Traditional strength training conventions hold that the more weight you lift, the more muscle you gain. That is, lifting heavier weights makes you jacked. If you want those Gerard Butler abs or Zac Efron’s arms, then you’d better load that machine with as much weight as you can possibly bear.
Conventional strength training has touted this heavy weight lifting propaganda for quite some time, instructing that lifters “first find the heaviest amount of weight that you can possibly lift at one time. This is your one-repetition maximum weight. You then use this to shape the rest of the program by lifting 80-90 percent of that amount 8 to 10 times, until our arms or legs shake with fatigue.”
This is quite an effective method for muscle gain – no one is arguing the legitimacy of weight lifting and the great benefits it gives. Weight and resistance training builds size and strength of muscles by, it is thought, producing testosterone and human growth hormones at the time of physical exertion. However, a new study could up-end this thinking and make you re-think your weight-lifting routines at the gym.
RELATED: The Greatest Fitness Tips. Ever.
Dr. Phillips and The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada just published their resistance training study in the Journal of Applied Physiology, and it states, ultimately, that doing more reps of lighter weights can give you the same results as doing fewer reps of heavier weights. The study enrolled 49 young men who had already been weight training for over a year (enrolling those who have already been training for a while can eliminate any ‘false’ results that may occur in people who just started working out). Although this study is small and consists of only younger men right now, they plan to expand this study in the future to include a larger test-base of women and the elderly as well.
Prior to the experiment, each participant was tested for fitness, strength, muscular health, and hormone levels; they were then randomly divvied into two separate groups. One group adopted the lighter weight resistance training regimen, which meant they were to lift 30-50% of their one-rep max, while doing 25 reps, until the muscles were exhausted. The other group stuck with the traditional heavy weight lifting regimen, which meant they were to lift 75-90% of their one-rep max, while doing 10 reps, until the muscles were exhausted. Both groups performed three sets of these various lifting exercises 4X per week, for 12 consecutive weeks. Upon completion of the 12 week experiment, each participant was then re-tested for fitness, strength, muscular health, and hormone levels.
RELATED: Tips to Make Exercising More Comfortable
The results? Unequivocal. Dr. Phillips observed that, “There were no significant differences between the two groups. All of the men had gained muscle strength and size, and these gains were almost identical, whether they had lifted heavy or light weights.” Even more, the researchers were unable to find any connection whatsoever between their muscle and strength gain and their hormone levels, which was originally thought to be the link giving heavy lifting its unique credibility. Both groups of men had increased levels of human growth hormone and testosterone after both types of weight training workouts.
They key similarity researchers noticed here was that, whether the men were lifting heavier or lighter weights, each method required the muscles to reach exhaustion. Both groups had to attain levels of near total muscular fatigue in order to see these positive increases in muscle strength and size.
RELATED: 5 Top Health Breakthroughs of 2015
This finding suggests that “there is something about the cellular mechanism jump-started in muscle tissue by exhaustion that enables you to develop arms like the first lady’s.” This is important because it is more accurately pin-pointing the precise cause of muscle gain and strength, however it did not prove whether lighter or heavier weights were more effective. Instead, it showed their equal effectiveness.
This is encouraging for those who find heavily weight lifting to be intimidating or for those who cannot lift exceedingly heavy weight due to injury or other extenuating circumstances. Lighter lifting could also be less injury-prone, but this is an assumption based on previous data and needs to be further tested.
For now, it is clear that strength and resistance training of some kind are a necessary component of a healthy workout routine. As far as the amount of weight is concerned, you should “lift a weight that feels tolerable and then lift it repeatedly until the effort of the final lift is at least an 8 on a scale of 1-10. There should be some discomfort, but the dividends on the backside [stronger, healthier muscles] are enormous.”
Curated article from:
New York Times Health
