Starting weights - Help!

[GoldAura]

I'm starting the plan tonight but before I do, I wanted to ask all you fitness-gurus here, about weights.

I know at first you start with high reps and low weights, and work youre way up to heavy weights and low reps. So, for someone starting out, how do I choose how low I go? By how much should it increase everytime?

Do I figure out what the heaviest that I can lift is and then subtract a few off that??

Help.

[mimi_pope]

Your first workout is pretty much guesswork. Pick a weight you feel you can lift 15 times. The last few reps should be tough but not impossible. Everybody is different, and your heaviest weight now may be easy-breezy in a few weeks.
My first stage 1 A workout I went too light, but that's cuz I was working out at home.
Trial and error is pretty much the way to do it.

AS for increases, I think they say in the book somewhere no more than 5 or 10% per workout? So if you squat with 50lbs say, then the next time if you are looking to increase the weight you should try 55lbs. For upper body exercises you may want to try closer to 5%, being limited of course by the weights offered. SOmetimes you can't go up just 2lbs per DB and have to either wait til you can do 5lbs or do your best with the next weight, even if it means not reaching your desired rep range.

[hazeldazel]

Just make sure that whatever weight you're doing, that you choose a weight where your form is spot-on the whole set. My rule of thumb I tell myself is: light enough to keep my form perfect but hard enough to be making faces on the last couple reps .

Go lighter than you think and do a couple reps, keeping your form in mind. That will usually give you an idea of how you need to adjust and hey, you just got a warm-up set in!

Good luck, can't wait to hear how it went!

[LisaS]

I go high reps high weights - that is, as heavy as I can go for that number of reps.
So - if the target is 15 reps - I pick a weight where reps 14 & 15 are hard and perhaps I could get 16 or 17 - not a weight I could do for 25 reps.

Yes, the weight for 15 reps will be *low* relative to what I'd pick for 6 rep sets - but it is *high* and challenging for the 15 reps.