Any BodyPump people - please come and help me with working out what weights I need for each track.

[ceebeegeebies]

I have decided to start doing at least one Body Pump class a week when I get back from holiday but hate that feeling of not having a clue what I am doing in class so am after some advice about what weights I should be using.

Bit of background - I am a keen gym-goer and do 4-5 classes a week but they are all cardio-based (Combat, Attack, Spin etc) plus I do 30-40 minutes of weight training in the gym twice a week. I lift what would probably be classed as heavy weights (for a woman anyway ) in the gym but do 2 lots of 10-12 reps on each so completely different weight-lifting to Body Pump.

What weights would you start using for each of the tracks?

We have the options of 1kg, 2.5kg and 5kg weights. I have been going to pump once a week for about 3 years and the weights I currently use are:

warm up - 3.5kg per side
squats - 10kg per side (worked up from 5kg per side)
chest - 5kg per side (worked up from 3.5kg per side)
back - 6kg per side
triceps - 5kg per side (when bar is used)
biceps - 3.5 kg per side (the one I have not been able to increase!)
squats/lunges - depends on what is advised (currently using 7.5kg per side)
shoulders - 3.5kg per side

If you have not done pump before then it is best to start quite light and get your technique right before piling on extra weight.

Bump

the instructor will normally give a guide of what sort of weights to use e.g. will tell you to add extra or take some off. They should also show the different techniques used in each of the moves for the different muscle groups

Seona sorry I bumped at the same time as you posted

I have done Pump a few years ago so I am fairly comfortable with the technique.

I don't want to waste the hour using weights that are too light and therefore ineffective

I do about half what I would do in the gym. Eg. If you use 20kg for chest press in the gym (3x10 reps) do 10kg in pump.

the weights I gave above are fairly heavy compared to most of the others in the class I go to and I do feel it during the workout. Luckily my body is used to the class so I dont feel discomfort for long afterwards unless I miss the class for a couple of weeks

p.s. we are always told that the warm up weights are the lightest weights you will use and that you should double or triple that weight for the main squat track. The back track also uses fairly heavy weights and we are always encouraged to add on a bit extra for it. Squat/lunge track we are normally advised to use chest or back track weights.

I do very similar to Seona and have been doing pump once a week for just over a year.

I warm up with 4.5/5kg

I do 6kg each side on chest (only just.....and I swap this back to 5k when the new releases come out as you never know...some are harder than others!).

I have recently managed to put on 4.5kg on biceps (again....depends on the track used).

I find shoulders really bloody difficult. I put 3.5kg or sometimes 5kg on the bar but its always a challenge. Handweights I use 2kg and my arms fecking kill by the end of it. It is NOTHING like the shoulder press machine in the gym, I usually do 3 sets of 8 reps on 7.5kg fairly easily.