Choosing Your Weights For Mental Health
You’ve heard that exercise is good for your mental health. Maybe you’ve tried it but you’ve been disappointed by the results. Maybe you want to give it a try, but you aren’t sure how to optimize your workouts for your mental health.
I’m here to help. In this article, I’ll share a little-known method for getting a mental health boost from your strength training sessions.
It's called “ramp down sets” and it’s a major feature of my Strength Training For Anxiety Program.
I created that program to help people get stronger mentally as well as physically, and to help them change their thought patterns and behaviors so they can thrive. It’s a 12-week workout program, guided by an app so you can do the workouts on your own, anytime, anywhere. It also includes unique features, video lessons, and worksheets specifically designed to help manage anxiety.
What Are Ramp Down Sets?
Using ramp down sets is a simple strategy that can make a big difference. It means choosing a heavy weight for your first set and then decreasing the weights in your next sets.
Your first set should be done with a weight that truly challenges your muscles, finishing at a level 9 out of 10 effort.
A 10 out of 10 effort means you’re lifting as hard as you possibly can on your last rep, and it would be impossible for you to do even one more with good form. A 9 out of 10 means that at the end of your set you could maybe do one more rep with good form. The last rep should feel very challenging but not impossible.
In your second and third sets, lower the weight slightly. It should still feel challenging, but not quite as much as in your first set. Aim to finish at a level 8 out of 10 effort on those sets. That means that on your last rep, you feel like you could do just 2 more with good form.
Why It’s Important To Choose The Right Weights For Mental Health
In a lot of standard training programs, you use the same weights from set to set, or you start with a relatively lighter weight and increase the weight over a few sets. Often, people will save a really hard effort for the last set.
When mental health is your goal, that’s not the best idea.
To get the best mental health boost from exercise, there are two important things you need to do.
The first is to maximize the feel-good “hope molecules” that flood your brain during and after each workout and make you feel happy, joyful, and optimistic. Those are things like endorphins, but also endocannabinoids, neurotransmitters, and neurotrophic factors. They’re responsible for the mood boost and the immediate positive feelings you get from exercise.
You also need to keep exercising consistently so you can get the longer-term benefits of exercise for your mental health. Over time, strength training can help you see yourself in a different light, building confidence and resilience and challenging your negative thought patterns and self-concept. It can rewire your brain to make it easier for you to feel good about yourself and see your problems as opportunities for growth and improvement. It’s really amazing!
To learn more about the amazing ways strength training improves mental health, check out my full article HERE.
How Ramp Down Sets Optimize The Mental Health Response To Exercise
This ramp down sets strategy can help you with both aspects of optimizing the mental health benefits of strength training. It can help you feel those “hope molecules” more strongly, and it can help you stay motivated to exercise consistently so you can get the bigger benefits.
How Choosing The Right Weights For Mental Health Helps You Feel Better In Each Workout
To build physical strength, you need to push yourself by lifting heavy weights (always safely and with good form!) and challenging your muscles so they respond by getting stronger.
Lifting heavy and pushing your muscles hard isn’t easy. In fact, it can be pretty unpleasant. Your muscles might burn, they might feel tired and heavy, your heart might start pounding.
In the moment, that discomfort can mask the effects of those positive, mood boosting hope molecules. While those beneficial molecules are still going to work doing good things in your body and brain, you don’t notice them as much. You mostly feel tired and sore instead of joyful and energetic.
By using the first set to push hard and then backing off for the second and third sets, you get the best of both worlds. You’ve stimulated your muscles and your brain to get fitter, stronger, healthier, and more resilient, and you get to enjoy the mood-boosting feelings of a good workout.
As you get more experienced with strength training, you’ll be able to feel both the fatigue and the mood-boosting effects at the same time and you might not need this strategy anymore.
How Choosing The Right Weights For Mental Health Helps You Exercise Consistently
Humans tend to remember experiences based on the peak of the experience and the end. There’s a name for that in psychology, it’s called the “peak end rule”. It was described by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman in his bestselling book, Thinking, Fast And Slow.
If you go to a boring party but at the very end something really fun and exciting happens, you’re likely to remember the party overall as being fun and exciting, even if you spent most of it bored out of your mind. And you’re more likely to want to go to a party like that again.
Research has found that people find a workout with ramp down sets more pleasant than one where they start with a lower weight and then increase the weights. More importantly, they remembered the workout as being more pleasant and enjoyable afterwards.
They lifted the same weights in both workouts, but by strategically adjusting the weights from heavier to lighter as the workout went on, they felt better about it.
If you finish a workout and remember it as being pleasant and enjoyable, you’re more likely to want to do it again.
On the other hand, if what you remember about your workout is how unpleasant it was, you might find an excuse to skip the next one.
Anything that boosts your motivation and makes consistency easier will help you get the amazing benefits of exercise.
How To Use Ramp Down Sets
Remember that you should aim to finish your first set at a level 9 out of 10 effort, which means that the exercise feels very challenging and by your last rep you feel like you could maybe complete one more with good form.
On your second and third sets, you want to finish at a level 8 out of 10 effort. That means you’re still challenging your muscles, but not quite as much as in the first set. During your last rep, you should feel like you could do 2 more reps with good form.
Here’s an example of choosing the right weights for mental health:
In your first set of dumbbell chest presses you use a pair of 20-pound dumbbells which are very challenging. You finish that set at a level 9 out of 10 effort.
In your second and third set, you might use 17.5 or 15-pound dumbbells to bring your effort down to an 8.
Remember to keep track of the weights and reps so you know what to do in your next workout.
If You Need Help
My Strength Training For Anxiety Program incorporates descending weight sets and has other unique features to help you manage your anxiety. This program will teach you everything you need to know about changing your brain through strength training and will guide you through expertly designed workouts specifically designed to boost your mental health.