Weight Training: Stop Guessing, Get Results with Volt’s AI-Powered Weight Selection 🤜🤛
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Summary of Article:
Research shows most people choose weights 50% lighter than what they can actually lift, limiting their progress.
While self-selecting loads often leads to undertraining, choosing weights that are too heavy can also result in injury or overtraining. Striking the right balance is essential for safety and progress.
Risks of Self-Selecting Weights:
Undertraining: Leads to performance plateaus, muscle loss, and low motivation.
Overtraining/Injury: Using weights beyond your capacity can harm technique and increase injury risk.
Solution: Let AI guide your training.
Volt’s Cortex™ uses real-time feedback to automatically adjust training loads, reps, and duration to match your optimal training range. This helps maximize results while reducing the risks of under- or overtraining.
Cortex™ ensures every session is effective, personalized, and safe—no guesswork needed.
Try Volt’s 14-day free trial for individuals or teams to see how AI-optimized training can drive real progress.
Recent research has shown that when individuals choose their own weights during exercise, they choose 50% lighter weights than they can actually lift.
People tend to self-select loads at roughly 50% of their estimated one-repetition maximum (1RM), which is a predictive measure of the maximum weight a person can lift for a single repetition of a specific movement.
This tendency toward selecting weights significantly below one's true capabilities limits progress and performance. Alternatively, choosing a weight that is too heavy comes with its own risks, which we detail below.
lighter weight than can actually be lifted being chosen by the majority of individuals!
Risk #1: Undertraining and Lack of Progress.
Underestimating personal capabilities and selecting weights that are too light will limit results. The load needs to be in an optimal range to evoke meaningful physiological adaptations.
Undertraining, a consequence of insufficiently challenging the body during exercise, can result in stagnation and even regression in fitness levels. Symptoms of undertraining may include lack of progress, performance plateaus, diminished endurance, muscle atrophy, heightened susceptibility to injury, and decreased motivation.
Risk #2: Overtraining or Injury
While most individuals choose lighter weight than necessary, some will do the opposite and select weight too heavy for their skill set. There will undoubtedly be occasions when lifting heavier weights becomes essential throughout one's fitness journey. However, such progressions should come with proficiency first, minimizing the risk of injury and optimizing the efficacy of training efforts.
Overtraining, characterized by a constellation of symptoms including compromised immune function, muscle wasting, hormonal imbalances, and chronic fatigue, can have deleterious consequences on both physical and mental well-being. Moreover, lifting weights that exceed one's capacity can compromise technique, heightening the likelihood of injury.
Knowing What Weight to Choose
Achieving an optimal balance in training intensity, volume, and frequency is paramount for driving progress while mitigating the risks associated with undertraining and overtraining.
Volt's groundbreaking AI tool, Cortex™, does the thinking and calculating for you, saving you time and ensuring the weight is optimal for each individual. It focuses on safety, progress, and performance.
Cortex™ revolutionizes the training landscape by continuously adapting workouts based on real-time feedback. It seamlessly adjusts parameters such as weight, repetitions, or duration as needed. This proactive approach not only safeguards against undertraining but also ensures each session maximizes its effectiveness.
With Cortex™ at the helm, individuals can confidently navigate their fitness endeavors, propelled by tailored guidance and safeguarded from the pitfalls of under- or overtraining.
