How Much Weight Should I Use In My Workouts?

Today I just wanted to share a common question regarding strength training for surfers...

 

There is enough scientific evidence these days proving the benefits of strength training in regards to not only body composition changes, but also positive physiological changes to improve your health and wellbeing.

 

That being said, there is still some misconceptions about how to train for optimal fitness and performance. Here is one common question that still generates some confusion...

 

How much weight should I use in my workouts?

 

As your goal is to improve your strength, you need to adhere to the overload principle which means that your muscles will adapt and improve in strength when they are challenged beyond their normal use.

 

Here is a simple way to achieve that - simply choose a weight where you can complete the set with perfect form and tempo.

 

If you start to struggle and your lifting speed changes, then you have most likely hit your limit and you should end the set there. Generally when this happens your form will also deteriorate and this is where injuries are more likely to occur.

 

As far as choosing the actual weight, this comes down to trial and error to begin with. If the program say to do 8 reps of an exercise you should pick a weight you think you can do the 8 reps with perfect form. If you end up easily doing more than 8 rep, next time increase the weight and vice versa if you can't complete 8 reps.

 

 

What about lifting to failure?

 

This has been a common training strategy made popular in the body building world, where you get a spotter to help you squeeze out an extra rep or two at the end of the set.

 

Although this may have it's place with regard to breaking down muscle tissue, there has lately been more evidence that doing this type of training regularly is very taxing to your central nervous system and could actually be detrimental to your progress as your body takes longer to recover from this type of lifting.

 

I would tend to avoid this strategy and focus on consistent strength training using perfect form every rep and gradually increasing the weight as your strength increases.

 

 

So in summary here are my take home tips...

• Choose a challenging weight where you think you can perform the required reps with perfect form
• Complete each rep with the same form and lifting speed
• Ideally you should stop the set just before you start to struggle  
• Gradually increase the weights and your strength increases

 

 

I hope these tips can help you with your surf training workouts.