How heavy should you lift?

9 Aug 2024 · 1 min

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1:01

In this instructional segment, the speaker addresses a common misunderstanding among weightlifters about the distinction between working sets and warm‑up sets. Using a chest‑press example that calls for three sets of 8–10 reps, he illustrates how many people mistakenly treat the first two lighter sets (25 lb and 35 lb) as part of the prescribed volume, when in fact only the final, heaviest set (45 lb) is truly a working set. He emphasizes that when a program specifies a certain number of sets, each set should be a challenging, effortful working set. Warm‑up sets are still valuable for injury prevention and mastering proper form, but they should not be counted toward the workout’s working‑set total.

Chapters

If you're somebody who lifts weights and you don't know the difference between a working set and a warmup set, then let me teach you. Let's say you're doing chest press and your workout calls for 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps. Most people would do something like this. Set 1, you do 25 pounds for 8 reps, and that wasn't really that challenging. Set 2, you do 35 pounds for 8 reps, and that was kind of challenging, but still not really. And set 3, you do 45 pounds for 8 reps. And finally, this was a really hard, challenging set. You think you did 3 sets. You didn't. You did one working set and two warm-up sets. When your workout calls for three sets, that means all three sets need to be hard, challenging working sets—not just the last one. Now you can still do a warm-up set because it helps prevent injury and can make sure you have the proper form down. I would not count them towards your working sets because all of these.