Are You Lifting Heavy Enough (and Other Common Strength Training Questions)

There are six common questions I hear all the time about lifting weights. So, I decided to put them into an episode with some simple answers for you so that you have a resource that you can come back to time and time again. If you are looking for answers to common questions I hear about strength training; this is the episode for you.

Key Takeaways

If You Want To Embrace The Benefits of Strength Training, You Should:

Realize that what is ‘heavy’ is different for each person, and you should focus on adding enough of a load that is challenging for you
Create goals that are focused on what your body can do, not the number on the bathroom scale
Take care of your body through generous recovery time and exercises that do not involve weights

It’s All Relative

Questions like ‘am I lifting heavy enough?’, ‘am I too old to start lifting weights?’, or ‘how soon can I expect to see results?’, are very nuanced. The short answer is, everybody’s body is different and will look different even if doing the same exercise.

It is about finding a combination of weight lifting and other exercises that feel right for your unique body. What is ‘heavy’ is relative to each person and can change over time. Consistency and progressive overload are the keys to a long game mentality needed when strength training.

The Many Benefits of Strength Training

I know for sure that strength training can give you something to think about besides shrinking your body. Having goals that are only focused on achieving a certain number on the scale or an aesthetic look are not sustainable.

Lifting weights can help you stop focusing on the scale, promote healthy muscle mass, improve your bone density, and boost your metabolism. These are goals that can have a huge impact on your overall health but cannot be measured by the number on the scale. Strength training can help you reconnect with a sense of what your body can do, not what it looks like.

Have you ever asked one of these common questions? How did my answer hold up to what you have been told in the past? Share your experiences with me in the comments section of the episode page.

In This Episode

How to know if you are lifting heavy enough (3:40)
How often you should be lifting every week (7:29)
How to know if lifting weights will help you feel better about yourself (9:53)
Why you should still consider lifting weights even if you do other sports (14:17)
Why it is never too late to start lifting weights (17:52)
How long it will take for you to experience results (22:20)

Quotes

“Generally speaking, you want to think about grooving in the main functional movement patterns, which are push, pull, hinge, squat, and weighted carries; those are what the Made Strong program is built off of.” (8:24)

“Lifting weights gives you something besides shrinking your body, or the bathroom scale, to focus on.” (11:59)

“If you lift weights two or three times a week, it will make you better at that sport, period.” (15:07)

“To efficiently build and maintain your muscle and bones and keep your metabolism humming along… the answer is lift weights.” (21:52)

“Please focus on some kind of goal that goes beyond what you weigh or exactly having some kind of aesthetic look. Because it is going to be far easier to sustain your work towards what you can do, or developing a new skill, or building your strength in a specific lift, it’s going to be a lot more motivating and a lot easier to stick to that than when you are not seeing the number on the scale go in the direction that you want it to go.” (26:26)