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Why lift heavy, when you could just lift light?

A

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Administrator. Graeme
Staff member
Resistance exercise load does not determine t... [J Appl Physiol. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI
The new study has now been published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Here's the key graph:
phillips-hypertrophy-300x200.jpg


The three groups did:
three sets to fatigue at 30% of 1RM
1 set to failure at 80% of 1RM
three sets to fatigue at 80% of 1RM

Three sets produced essentially the same gains in muscle size (measured by MRI) with light weights or heavy weights. Traditionally, experts have argued that heavy weights force you to recruit more muscle fibers; but if you lift to fatigue/failure, the researchers argue here, you're eventually going to have to recruit all the fibers you can anyway. It's a different path to the same goal.
 
I have been thinking this rationale from observation for 30 years; there are many ways to get stronger and bigger.
 
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This may be true, however, anecdotally I've found it's much easier to reliably train to the point of fatigue at heavier weights for lower reps than with lighter weights and higher reps, especially on lower body compound movements (not as big an issue for me with upper body and isolation exercises). Training to fatigue with light weights (relative to 1RM) can often be a much harder task that training to fatigue at a high percentage of 1RM. I'd also note that in my observations of the bodybuilding world, "lift heavy" tends to mean relative to your RM in that rep range, not so much your 1RM. So the "light" sets in the study would still be considered "heavy," because they're taken to fatigue and so not much more weight could have been lifted for the 30 rep sets.
 
Subjects had no previous lifting experience.

First thing when reading a study is to ensure the subject population applies to the population you are trying to apply the study to - in this case I would imagine most people on a bodybuilding forum have been lifting a while. I doubt the conclusion would apply.

I also think they are silly for getting each person to do two protocols (one on each leg).
 
Doesnt say anything about the experience of the trainees though?

Even if my goal was powerlifting / max 1rm strength, when starting an exercise for an untrained muscle group I start light, its yielded me good results _early on_ in my training.
 
As an aside.
If all fibres where recruited simultaneously, then muscle would literally be ripped of the bone, which is evident in victims that have been electrocuted.
The sequence of firing fibres enables the muscle to perform a task.
 
For me personally, when I am doing a bout of training purely for strength, I find that I can't fatigue my muscles I am working as well as I can with higher volume at around 75-80% 1RM. All comes down to what you're doing and what you're aiming for, sheer size/mass or sheer strength (two aren't mutually exclusive).

I am intrigued to find out that Lou Ferrigno was training 6 days a week 6 hours a day. Never new that. Arnold was typically a 4-5 hour a day kind of guy. This was even while he was still in Europe as a teenager. Nuts. Info all from 'Total Recall' his book.
 
The study showed no difference in size between the groups but the low rep groups obtained statistically significant greater gains in strength over the high rep group.

In answer to the question why lift heavy?

Because you get stronger faster.
 
just recycling info here and correct me if I'm wrong but people said in the anticrossfit threads that high rep compound lifts = greater injury risk because of form suffering when you get tired.
 
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I never thought about this before, I was quite gung-ho about my training. Wether it was in the weights room or in the pool or running.
But since the back injury, I've been training pretty much exclusively with the mighty mass builder, the theraband, and I'm surprised how well the muscles are responding.
I mean I can't wait to get back in the weights room or climb ropes etc, but it seems as long as you are (or i am) fatiguing the muscle to some degree, it works to a point.
Just my 2 cents!
 
200Boy said:
just recycling info here and correct me if I'm wrong but people said in the anticrossfit threads that high rep compound lifts = greater injury risk because of form suffering when you get tired.
Click to expand...

Hard to break down form on the leg press

Easy to break down form attempting 60 power cleans in 60 seconds
 
RyanF said:
This may be true, however, anecdotally I've found it's much easier to reliably train to the point of fatigue at heavier weights for lower reps than with lighter weights and higher reps, especially on lower body compound movements (not as big an issue for me with upper body and isolation exercises). Training to fatigue with light weights (relative to 1RM) can often be a much harder task that training to fatigue at a high percentage of 1RM. I'd also note that in my observations of the bodybuilding world, "lift heavy" tends to mean relative to your RM in that rep range, not so much your 1RM. So the "light" sets in the study would still be considered "heavy," because they're taken to fatigue and so not much more weight could have been lifted for the 30 rep sets.
Click to expand...

This is a great point.

In theory it's all well and good to say ok just do 30% until failure. I actually did that (because of injury) for squats this week. 60kg for 101reps is nearly spot on 30% for me. I think I'd "nearly" prefer the 10sets of triples I did in the last set of smolov than that one set at "only" 30%.

And the whole getting stronger as well as bigger certainly matters to me :)
 
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