Week 2 - Day 1

Load Selection

Most Common Mistakes Made

1. Going too heavy, too soon
2. Going too light

Load refers to the weight used (i.e. 20-pound dumbbells) or the amount of resistance. For the first few weeks of training, your muscles, joints, connective tissue, and nervous system need to adapt to any new exercises. The connective tissue (tendons & ligaments) takes longer to adapt than muscle tissue so there’s no hurry to go heavy, there will be plenty of that in the future. You’re going to be noticeably stronger workout to workout. This will vary person-to-person.

Selecting the Proper Weight

• Go lighter for the first time doing an exercise; make the exercise smooth
• Select a weight that allows you to complete the prescribed number of reps with perfect form
• Changing the reps, changes the outcome
• Each week, try to add more weight
• If you can’t do more weight with perfect form, add more reps
• If too easy, increase weight or repetition
• If too difficult to maintain proper form/technique, decrease weight or repetitions
• It’s ok to take a short break in between reps and finish the set; this is called a “broken set” because the reps are broken up (makes sense, right?)
• Record load (weight used) for each exercise each week. Don't try to guess what you did, you'll most often be wrong and will inhibit your progress.

Know this, most people are much stronger than they realize. Don't be afraid to pick up heavier weight. If the weight goes up, it’s not too heavy. It’s rare that I’ll give anyone less than a 10-pound dumbbell so put away those group fitness paper weights and pick up some weight that will actually benefit you.