When starting a strength training program to improve bone density and build lean muscle you must be ready to dedicate 3 to 4 days a week exercising. From personal experience when you enter the body building area of th gym it’s all too intimidating at first. What weights should I lift? What if the weights I’m lifting are too much or too little? and most importantly am I going to break something!
Many people will have made a gym friend or brought along an old friend to help ‘spot’ them whilst lifting weights, not only are they there to save your life if you can’t handle the pressure but will quickly notice if you’re doing something wrong and correct you.
When you first start, all women should be looking to lift a maximum of 5 lbs. If you’re attempting squats, begin with just a bar and perfect your posture this is important because you don’t want to cause damage to your body or waste time doing an exercise incorrectly.
What are reps and sets?
You’ll soon get the hang of this one but a rep is the number of times you perform a specific exercise, and a set is the number of cycles of reps that you complete.
So for all you’re strength training exercises you should be looking to do 10 to 12 reps of 4 sets.