Picking the right weight: the 12–15 rep rule

Most beginners either pick a weight that's far too light (and waste the set) or far too heavy (and wreck their form). There's a simple rule that fixes both.

The rule

Every lift in the 3-day plan is 3 sets of 15. Pick a weight where the last few reps are hard, but still clean.

• If 15 reps feel easy, go up one step next time.
• If you can't get 12 clean reps, drop one step.
• Somewhere in between? You're in the right place. Stay there until 15 gets easy.

Controlled movement beats heavy weight, every time.

Finding your starting weight

On a pin-loaded machine like the leg press or chest press:

1. Set the pin somewhere light, around a quarter of the stack.
2. Do 5 slow warm-up reps. Too easy? Move the pin down one plate.
3. Repeat until the 5 reps feel like real work, but not a struggle.
4. That's your first working weight. Do your 3 × 15 from there.

With dumbbells (for example side raises), start lighter than you think. Shoulders get tired fast, and 8 kg done well beats 14 kg done by swinging.

What "clean" means

A rep counts if you can:

• control the weight on the way down (about 2 seconds),
• avoid bouncing or throwing the weight,
• keep the joints in the positions shown on each exercise page.

If form breaks on rep 11, the set was over at rep 10, even if you finished.

Write it down

The weight you used last time is the most useful number in the gym. Log it after every exercise and aim to go up a step every week or two. The Workoutland app tracks this for you.