The amount of weight you should be lifting depends on the result you want--size, strength, or endurance. However, a good general benchmark is 90 percent of your 1-rep max. At that percentage, the participants in a Brazilian study achieved up to 98 percent activation of their targeted muscles. Unless you're a competitive lifter, there's no reason to go any heavier, says Bret Contreras, C.S.C.S., the author of Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy.
Of course, you won't be able to handle that much weight for every exercise--it would be too fatiguing. Instead, shoot for a variety of loads and repetition ranges in each workout. Contreras recommends choosing one or two key (compound, multijoint) exercises, and performing them using a pyramid system (seen below): For your first set, do 8 repetitions using a weight you can lift no more than 10 times (about 75 percent of your max). For your second set, do 5 reps at 85 percent; then do 3 reps at 90 percent for your third. For your fourth and fifth sets, do 10 and 12 reps, respectively, using weights that exhaust your muscles. Following those pyramid sets, do exercises in each of these four basic movement patterns--squat, deadlift, push (chest or shoulder press), and pull (row, chinup, or pulldown). This time you'll use the more traditional lifting strategy of 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.
If you stick to this plan, you'll enjoy all the benefits of the heaviest lifts without the beating your joints would take if hoisting major iron were all you did. You should be very happy with your results--and, best of all, injury-free.
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