#109: Strength Training: How Quickly to Increase Your Weights?

How fast should you increase your weights? The answer depends on where you are in your lifting journey.

Whether you're just starting out, building intensity, or lifting heavy, your progress will look different at each stage. 

In this episode, I break down the three phases of strength training, what to expect as you move through them, and how to know when it's time to go heavier. 

Plus, I share key tips to make steady, sustainable progress.

Resources Mentioned:

• Learn to Lift with Lynn – My beginner-friendly strength training programs >>
• Podcast on Form Videos – Check out episode #106

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome! Why this topic matters for beginners & experienced lifters alike
• 2:49 The 3 stages of your strength training journey – which one are you in?
• 7:19 Why progress feels fast at first… but slows down later
• 10:34 The truth about soreness (and why it’s NOT a sign of progress)
• 14:49 How often should you train? The surprising answer for beginners
• 20:19 The right (and wrong) way to push to failure
• 23:49 The sneaky reason your strength gains may be stalling
• 27:34 What lifting at your ‘genetic ceiling’ actually looks like
• 29:49 The real secret to lifelong strength training success

Transcript

#109: How Quickly to Increase Your Weights

00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ fitness for women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness specialist. So today I wanted to talk a little bit about how quickly you should be progressing in increasing your weights when you're weight training. And I actually, uh, this topic came up because I've recently had a lot of new people join my program because I was running a little bit of a sale here in the beginning of the year.
I had a Valentine's day sale, and then I also have a lot of women who have been with me for a while in the membership. So I have kind of the, the two perspectives of brand new people joining and then people who are getting to a point where they've been doing this for a while and that is a whole different part of [00:01:00] the journey.
So I wanted to talk about that in general., And I know that on my Instagram feed, I often talk about lifting heavy, pushing yourself to failure and these kinds of things. And I think it's good to put that into context so that if you are a complete beginner, you are going to be working out in a little bit different way than those who have been doing this for longer or people like me who have been doing this for even longer. Yeah. So let's get into it.
So I like to think of weight training journey as kind of divided into three parts. There's the very beginning where you are really learning to lift. My courses are called learn to lift for that reason, because it's really when you are kind of getting into doing this in a serious way.
And the thing is [00:02:00] that. And whether you've lifted before, like, like I had back in college, I mean, I'd had a strength coach. I had done weight training for years up until I had my first child. So that was a little while ago. He's now 22. But anyway, I had done serious weight room strength training, applying progressive overload, all the things for a long time, and then taking a break.
And then I had gone to the gym and started in group fitness classes like body pump. So holding weights and moving weights was not unfamiliar to me. And yet I would still consider. That I started as a learn to lift person when I started now four years ago, so that is kind of the first phase.
I'll go through what is going to happen in these phases, but I first wanted to introduce the three phases to you. So you get a little bit of an overview of what I'm [00:03:00] talking about. So and then the next part of that, and by the way, the learn to lift part, I want to say it can take, anywhere from, well, at least three months to a year that you really go through that depends on how often you're training, how consistent you are, how coordinated you are, how careful you are about form and these kinds of things, like how athletic you are in general. So, you know, some people just pick things up faster. You can go to a dance class and you notice like the people that are like, they learn the new moves in a second.
And then other people like maybe me need to practice them a little bit longer. That's like the learned lift phase. And then after that phase two, where you are learning to lift with greater intensity. And that is where I am talking about going to failure and these kinds of things.
And by the way, these are also in [00:04:00] the context of the fact that each one of us has kind of a natural, um, genetic ceiling for how strong we can become. All right. You know, some people use steroids and things like that to raise that ceiling. They're not raising their genetic ceiling. They are. Inflating it in a not natural way, but each of us has a genetic ceiling, right?
Because otherwise what would happen, we would continue to lift our whole lives. And soon we would be lifting cars and next houses and whatever. And obviously we all understand that there is a limit to how strong we can get. And when you are in the beginning of your weight training journey, you have a lot of distance to go between where you are now.
and your genetic ceiling. And so the progress is a lot faster. And then as you get to [00:05:00] closer to your genetic ceiling, the progress is a lot slower. But I will say I have known people who have been weight training for decades and they are still getting stronger and lifting heavier weights and that kind of thing.
The progression is just much, much slower. Okay. So it's not like you do this for two years and then you're at the end. But the amount of progress you make is going to be slower. Go, you know, after some years of doing this, but in any case, phase two is where. You've kind of gotten used to weight training, and then you can increase the intensity.
And then phase three is what I think of as lifting heavy for you. And that's where you get to a stage like where I am now that I know how to weight train. I'm strong and I understand where my body's [00:06:00] limitations are, and so I can just like go in and work. And I just started year number four. So, so it is a journey this is not a 12 week program. This is a journey, a lifetime journey. And it changes, especially in the first few years. quite a bit. So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about today. 
All right. So let's go to the stage one, which is learning to lift. So these are, like I said, people who are just starting to do this kind of systematic weight training.
And, you know, even if, I mean, I look back at videos of myself after doing years and years of body pump, right, where a lot of the movements are. The same, you know, or similar to what you do when you're doing strength training. And yet I was so weak and I still was trying to figure this whole thing out. So if you are [00:07:00] in that phase, do not feel discouraged.
You know, it. It's, uh, it's something that every single person needs to go through. I did it in the privacy of my own basement, so I wasn't in public doing it. 
. And the point in the learning phase is to learn. This is new to your body and new doing this kind of systematic training. And you really need to be focusing on technique.
So at that stage, please don't think about. Training to failure, you know, pushing yourself really hard or doing huge amounts of intensity. 
One of the things that many of you will battle with is soreness and soreness is normal when you start to do something new. It's not a sign of an effective workout, and it's a sign that your body is doing something it is not accustomed to, they have done research and [00:08:00] it like soreness and building more muscle are not actually related.
Soreness can be related to taking a longer time to recover. So soreness is not something to go after. It always kills me when women are like, Oh my God, it was so effective because I'm so sore. No, no, no, that's not it. And it doesn't stop being effective because you stop getting sore. You stop getting sore cause your body is getting used to it.
And then you can start to like really push those exercises in a different way. But so in the beginning, I want you to really, really focus on your form and doing the exercises. Watch those form videos or like the demo videos that you get with your program. Watch them a few times. , even if you think you know what this exercise is, you've done it in some group fitness class or in some boot camp or [00:09:00] whatever that Gone to double check it every now and again.
It's just good, practice so that you have your elbows in the right place. Your shoulders aren't in your ears and that kind of thing. Just reminders to yourself of how to do this and take videos of yourself doing the exercises. So I did a podcast on form videos and take. videos of yourself doing it so that you can compare it with the, the videos, the demo videos that you have, and really, really focus on your form.
That's like your number one priority at that point and getting that really solid. So you're not wobbly. Okay. Because you don't want to be. adding more weight if you are not solid in doing the exercise because there is where you can start to hurt yourself. 
Another thing to keep in mind is that as women in perimenopause and [00:10:00] menopause, we've had this estrogen loss and or we're going through like the haywire of estrogen and our bodies are getting weaker, not just our muscles, but our tendons, our ligaments, our joints, our bones, they're all affected by this loss of estrogen. And so you need to give your body a chance to kind of catch up with this new stimulus. That you are providing it. So I would say err on the side of caution as you increase your weights, especially if you're somebody who hasn't been doing a lot of vigorous exercise, you know, and really pushing your body in the past.
You want to err on the side of caution, and if you're feeling a lot of soreness, right, then you also progress slowly, increase your weights slowly. 
It is perfectly fine to spend a week [00:11:00] or even two weeks of doing a particular weight at the top of your rep range before you increase your weight. 
So my boyfriend's studying to be a personal trainer and so I was watching some of his videos because I wanted to see like, okay, so what does this certification program say? And it was really interesting because they recommended that when you go up in weight, you increase by 3%. And I was thinking to myself, okay, but what if you have a one pound weight?
Like there is no. 1. 03 pound weights out there. Right. So anyway, but it just goes to show that you do not need to make big incremental increases in order to be increasing, right? What you're doing.
And this learn to lift period is also a time when you have a lot of like your neurological system learning how to lift, your [00:12:00] brain being able to actually trigger your muscles to flex, to get those muscle cells, flexing, moving weight that it is learning. Okay, so there's a lot going on, and that's part of the reason why you may notice that you can increase weight a little bit faster because it is your nervous system, which is doing a lot of learning at this point.
And I'll remind you that really two days a week is plenty. Two to three days a week is great. So, I know a lot of people like to jump in and do four days a week, but if that feels like you're not able to recover enough, i. e. you're getting To soar, then cut that back down, go twice a week. Um, if you're working on one of my programs, I have the two [00:13:00] times a week track, which is two, uh, full body sessions a week.
If you have a week that you can do three days a week, then just do the next session. Um, and as far as recovery days, the recommendation is that you have at least 48 hours. between sessions to recover, that's very individual. Also, if you are somebody who is very sore, or you are going through a stressful period in your life, or you haven't gotten enough sleep, or you're in perimenopause, and you're really struggling with the symptoms, then give yourself a longer amount of time between sessions.
I am at post menopause and I still find, latest yesterday, noticed that darn, I should have really left one more day in between sessions because I noticed that I just did not come back with the same kind of strength as if I had taken two days [00:14:00] off.
So that was about the learning phase. So to summarize really briefly, that is when you are getting your body acclimated to weight training. There is so much going on. Focus on your form, take form videos, do form checks, make sure you're learning the movement patterns and learning to do them properly.
Increasing your weights. Yes, you can increase them, but do it slowly because remember there's the whole rest of your body, which also needs to strengthen, not just your muscles. You've got your tendons, your ligaments, your joints, your bones, all the things that are starting to respond to this new stimulus that you're bringing to your body.
And twice a week is plenty. Okay. And if anybody that's listening has my learn to lift program and you're like, Oh, okay. I could just do it twice a week at this point. Fine. Contact me. I'll switch you to the two times a week track. No problem. [00:15:00] Okay.
Now stage two is when you have really learned to lift and you feel really confident with those weights. If somebody is watching you. Do the exercises. They're like, ah, she's been here, you know, for a while. She knows what she's doing. I mean, having watched enough beginners and then more advanced lifters, you just see their movement patterns are more fluid. They don't have the funny pauses, between reps and this kind of thing. 
It's just a lot more confident looking. So when you get to that point, you can start lifting with more intensity. And what that means is that you Do start to push yourself a little bit more and maybe progress a little bit faster because your body is getting used to this.
So you notice that you are not getting sore as much and [00:16:00] by that kind of sore, I mean, like the kind where you get out of the chair and you're like, Oh my God, I'm so stiff and sore. I can barely walk down the stairs. You can have that kind of feeling like, Oh, I've done something, I can feel I've done something, but you, you know, this kind of, you've got to rip your muscles, tear them down to build them back up stronger.
That's not how it works. Okay? Soreness is not something that we are striving for. Maybe I'll repeat that a lot in my coming podcasts. Because that's one of the myths I hear so often. Oh my God, it got me so sore. It was so good. No, the sore is not telling you that it was so good. At least not as far as muscle building goes.
And in this stage two is when you're going to be kind of learning where your limits are. So that's when I encourage women to start training to failure on some exercises, on the [00:17:00] safe exercises. Safe is exercises where if you get stuck and you can't get out of the rep, you're not going to hurt your back or drop something on your face or something like that. So things like bicep curls are fine. Most exercises where you use a machine are pretty good. Nothing where you're like sacrificing your lower back. So I wouldn't do an RDL to failure, for example. So. And you kind of learn your limits 
and the reason why this is actually important to learn where your failure is, is because in stage three, you are going to be training less to failure. You're going to want to train. Close to failure and there's no way, you know, you're close to failure. If you've never actually pushed yourself to failure.
Um, like I always know when I'm doing the sets, um, [00:18:00] like there's a point where one of the reps, it could be whatever number of number of reps, but there'll be one rep where I, I feel that feeling where I'm like, okay, I have one, maybe two left in the tank and, and that's what. You want to be able to learn where that is for you, and, and it takes some time to learn that, and it takes some training to failure to be able to learn that.
And that's what you're doing in this phase two with the safe exercises. Now, training to failure. As it turns out, isn't necessary for muscle growth training close to failure kind of is and that's why the group fitness classes are not so useful because you feel the burn. You don't actually train to muscular failure there, or it's harder to actually get to that point, or even sense when you've gotten to that point because you do so many [00:19:00] reps.
 So what you want to do eventually is not train all the way to failure, but to train close to failure. And the reason is that when you train to failure, your recovery is just, it takes a lot longer. Now, some of us, like me, enjoy training to failure. I like try to push myself a little bit more. And I know at the same time, intellectually that, okay, this is going to take longer recovery for me.
But anyway, I like to do that every now and again, I digress. So in phase two, which is somewhere around like six months, depending on how much you've been lifting and all the things that I talked about earlier, that You know, if you're somebody who is just faster at learning physical things, maybe if you have a background in weight training, if you've been doing a lot of exercising, it might be that you get your form down much more quickly than somebody else.
Plus, if [00:20:00] you're training more often, and you have a good program, so this phase two could start as early as six months into your weight training journey, but I do believe that it takes a couple of years. And in this phase two, you are going to be progressing like fairly quickly in your weights.
 I would say you won't stay at the same weight for a month on the same exercise. That's not going to happen in phase two. Okay. There might be some exceptions to that rule, maybe shoulder press or something like that, but you will notice that your weights go up at a fairly regular intervals. So that's sort of the progress that you're going to be making in phase two.
Now stage three is then the one that we want to get to and kind of stay in for the rest of our journey. And especially for us, menopausal women, it is that stage where we are lifting heavy. for us. [00:21:00] So at that stage, like we have amazing form. Okay. We're really solid on the lifts. We understand where our failure is and how to, you know, stay a little bit away from failure so that we don't go all the way to failure on the super heavy lifts. And so what we do is we start reducing the number of reps that we do in our sets, which means that we need to be picking up heavier weights to get close to failure by the end of that set. And at that point, and I I'm there now, progress is slower and it's up and down a lot lot more than it was in phase two.
It is sometimes frustrating, but it is completely not unusual for me to be working the same weight for [00:22:00] weeks. So, okay, I've kind of gotten close to my genetic maximum on bicep curls. I'm bicep curling 12 and a half kilos. I think I will get up to 15 kilos at some point. But I've been doing the 12 and a half kilos for probably four months.
And it started with three reps, and now I'm up to where I can do seven on a set. Okay. And that's taken months, but there are days where I can do two sets of seven. And there are days where I can't do a single set of seven. So it starts to be a little bit more of this up and down thing and your performance on a particular day.
May vary and it can have to do with you didn't sleep enough or maybe you trained a little bit harder on an earlier exercise that day and it's, and it's reflecting on the later exercises or you didn't have enough protein or you didn't recover [00:23:00] enough and all these kinds of things. So, so the progress is.
Slower as you're getting closer to your genetic ceiling, it becomes, in my opinion, a little bit more like playing golf, I mean, golf is kind of addictive because you go out there and you might have a day where you crush it, you're all of your swings are perfect and the ball is flying beautifully.
And then you'll have a round where you can't hit the ball to save your life. Well, that's kind of what weight training is. And because you get that random reinforcement, that's what they call it in psychological terms, you kind of stay addicted because you go and then one day you think, Oh, I'm not feeling so energetic today.
And then you crush your workout. And then the next day it's like, Oh my God, what happened to me? But anyway. 
All right. So that was the three phases. And the takeaway here is that [00:24:00] your progress how quickly you increase your weights is going to change over the lifespan of you lifting and 
please, in the very beginning, when you're learning to lift in those first months, to half year, or even to a year, if you haven't been very consistent, be gentle on yourself or be kind to yourself that you're not being super sore. Progress at a reasonable rate. It could be that you don't increase the weights every week.
Maybe it's every other week so that your body can catch up. All right, we are not in a sprint here. It's not like we only have 12 weeks to achieve some goal. We have the rest of our lives to achieve that goal. So let's enjoy the journey. Let's not get ourselves too sore. Let's let ourselves strengthen as we go.
That's the whole point of this. [00:25:00] And let's make sure that we're enjoying it at least a little bit. So, so that we keep. Going. Okay. I guess that's something that I don't really talk about. Uh, very much. Maybe I should do an episode on that is that, I feel like there is a very important, um, like balance that needs to be achieved between enjoying it and being optimal with what you're doing, because in the end, the most important thing is that you are weight training.
All right. And whether you're doing every single exercise out there or like the most optimal exercise is not as important as the fact that you're doing a weight training exercise and that you're applying a progressive overload and that you, you know, once you are in phase two and three, that you're training with enough intensity to actually cause changes or at least for your body to hold onto your [00:26:00] muscle.
Because remember, muscle is an experience. Expensive tissue for your body to carry around and it will get rid of it if it feels it's not needed. And the way that we are tricking it into thinking that it's needed is weight training and pushing our bodies beyond what we actually need in our day to day lives.
All right. And that became a little bit longer than I thought it would. And, yeah. So hope that helped you and especially newbies patience. This is a journey and, uh, enjoy your training and I will talk to you next week. Happy training.