MANY PEOPLE FIND lifting weights at the gym frightening. However, strength training has several advantages. It can help with balance, joint pain, muscle loss as we age, and weight loss.
The issue is that much contradicting information exists on the weight you should lift. “Go heavy or go home,” powerlifters occasionally advise. Other advice says the secret to toning muscles is lifting smaller weights. So what’s it to be light or heavy? Some more recent studies imply that it might not be important.
According to a 2016 study by Prof. Stuart Phillips’s research group at McMaster University in Canada, lifting lesser or more significant weights has the same advantages. This initially looks counterintuitive, so how did they arrive at their conclusions?
The study divided 49 weight trainers into two groups doing a 12-week weight training program. Every participant determined their “one repetition maximum,” or 1RM—the most weight they could raise.
They then divided the study into two groups: one lifting 30 to 50% of their 1RM and the other lifting 75 to 90%. The important factor was that every group raised their weights until they could not lift any more, therefore attaining “volitional failure.”
Everyone and everything will fail, even powerful people, if they do enough repetitions. Therefore, the group lifting the smaller weights completed 20 to 25 repetitions more than the group lifting the bigger (8 to 12).
The muscle failure hypothesis states that “motor units” explain everything. Motor units are collections of muscle fibres under control by a nerve. Motor units will contract the muscle as you raise a weight. Some motor units will become tired with every lift. Hence, extra motor units are needed for the following lift. You eventually find that all of your accessible motor units have run out; this is the reason your muscles fail sooner or later.
According to the McMaster study, both groups displayed the same increase in strength and muscular development regardless of the weight they lifted. As stated otherwise, whether one used light weights with more repetitions or heavy weights with fewer repetitions made no difference. These findings matched earlier studies done by the same group.
That implies what for the rest of us? As long as you are challenging your muscles to work harder than they typically do, you can achieve results lifting either heavy weights OR lesser weights. While your muscles must be “overloaded” relative to your daily life, you do not always need to lift to failure to gain results. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is repeat failure, lifting to 7 or 8 is about right, strength and conditioning coach Richard Blagrove of St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, advises.
If your muscles sense overload once a week, your body will adjust and grow stronger. To keep getting stronger, you must continually evaluate and raise your weight or rep level to ensure you are constantly stretching your muscles outside your comfort zone. Your weight training is likely not helping you if it seems easy.
Either free weights or weight machines will produce results. Free weights also encourage you to utilise stabiliser muscles, which increases energy expenditure; your joints move naturally. However, lifting properly is crucial, so you should most likely stop right away when your “form” starts to deteriorate. Weight machines can be the safest place to push yourself towards failure. If you lift to failure with free weights, you need a partner who can release the weight when you can no longer raise it.
The most crucial thing is that you have a safe weight program; hence, before you begin for the first time, seek appropriate advice. But only worry about weights against reps if you wish to be a powerlifter or bodybuilder. Getting to the gym consistently and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone are the key components of developing strength and muscle.
