I'm a 50 yo man doing general core strengthening exercises with adjustable dumbbells at home. Generally each of the exercises I do at medium weight, 3 sets of 10 reps a few times a week. My dumbbell weight settings go up in 5 pound increments.
This week I re-checked my maximum weight on all my exercises, increasing most of them, and landed at an awkward point with one of them. My overhead shoulder press now maxes out at 44 pounds on each side (88 pounds total). By my calculation, this gives a per-side heavy lift weight (85%) of 37.4 pounds, and a medium lift weight (75%) of 33.0 pounds.
The problem is, both of those numbers are closer to the 35-pound step on my weights than anything else (i.e., my medium and heavy lifts call for the same setting). Trying to do my standard medium exercise at 35 pounds, I can barely complete a single 10-rep set, and fail about halfway through on later ones.
What should I do in this situation?
- Drop back to the 30-pound setting for 10-rep sets, and wait for some later test to show a higher max weight.
- Just use the 35-pound setting, try for 10-rep sets, and wait for that to improve.
- Keep the 35-pound weight but reduce the target repetitions.
- Something else?