Lifting weights may be a good idea, but experts said some gymgoers are not achieving the results they desire because they are not lifting the correct amount of weight.

Mary Drew Kohlhaas, personal trainer for the Ames Racquet & Fitness Center, said she estimates about 75 percent of lifters are lifting the wrong amount of weight for the results they want.

Kohlhaas said she more commonly sees people lifting too little weight instead of too much weight, but both circumstances occur frequently.

“You see it all the time,” said Stephanie Eichler, personal training coordinator for recreation services. “I have been doing this for 15 years, it does not change. Women do not want to get bulky, so they tend to gear themselves toward a lighter weight, where guys want to build mass, be strong and have a nice body, so they lift that heavier weight.”

Abby Jorgensen, graduate student in health and human performance, said women do not need to worry so much about bulking up.

“I tell women, unless they are chemically enhanced, meaning they take anabolic steroids, we as women do not have enough testosterone in our bodies to become big,” she said.

To see results from workouts, the body needs to be challenged by sufficient weight, Eichler said.

“If lifters want to make a change in their body, whether it is to increase flexibility, have strong legs, toned arms or be stronger, they have to challenge themselves — and in the end, intensity rules,” she said.

Consequences from lifting too much weight, however, can be more serious than not seeing results. When lifting too much, proper form begins to fail, which increases the risk of injury, Jorgensen said.

It is easy to tell when your form is suffering because more body parts will be doing that exercise than are supposed to be, Eichler said.

“Bench press is the perfect example,” she said. “The only things that should be moving are the shoulders and elbows, but you will find that the hips come up and the legs come up so everything else is moving. That is how you know people have too much weight.”

The most common injuries from weight training are sprains, strains, tendonitis, fractures and dislocations, which could eventually lead to chronic injuries like rotator cuff damage, bone stress injuries and nerve damage, according to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.

The best way to find out if you are lifting correctly and to build a personal exercise regime is to go through a personal training session.

“We all have this perception that we are lifting right, but until somebody actually looks at you and goes, ‘Your knees go this way, your toes are this way, your shoulders are rolling,’ we don’t pay attention to that, so a trainer can fix those microscopic things that will help you lift better,” Eichler said.

Lifting correctly offers advantages in addition to injury prevention, Kohlhaas said.

Weight lifting increases the amount of lean mass and metabolism so the body burns more calories at rest, she said. Another benefit, especially for women, is maintaining bone mass, she said.