How to Select the Right Weights - Build Muscle Fast

So you get to the gym and you wonder to yourself, which weight should I use to build muscle fast? What should I set this machine too?






Are these dumbbells too heavy or too light?

I am here to help set the record straight and give you some easy guidelines to follow to make sure you always select the right weight to build muscle fast.

We will cover strength gain rep ranges in another article.


Hypertrophy 8-12 Reps

Most of us know that to gain the most size we need to go 8-12 reps, but have you ever stopped and thought what exactly does this mean?

It is NOT simply just moving a weight 8-12 times.

No one really takes the time to explain this idea so let me make it simple with these key points:
Choose a weight you can only do 8 reps with, this means absolute failure on the 8th rep and you could not lift the weight another time even if you tried.
Do not choose a weight you can only do less than 8 reps without proper form with.
As your strength increases, and you can do the weight you were doing 8 reps initially with to 12 reps without failure, then increase the weight to the next increment where you could only get 8 reps at failure.
Let me give you a real-world example

So now you may be asking:

“I have become strong enough to do my current weight for 12 now without failure, what is my next step? Which weight should I go to?”

We will use barbell curls for an example but this principle applies to every exercise.

So say a couple weeks ago you started curling 65lbs for 8 reps, on the 8th rep you reached failure.

In the weeks to follow as you got bigger and stronger and did more reps each workout out and eventually did 12 to failure and then the week after that, you did 12 and you didn’t reach failure.

This is the critical point at which you must increase the weight as has become too light for optimal hypertrophy and is no longer that useful to build muscle fast.

However do not simply increase the weight to a weight where you fail at 12 again for, rather increase the weight to a weight that you can only do 8 to fail.

So for argument's sake, you were now curling 65lbs for 12 reps without failure so following this method you decided to go to 80lbs doing 8 reps to failure. Instead of going to 70lbs for 12 reps.

This approach helps build up your strength and at the same time optimally increasing size too.

At the end of the day following this principle, you will be both bigger and stronger.

And most importantly you will do it faster than the guy next to you who is just doing the same weight or similar weights week in and week out for “8-12 Reps” where in actual fact he isn’t training to his potential in the least.
How to Implement This When Doing Multiple Sets

When performing more than 1 set, you may be asking, if I am doing more than 1 set of an exercise, by the time I get to set 3 or 4 I won’t be able to perform 8-12 reps due to muscular fatigue.

This is totally correct, and the principle rings true here again.

As soon as you cannot do 8 reps then drop the weight.

For example, if you have completed 11 Reps on the first set, 8 on the second set then you know for set 3 ( or 4 if you are performing 4 ) you will not be able to do 8-12 reps.

It is at this stage that you drop the weight and stick to the principle and select a weight you can do 8-12 reps with again.

Next: 5 Major Signs of Overtraining