Tone Endurance Strength

This blog entry was inspired by my adult fitness client Lorrie. Her question to me is do I lift heavier weight with less reps or lighter weight with more reps? I will attempt to answer this questions as it comes up time and time again.
I have referenced my trainers manual from ACE. The following information is a cliff notes version of what I read from this particular journal. This is my understanding of the information. Basically to get overall tone and build muscle endurance (get in better shape all the way around) you can best achieve this from doing lower weights and higher reps. This would be where you could complete 10 to 12 reps of that weight with fatigue setting in at the end of the last two or three reps. I think this type of lifting is really beneficial to most of my peeps. This is what we do during the adult fitness group classes. This type of exercise gets you toned.
To build strength in a particular muscle group it is best to do fewer reps with more weight. An example of this would be the bench press exercise where a person would do 3 sets of 3 reps with a few minutes rest in between each set. You would increase the weight for each set and it would be within your one rep max range. The one rep max is the amount of weight you could do for only one rep. My one rep max for the bench press is currently 125 so I would do the first three reps at 95, then 105 and finish with 110 or so.
I have to add that I have benefited from all types of reps and weight ranges when working out. I have lifted lighter with more reps and worked my way to low reps with the most weight I can handle.
The best advice I can give for this is to always keep yourself challenged. If the 10 pound dumbbells feel light to you then you need to move up to the 12 pounders. Your body will adapt to a certain work load and you will stop seeing results from your work-out. It is up to you to recognize that and work harder. I can usually tell right away if you are selling yourself short and need to use more weight.
It is the same with conditioning and cardio exercise. Your body will adapt to the work load of the heart and it is up to you to move faster or jump higher. If you are walking go farther or jog some of the way if able. You can add the incline factor in to your work-out as well. If you are not breaking a sweat during the work-out then you probably need to work harder.

Show up and make it count!