What is “Muscle Fatigue”?

This is one of the most important concepts to understand. Muscle fatigue refers to the point when you can no longer perform the exercise utilizing proper form without help from a spotter or unrelated muscle group. An example of using an unrelated muscle group is arching your back when performing bicep curls; you don't need your back to train your biceps. When you don't use proper form, you are increasing your risk for injury. Your goal of resistance training is to reach fatigue; once you've reached it, you've accomplished what you need for that muscle group. Remember, it doesn't matter how much you lift, it's whether or not you can lift the weight safely and with good form – that is what will produce results.

What Order Should I Do My Exercises?

Typically, you should train the larger and stronger muscle groups first and then progress to the smaller muscle groups. The reason for this is that often your smaller muscles act as supporting muscles when you train the larger muscle groups. If you fatigue them first, they won’t be much help as you try to lift the heavier weights needed for the larger muscle groups; this means that you might be at an increased risk for injury and may not be able to effectively work the larger muscles.

How Many Sets Do I Really Need To Do?

This depends on your goal. If you just want to reap the minimum benefits set forth by ACSM, then performing 1 set to fatigue is fine. The key to this is making sure you have proper form and truly reach fatigue. Often times, it takes people 2 to 3 sets to reach fatigue. Once you’ve truly fatigued your muscle, you won’t gain any further benefit from doing more reps or sets; all you do is increase your risk of injury. Multiple sets may not produce significant increases in strength but you will burn extra calories.

Some people like to use lighter weight to start and perform 1 to 2 “warm-up” sets and then do their workout on the next 2-3 sets; it’s all a personal preference. Keep in mind that often people learn things from other people in weight rooms that are just personal preference or something they heard once and are not based on science. Just because “that guy in the gym does it” doesn’t mean it’s correct or effective and doesn’t mean it’s right for you; that person may have very different training goals than you do. Your key is reaching fatigue safely – it’s up to you how many sets it takes to get there.

How Long Should I Rest in Between Sets?

It depends on how you’re training. Refer to the guidelines specific to the goals of your training by clicking here.

How Should I Be Breathing?

Never hold your breath when resistance training; people often do this when exerting effort and don’t even realize it. You should breathe continuously and should exhale on the exertion or lifting movement and inhale on the return or lowering movement.

What Do I Do If I’m Pressed For Time?

A common approach used to keep the heart rate elevated and get through exercises quicker is called “super setting” or “active resting.” This means that you work one muscle group while the opposing muscle group rests. For example, you could perform one set of a bicep exercise and immediately follow it with a set of a triceps exercise; your bicep gets to rest while you continuously work and move to the next exercise. After your set of the triceps exercise, you would perform your second set of the bicep exercise and repeat the cycle until you’ve completed all of your sets. This also works by combining chest and back exercises and hamstring and quadriceps exercises. You’d be amazed how much time you can shave off your workout, and your heart rate will be challenged too.

Another approach is to do a split routine. With this approach, you divide your workout over two or more days; this is useful if you want to do more than 2 or 3 exercises per body part. This means that you typically work each body part twice per week. The simplest split routine is to do a full upper body workout one day and a lower body workout the next day. You can also split by muscle groups; the most common pairings are: chest/shoulders/triceps, back/biceps, legs. With this approach you would be training 6 days per week but would only work each muscle group twice.

Is It Better To Do Cardio First or Weights First?

It doesn’t really matter. However, you should do the activity that you want to focus on most first. If your goal is to work on cardio training, then you should do that first. If you lift weights first, your muscles will likely be tired and prevent you from being able to challenge your heart to meet your goals. Likewise, if you want to focus on resistance training, you should do that first (after a proper warm up, of course). Otherwise, for example, your legs might be tired from running or biking where your leg workout won’t be as productive.

What is “Negative Training”?

Negative training refers to emphasizing the eccentric or negative part of the contraction. This can be a great tool for reducing momentum that you might be using to help you and to break past plateaus you may have reached in your training. Typically, you lift the weight for 1-2 seconds and lower it for 2-4 seconds. In eccentric or negative training, you would still lift the weight for 1-2 seconds but would take 8 to 10 seconds to lower it, thus forcing the muscle to control the weight in a different part of the movement.

Will Lifting Weights Make Me Bulk?

It depends on your goal. If you don’t want to bulk (many women still have this misconception), odds are you won’t. Your muscles will reshape and become more toned and possibly defined. There may be a period where you are building muscle but haven’t lost some of your “surface fat” where you may feel your clothes getting tighter, but that usually evens out within 2-4 weeks. Some people by genetics will build muscle size easier than others; if you know this applies to you, try performing slightly higher repetitions (i.e. 12-15 reps); however, you need to make sure you have enough weight to reach fatigue by 15 repetitions or you’ll lose the benefits of resistance training.

How Do I Increase My Muscle Definition?

It all depends on your overall body fat. You could have lots of muscle, but if you have more body fat, you will appear less defined. Some people genetically have more definition than others just as some people bulk easier than others – thank your mom and dad. Rather than being concerned about your muscle definition, stay focused on your overall health and well-being and maintaining a healthy level of body fat; that’s what is most important.