Right amount of weight

My first suggestion would be to find a reputable personal trainer and expalin your needs and wants to him/her and they should be able to help you out.

However if you can't do the above there are a couple of general guidlines and things you might want to know. First, your still young and your body is growing so be careful when lifting (I have friends with major back problems and other issues from lifting incorrectly when young; and I'm only in my early 20's), make sure your form is correct; form is more important than amount of weight, try and find a partner if you can, and don't be fooled by what other people are doing in the gym, many of them are either trying to reach a different goal or they have absolutly no idea what they are doing.

Generally if you don't want to increase your muscle mass, then you drop your weight and do more repitions with the lower weight. To find out how much you should be lifting, find out what you one-rep maximum is, this is where a partner comes in handy, also there are alot of charts and tables on the internet to help you figure out your one-rep max. Once you have that number, you want to aim to lift weights that are between 60% and 80% of the one-rep max number; you'll want to do multiple reps, at least 10; you'll also looking to be doing multiple sets probably around 2-4 would be good.

In regards to becoming leaner, there is alot that goes into that. Diet is one big factor, especially for defined abs. Eating correctly had a huge effect on what you end up looking like, (finding a good nutritionist isn't a bad idea either). In regards to lifting or cardio, the answer is both. Lifting and gaining muscle, (it doesn't have to be piled on) helps burn fat. I've read for aproimently every pound of muscle you gain, you will burn about an extra 50 calories a day, (without doing anything extra) the added muscle apparently burns that much more just during normal activites (i.e. sleeping, watching TV, ect...). Also, as you know, cardio is a great way to burn calories and is useful in helping you to become leaner. So by combining both into a work out you will have the most added benifit.

All in all, you're young, I would worry too much about it. But remember to seek reputable professinal assistance if you can, that should be your first goal. Also, don't go overboard, lifting and running too much has a negative and even long term effects on your body. Make sure you are resting enough for your body to recover from workouts. Hope this helps a bit.

You should be lifting heavier weights. There is no such thing as "toning" through lifting lighter weight. You should be lifting as much as you can. You're not going to get bulky through lifting unless you're trying to do so. If getting "huge" were so easy, people wouldn't be putting so much effort into weightlifting. Low weight high rep = cardio, and less effective cardio than you'd get just by running. Lift as heavy as you can.


A combination of cardio and weights work best in my experience.

The statement that 60-80% of 1RM @ 4 sets of 8-10 is good for maintaining but not increasing muscle mass is incorrect. There's a lot of evidence that shows that the optimum range for hypertrophy is 6-12 reps at 70-80% of 1RM, so basically your advice would put him in the maximum range for bulking (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and is actually probably what I'd recommend) If he really did want to increase strength without hypertrophy he'd be best off doing 5x5 @ 90-95% of 1RM with 2-3 minutes rest in between each set.

I'm not sure I really believe any of the "ranges" for various purposes. When I am focusing solely on weightlifting (as in the sport) I am about 20- 30 lbs heavier, and I never do more than 5 reps per set. So obviously there is a lot of hypertrophy happening even though I'm not in any of the "hypertrophy ranges". Just a thought.

Well, I think the majority of the determination of actual hypertrophy is going to be from diet in any case.

I'd never be able to do 5 reps at 90% of my 1RM, let alone 5x5. Maybe with 2-3 minutes rest between each rep

Does this sound like what you're talking about drizzt:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wiggy1.htm

This makes sense to me, and is probably what I should be doing, because I want to gain useful "strength-endurance" but not size.

Something like this j...

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark70.htm

gvibes, just depends I guess. My current 1RM on bench is 355 and I rep 5x5s at 315 with 3 minutes rest between sets, so that's about 90%... I don't think it's really unusual.