upon.

Before you reach for the weights, mastering the technique of a movement without weight is important. All of my women start with my own special blend to bodyweight strength training. They work on flexibility and learn basic movement patterns. The more range you have the more you can recruit your muscles which means the stronger you get.

I believe you need to earn the right to add weight to an exercise. Whether you have a goal to do a push up, pull up or heavy squat, there are standards and qualities you need to achieve before you add a bunch of weight.

So, the focus at the start needs to be on getting the most out of each exercise or exercise variation at bodyweight before changing or adding in new variations, or adding weight. We call it “owning the movement” in Warrior School.

Your weight should make you work for those last few reps (without compromising quality).

How do we get strong? We need to train hard and lift more weight. Once the technique is mastered, it comes down to giving the body the right stimulus — meaning we need to lift a weight that is heavy enough, or increase the complexity of the exercise, to force our muscles to have to adapt and grow stronger.

There are many ways to find the right weight for the exercise – technical max, reps in reserve, RPE…

Before we look at them, here’s my take on it – it’s mostly a matter of being able to “make it harder” each time you train.

Making it harder could be increasing the weight, or volume (reps and sets), manipulating the tempo (faster or slower) or rest periods, or looking at if you can demand more quality from the exercise.
When I train I am always trying to “make it harder”.

Now harder isn’t linear. It can be affected by hormonal changes and our nervous system. I have found at the start of my cycle I can tolerate higher reps and sets (more volume), with smaller rest periods (more intensity). Whereas towards the end of my cycle I tolerate higher sets and lower reps. And I need to rest longer between sets. My ability to “make it harder” also depends on how well I recovered and the state of my nervous system.

So, when it comes to choosing the right weight there are three key ways to help you find it:

Percentage and technical max

Percentage work can be great for women who have been training for a while, and have an established 1 rep max (1RM). It is very common in Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting programs. However, when I was Olympic lifting we rarely used % of or 1RM’s. Instead we would work to a technical max for that day. A technical max is the weight you can lift without compromising the quality of the movement.

For women who might not yet have established a 1RM, haven’t the need to establish one, and for those women who are less comfortable with percentage work or see it as slightly intimidating, try using this “Reps in Reserve” (RIR) strategy to judge how much weight to add instead. RIR’s is a cool and easy way to start learning how to choose your weights.

2. Reps in reserve

Reps in reserve is a way to measure how many more reps of a movement you perceive you could have done in a given set. RIR is a strategy you can use in your workouts if percentages are prescribed and you don’t have a good number to work from. Or, if you’d prefer to approach your workout by feel rather than strictly as the percentages prescribed.

At the end of your first working set, ask yourself how many more you think you could have done. If the answer is more than 2-3 then add more weight! One way you can tell you’re getting close to the end of the set is to feel for an involuntary slow in speed. As in, “I’m trying with full effort to move this barbell or dumbbell as fast as my first rep, but I’m involuntarily slowing down.” If this never occurs in your strength sets, you’re probably not very close to your max.

Be sure to get in a good warm-up first before starting your working sets. This will help you prepare by stimulating joint lubrication, greasing the groove of the movement pattern, and to increase blood flow. And, remember that jumps in weight don’t have to be huge and should be based on your level, the lift you are doing, and the intent of your programming for the day. So if you’re unsure of how much to put on your bar, try out the RIR strategy for your next session!

3. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE)

The RPE scale is a way for you to subjectively measure the intensity of a lift. The ratings run from 1-10, one representing a lift that requires little to no effort and 10 being the absolute maximum you can lift.

RPE Scale

10 — At your max, you have no more reps.

9 — There’s another rep in the tank, but it’s a grind.

8 — You’re beginning to hit your 2-4 rep stride.

7 — Often, a weight one can move with power (5-7ish reps).

6 — Weight that one can move quickly for speed work (+/- 8 reps pending on speed/training goal).

5 — A weight that someone warms up’s.

4 & below — Light weight that can be used for mobility, recovery, and form emphasis.

A caveat – the RPE scale requires a level of training wisdom to assess the difficulty of an exercise accurately. If you are a beginner you may not have pushed yourself to your limit before, so your perception of what’s hard will be vastly different compared to someone who has been training for 10-years.

Turn the volume up (without burning yourself out or causing injury).

Volume is the amount of work done in a workout – referring to the total weight lifted in the training session. The amount of volume we can handle will depend on where we are in our training journey, the state of our nervousness and how well we are recovering. Over the first 9-12 months of a Warriors Journey we are slowly building her capacity to tolerate more volume in her training.

As you become stronger, volume must continue to increase to keep the training effective. When adjusting training volume, I always focus on changing the sets and reps first, as well as accessory work included in each training session. From here we can add more weight.

There are three different ways to increase our volume between training sessions:

You can lift more weight – one session you do squats 4-sets x 6-reps with 100lbs (~50kg), and the next workout you do 4-sets x 6-reps with 105lbs (~53kg)
You can lift the same weight for more reps per set – 4 x 6 with 100lbs vs. 4 x 8 with 100 bs
You can perform more sets per workout – 4 x 6 with 100lbs vs. 5 x 6 with the same weight

The exercise you’re doing can help determine what weight you use.

The weight you use should correspond to the strength of the muscles you’re working. For example, your glute muscles are very powerful, so you can probably go pretty heavy with a weighted squat or deadlift. Our legs and hips like lifting heavy weights, whereas our shoulders like more complex movements like pull-ups. A lot of the upper body work we do in Warrior School is bodyweight, or uses the pull-up bar or rings.

Ultimately, it all comes down to listening to your body (and some trial-and-error, too)

It can take a little experimenting to find the right weight for the exercise you are doing. Whether you go for five-pound weights or 50, it all depends on your level of experience—if you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea not to increase your weight too fast so you can make sure you’re nailing the quality of the exercise.

If you’re feeling ready to take it to the next level, go ahead and challenge yourself with heavier weights. Feeling sore and tired? There’s also nothing wrong with scaling back the weight every once in a while. You might have to pick up a few different weights to find the right fit for any given day, but it’s worth a little trial-and-error to learn what works for you and get the results you want.

And remember, ‘heavy’ or ‘light’ means heavy or light to you. It isn’t based on what your friend uses or someone on social media. If you want results, you’ve got to focus on what you need to use to challenge yourself. Don’t worry about what someone else is lifting!