66. How much weight should you lift in the gym to build muscle as a man or woman?

How much weight should you lift to build muscle when training in the gym?

To really answer this we need to look at one of the key issues with men (and women) when they train in the gym.

I always say that on the whole men need to lift a bit lighter and women need to lift a bit heavier.

I’ve coached both men and women for over 10 years and I’ve noticed that men generally will up the weight before they’ve mastered an exercise and women will generally opt on a lighter weight.

Call that sexist but it’s a truthful observation.

When coaching women in person I’ve noticed that they’ve performed well on an exercise and are sometimes reluctant to increase.

When encouraged to do so they actually end up surprising themselves with the weight that they can safely lift.

Men on the other hand, possibly due to ego, are more than happy to push the weight but sometimes before they are truly ready to handle that weight.

What then happens is they have to use momentum and body movement to hitch the weight up which takes the emphasis off the body part they are trying to work.

This also can lead to an injury long term.

So how do you know if a weight is right for you and if you should progress?

In this video I cover how to determine the right weight for you and when to know you need to increase of decrease that weight to progress.