Decide on Frequency and Intensity

As important as exercise should be in your life, you also need to consider real-world demands. Although you might need to exercise five days a week to achieve all of your goals, perhaps you have a stressful job that only gives you time for a workout three days a week, possibly four if you push it. In this case it isn't reasonable or realistic for you to design a training program for four days, and certainly not for five days. Give a lot of thought to how many days a week you can definitely work out, and don't lie to yourself. Design your program for the bare minimum of time you reasonably expect you'll have for training. If you aim low, you can exceed your expectations. You can always add in an extra day of an exercise or yoga class, a walk around the block with a friend, or a bike ride with your kids if you've feeling energetic and have the time. If you find that you've consistently adding in an extra day, then design a program to include that day.

Related to how frequently you decide to exercise is an important variable called recovery, or rest. Recovery is how much rest you'll need between exercises, sets, and training sessions. In general, you should rest a muscle or muscle group for 24 to 48 hours before training it again. The rest periods that you plan between exercises and sets are closely related to your exercise intensity (see table 7.1).

Intensity, also referred to as load, is estimated as a percentage of the one-repetition maximum (1RM) or of any RM for a particular exercise. A 1RM is how much weight you can lift for only one repetition-hat's 100 percent intensity. A 6RM for any exercise is how much weight you can lift for 6 repetitions to failure. It means you can perform 6 reps with perfect form and maximum effort and absolutely cannot complete another rep or even come close to trying. Another way to quantify intensity is to measure it as a percentage of your 1RM. So if your 1RM in the squat is 135 pounds (100 percent intensity), at 70 percent intensity you'll lift 94.5 pounds. But of course, you can lift that weight for more than 1 repetition. How do you decide, then, how much weight to lift and for how many repetitions and sets?

Many scientific studies have examined the RM formulas to determine the best way to assign training loads. However, the overall conclusion is that it's best to use formulas as a guideline-n estimate only-nd not as an absolute truth. Some of the many drawbacks in the formulas are that they are geared toward men, they are based on three free weight exercises only (bench press, back squat, and power clean), they aren't based on multiple sets, and exercises that involve smaller muscle areas will yield less repetitions. Machine exercises will also yield more repetitions. So what's a girl to do? Use the following tables to determine approximate weights for your training program, keep a training record diligently, and be flexible. There are some hard rules that you can adhere to, though. Use heavy resistance (85 to 100 percent of your 1RM) for building strength and power, moderate resistance (75 to 85 percent of your 1RM) for developing muscular hypertrophy (increasing muscular size), and light resistance (65 to 75 percent of your 1RM) to gain muscular endurance.

Heavy resistance sets are usually in the 3- to 5RM range, requiring 4 or 5 sets with 3 to 4 minutes between sets. Moderate resistance sets are usually what you can lift at 8- to 10RM, requiring 3 to 4 sets with a 2-minute rest between sets. Light resistance is a weight that you can lift at 12- to 15RM, in 3 to 4 sets, with a 1-minute rest between sets. As you can see in table 7.1, the heavier the weight is, the fewer repetitions you can perform, and the more time you'll need to rest in between sets. Lifting heavy weights also feels more intense than lifting lighter weights. Don't confuse working hard with working long, though. As a matter of fact, the opposite is often true. If you are working with an appropriate amount of intensity on a heavy workout day, your actual working time will be shorter than on a light or moderate day. However, your rest periods will be longer so the total session time will probably be about the same.

Your current conditioning, training background, and exercise history are important factors to consider when determining the intensity of your program. Because of its high intensity, perform exercises involving weights in the heavy range no more than three times a week.

To meet your strength-training goals you'll likely want to mix heavy and moderate intensities, either throughout a particular session or during the week. You can split a workout that is focusing on a body part into heavy and moderate exercises; for example, a chest and arm workout might include heavy bench presses, moderate push-ups, and heavy incline dumbbell presses. You can divide a workout week into heavy day, rest day, moderate day, active recovery day (a sports activity unrelated to lifting weights), heavy day, and rest day. You can also divide an entire four-week program into a heavy or moderate program. Just remember to alternate body areas in the programs and to vary exercises between heavy and moderate intensities, to avoid injury and boredom.

Here is an example of how to find a training load when you know any of your RMs. To squat in the heavy resistance range, you must squat the maximum weight you can 3 to 5 times (3RM to 5RM). First look at the training load number that you know. Let's say you know you can squat 105 pounds for 10 reps. Look at the max reps on the top of the table and cross reference the RM you know to the load numbers beneath, to find the specific number of the weight you can lift at that RM (in this case, 105). Now look to the left on the row 105 is in and cross reference 3, 4, and 5 reps to get your training load for a heavy resistance workout. The loads you should have gotten are 3 reps at 130 pounds, 4 reps at 126 pounds, and 5 reps at 122 pounds. Here's another example. Maybe you are deadlifting one day in training and decide to throw on some weight and see where it takes you. You are on fire and deadlift 225 pounds twice. This is your new 2RM, but the next time you deadlift you need to go at a moderate intensity of 8 to 10RM. What will be your new training weights? Go to the 2RM column and follow your finger down to 225. But wait-it's not there. We have to fudge a little here and pick either 219 or 228. Since this was your first time at that weight, you should err on the conservative side and opt for the lower weight. If you thought that it was really easy, go for the bigger one. Now trail your finger to the right in this column to match the number up to 8, 9, and 10RM for your new training weights.