If I Lift Heavy Won't I Get Hurt? The Truth About Safe Lifting Techniques

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hello , welcome back to another episode of your Strongest Body . Thank you for being here Today .

We're talking about one of my favorite topics and one of the more misunderstood topics out there , especially for folks who haven't lifted yet , and this may not be you . So , if you're listening , you may be a person who feels very comfortable in the gym or has been in there enough where you have seen the benefits of lifting heavy weights .

For other people even , like you know , people are well-educated , well-informed , and there's still a lot of fear about lifting heavy weights , specifically around getting injured , and so that's what I want to talk about today .

You know I could also talk about the lifting heavy and getting bulky , but I feel like I've had that conversation a lot about the lifting heavy and getting bulky , but I feel like I've had that conversation a lot .

So this is for anybody who might feel on the fence about increasing their weight , increasing the amount of weight they're using in given sets within their resistance training workout . That might be you . You might be hearing it and not being able to sort of like put it into action .

Or this may be for somebody that you know and you've been trying to figure out how to articulate to them . Like , no , it's fine that I'm lifting heavy weights . Here is the deal . So I thought that could be useful in both terms .

Also , because when I am putting out content , particularly on social media or to my email list or anything , I tend to focus on why I feel like people need to lift heavier , particularly women . I think they really shy away from lifting weights heavy enough to elicit the kind of change that they are trying to create , and there's a lot wrapped up in that .

There's body image . There's just generally being told and taught for years and years that you're not as capable . But then there's this fear of injury and I realize I don't want to come off as cavalier when I say just lift heavier , because usually my answer for people is like oh no , you just need to lift heavier weight .

But I don't want to become , I don't want to come off cavalier and I want to kind of assuage your fears around the injury , the nature of injury as it relates to lifting heavy .

What we do to lift heavier weights , that not only mitigates the risk for injury but also prepares us , strengthens our body for the future , making it more resilient all the time and there's a lot of the nuance there just doesn't quite fit in a quick blurb and usually the thing I want to hammer home to people is that they need to lift heavier than they think

they can . Most women are underestimating themselves in terms of lifting and I think maybe you know I don't want to make a gender stereotype Maybe there are more men out there who are quote unquote ego lifting , so lifting heavier than they're capable of doing .

But in general I just feel like everybody in most cases , if you're doing full range of motion resistance training and you are easily getting through each set , it is time to increase weight .

And particularly for women , I just don't see them lifting at the kinds of loads that are going to create the change that they want in their bodies and in their strength , and I think it's because they're underestimating themselves and I think it is because of this fear of injury . So let's talk about what's going on here .

Lifting heavy is , first of all , it depends entirely on the person , right ? So every person is going to have a different heavy relative based on your lifting experience , your own height and body weight , your training age or the amount of time you've been training .

So when I say heavy , what I'm talking about is effortful , effortful , and the term that we tend to talk about in resistance training circles is this idea of close to failure , close to being unable to complete a repetition .

That tends to be a little bit more descriptive for folks than working hard or effortful , and it helps you understand that what we're trying to create is the idea that it is going to be hard for you to complete this repetition .

Doesn't matter if you're sweating , doesn't matter if you're going fast , what matters is that you're , that you are doing the whole repetition , and it's going to be hard to complete in good form .

We tend to confuse effort with sweating or feeling a high heart rate or any of that , and in this case what we're focused on is sort of that momentary , acute muscle failure For every individual . That point , just shy of failure is going to be at a different weight . So you have to consider what you're doing .

I like to use rate of perceived exertion , so the idea of you feeling how difficult this is , and it's typically on a scale from 0 to 20 , but you can kind of use whatever scale you want . I tend to use 0 to 10 . Or reps in reserve RIR how many reps do you feel like you still have left ?

I mean , depending on the program , we might ask you to have a few more reps in reserve or have a few less . But like general rule of thumb if you're working on your own training is to , if you can do more than two repetitions at the end of a set and you feel like you can confidently do more than two , it is time to probably increase the weight .

Now let's talk about how we increase the weight without getting hurt . I want to say also we never want to get hurt .

We are asking our body with any kind of training whether that be running , whether that be swimming , whether that be dance , whether that be walking on the treadmill , whether that be resistance training all at varied levels we are putting stress on the body Depending on how we recover and how we support refueling ourselves .

We always have the potential of getting to the point of fatigue , where fatigue and or overworking something , underworking something , where we feel discomfort and or pain . We always want to take it seriously and I think for most people , if you're training hard , you're going to come up on some hiccups . They're inevitable .

They're really inevitable because life isn't perfectly packaged and balanced . So all that work that you're doing in the gym , getting stronger , but you are putting yourself under stress , and then you go and you do your activities of daily living and you don't get a great night's sleep and something bugs you in your hip or in your shoulder or in your knee .

We don't want to be cavalier about it , but I want you to know that sometimes those things are going to happen and what we have to do is be proactive about those sorts of potential hiccups , address them . That's typically not what people are talking about , I think .

When they think about lifting heavy , usually I hear like oh , that's going to be bad for my back or bad for my knees , and the idea of , like one , you're going to throw a barbell on your back and you're going to snap your spine or , right away , slip a disc or tear an ACL , not to say those things don't happen , but they truly don't happen if we do these

things . And so these are the strategies for helping us to increase weight so that we can see the results we want safely as we lift heavier One . We're learning good form , so I'm never suggesting you just go lift heavy weight with bad form . We've got to learn drill and become comfortable with good exercise form . Now , good exercise form , there's a range .

I think everybody wants this perfect picture or they want some like am I doing this exactly right ? I like to think of it as a continuum we are aiming for as close to the ideal as possible , but ideal on different bodies is going to be different .

Imagine that you I don't have a good analogy for this , but every person's body is different If you look to the left and look to the right or look amongst your family . Some people have longer legs , some people have longer torsos , some people have wider hips , some people have wider shoulders , some people have wider shoulders .

These kinds of anatomical and structural differences between people is going to impact the kind of form someone can do on an exercise , and then ideal is going to be within the wheelhouse of that individual's particular structure and body size . So you're aiming for optimal form for you .

That may shift and change , but if we're focused on that form , we are already reducing that risk of injury . Then the idea when I say you should lift heavier , I'm not saying you go over to the weight rack and jump up by 70 pounds . You were using 10s and now you're going to go to 70s .

But if you are comfortably using those 10s and they don't feel like you're struggling at the end , I want you to go to the 12s or the 15s . And if the 15s are still struggling or not all that hard , I want you to use the 15s for that whole workout and then the next workout . I want you to use the 15s for that whole workout and then the next workout .

I want you to go back and increase and then , once you get to a place and this is what people don't understand once you get to a place where you're working hard and you are at the edge of failure with a certain weight , you are going to know that you're not ready to move up to the next weight yet .

It is going to be clear and you might stay at those 20s for three weeks until there's a time where you're ready to go to the 22.5 or the 25s . Again , we're slowly increasing over time . But you can be doing heavier than you think you are if you are really easily recovering , if you don't feel like you need a lot of rest .

And that's going to be my next or one of my next things . We're slowly and incrementally increasing the weight . My clients , when they're adding weight , they're not surprised by how hard or heavy it is , maybe on some day when you're a little tired , but we're slowly and methodically increasing the weight .

And when you're following a resistance training program , you can actually see that over time because you're tracking how many sets , how many reps , how much weight , and so for once you get to that place where the weight is challenging . You might spend a few weeks only adding a rep or two every set , staying at that weight , and then you increase later .

So the idea of lifting heavier is lifting heavier with good form and slowly over time . Just like I said , in a program or when you're working with a coach , you're going to keep track . You should be keeping track of the weights you're using .

You should not be surprised by how an increase feels more difficult , or that's another way to ensure that you're staying safe , because if you jump weight and then something hurts , you go oh , it's because I increased the weight so much .

We want to just adjust the variables slightly so that we're able to see if that thing feels good and if we can train at that intensity . Taking enough rest is another way that you are going to be able to increase the weight and stay safe .

If you are finishing a set and you are feeling like you can go right again , you're either rushing it because you're like anxious , or it is because it's not heavy enough . When a weight is heavy , you will have to wait for the rest period and you , in a lot of instances when you are lifting heavy enough , you will bemoan the start of the next set .

Not always .

Some people don't necessarily like the pace of that , but if you're lifting heavy , using that rest time to be as refreshed and as restored to start again is going to be essential for keeping you safe , and I know that the rest feels antithetical to the workout , but it is going to be the difference maker in you being able to lift heavy enough to make a

difference and change your strength , change your physique any of that . Then listen , we don't just beat our bodies down every single day and we lift heavier every single day . Just like I said , once you get to a place where you got to stay there , you might have to stay there for a little bit .

And I know with my clients and with my programs , I make it so that some of our exercises are aimed to have a heavier load and as the workout goes on , I am giving you the number of sets and reps so that you can actually decrease weight .

As we're going , as we're getting tired , some exercises are going to be designed to use a little bit lighter weight versus exercises that are going to be designed to use a little bit lighter weight versus exercises that are going to be used to have higher weight .

I stack my clients' workouts so that their harder workouts are at the beginning of the week , when they feel fresher , and their easier workouts are toward the end of the week , when life has happened .

Unless they have a different kind of schedule and they've let me know unless they have a different kind of schedule and they've let me know All of these kinds of things we don't just go hard , high intensity with every single exercise , every single day of the week .

There is a kind of periodization we're doing that's what it's called in training a periodization where I'm changing the intensity for you so that you're able to recover and able to come back stronger . That's really , really important . And lastly , we're figuring out opportunities for deloads .

Same thing I'm not asking you to keep lifting heavier and heavier , and heavier and heavier every week . You're never going to get there . We're going to lift heavy . We're going to stay there for a little while . When it starts to get easier , it's going to be our sign to increase weight .

After we've worked out that consistently for 12-ish weeks , I'm going to insist that you take a week where we either lighten the weights or we change the workouts up and we deload , so that we can let your body recover , refresh , and then , when we come back , we're going to get back to it . We might start where you were before .

We might increase a little bit . It is all part of a bigger picture that is looking at how we can minimally tax your body effectively , so that what we're trying to do is use minimum effective dose . But the effective dose in this case , when we're talking about resistance training , has to be heavy .

So I'm going to give you heavy weight for as little as possible , only to the point where you are going to feel refreshed , re-energized , but trained . And for a lot of women in particular , you have been conditioned to do more , more , more , more , more , more , more , sweat , sweat , sweat , sweat , more sweat , sweat , sweat , sweat , sweat , sweat , sweat .

And , of course , if that's the kind of training that you are accustomed to , it is going to be really difficult to lift heavy weights with that because you can't maintain it . So it's a whole mindset shift .

It is a different approach , maybe , than you are used to , and so I just want to encourage you to you know , if you are on the fence about like , should I be lifting heavier ? I want you to take these tips , I want you to think it through , and then I want you to slowly progress over time . These are the ways I promise that we can do this .

We can do it safely and effectively . We are not just talking about tossing around heavy weight . We're talking about doing methodically and we're talking about using it as an effective tool to elicit the change that you want .

And if you are already on the heavyweight train or the pushing yourself train thanks for listening If you come across somebody and they're like , won't you get hurt . These are the things that you can talk about . You can talk about how you pace yourself . You can talk about the rest periods . You can talk about slowly increasing weight over time .

You can talk about lifting with great form , all of these kinds of things to help people understand where you're coming from , and then , if they want to change their mind , great . If not , you just get back to your workout . Yeah , all right . Well , that's all I have for you today . I hope it's helpful .

Like I mentioned before , the Built Bodies program waitlist is open and the program is going to start in September , but for folks on the waitlist , I'm going to be sending out some info ahead of time .

Of course , there's no obligation to purchase , but if you're on the waitlist , you get early entrance and some sweet , sweet deals , and we use all of those strategies in the Built Bodies program . Until next time , go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you later . Bye .