We live in an era where you can go to the gym as a newbie and, without any guidance, start lifting as heavy as you can. Because the heavier the better, right? But IS lifting heavier weights better for you?
I’ll cut right to the chase: It turns out, many reps of light weights is just as good as a few reps of heavy weights.
In fact, you get practically identical results!!
I know you’ve maybe heard before that trying to “tone” your body using light weights doesn’t work, because it doesn’t cause your muscle fibers to tear and regrow bigger and stronger.
Well…yes and no.
It’s correct that a low weight, high rep routine usually isn’t very good for building muscle.
So a lot of women choose low weight, high rep because they think it will make them look “toned.” They think if they lift too heavy, they’ll get bulky. So low weight for subtle toning, right…?
Nope!
Because there’s actually no such thing as “toning” a muscle!
I think people imagine that if they do lots of reps of light weights, they’ll be able to just “fine tune” their muscles, and make tiny changes to go along with the tiny weights.
That logic makes sense anyway, right? But it’s not true!
The only way to gain any muscle is to lift enough weight that the fibers tear and regrow… and then the entire muscle grows at once. There’s no such thing as just defining a muscle’s edges, or whatever!!!
So now that we’ve got that out of the way, am I totally “anti” using light weights? Of course not! For one thing, that’s all beginners can do, but that’s not my only reason.
The other reason is, everything you’ve heard about light weights not having any effect is false, too! Sure, it won’t “tone” your muscles, but you can still gain muscle mass from it.
I know I just got done saying that “the only way to gain muscle is to lift ENOUGH weight…BUT, when I say ENOUGH weight, I just mean lifting until you can’t lift any more.
Taylor Dinyer, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist from U Kentucky, says that as long as you work your muscles to “total fatigue,” it doesn’t really matter whether you’re doing high-rep low-weight, or low-rep high-weight!!
This really AMAZED me, but the results of a study done by Dinyer and others doesn’t lie:
Basically, they had women ages 18 – 27 lift for 12 weeks. Half the women had to lift 30% of their one-rep max. Half the women had to lift 80% of their one-rep max. And they were just told to go until their muscles couldn’t go any more.
(Quick note: You probably already know this, but I do want to point out that “going until muscles are fatigued/pumped” means, STOP when you cannot do a rep with proper form. If your form is bad, then STOP! Don’t hurt/strain yourself!!)
The researchers were shocked. The answer to their question, “Is lifting heavier weights better for you?” was not what they expected…
You would expect that the high-load group would have the better results.
But instead, after 12 weeks, BOTH groups had a 24% strength increase on leg extensions and a 13% increase for lat pulldowns!
So as you can see, it really doesn’t matter how heavy you lift, it only matters that you work the muscle to the point of fatigue.
And I know you might say, “It’s not going to feel comfortable either way, Bonnie!!” but a lot of people do have a preference.
The motto is just, as always, to push yourself as hard as you can and great things will happen. But I don’t think that’s a shock to anyone. 💖
I do have one last shock (in a good way!!) for you…If you’re looking to really boost your fitness routine, know that there’s a Summer SALE on the Annual All-Access Challenge Pack! Don’t miss out on the $20 savings while you still can!
But you should probably talk to me FIRST so I can really give you the low-down and help you decide what’s right for you.
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