Weekly Tips for Your Peak Fitness and Wellness

This Week's Tip: Make the Most of Strength Training

If you’ve started lifting weights, then you’ve experienced its many benefits firsthand: defined muscles, fewer chronic aches, better endurance and functionality (since stronger muscles make everything from walking up stairs to picking up your toddler much easier). You probably also know that we lose muscle mass as we age, so it’s especially important to strength train as we get older.

Problem is, most people aren’t doing enough of it. Enough weight, that is.

Studies show most exercisers choose weights much lighter than their capabilities and what a professional would advise as necessary to optimally train the muscles. At Outside In Fitness, we recommend doing 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions (“reps”) of an exercise where the last 2 or 3 reps are very challenging to do. This goes for both men and women. If you can get to 15 reps with good form and keep going, it’s time to increase the weight. (Those in their 20s and 30s can go heavier and aim for more like 8 to 12 reps per set.) You may have to work a little harder, but we think that’s far better than wasting your time and not seeing results. Your muscles will thank you.