Lightweight vs heavyweight for building muscle…BOTH?( Science-based answer)

Lightweight vs heavyweight for building muscle…BOTH?( Science-based answer)

in today's video we are covering whether to use lightweight or heavyweight to build muscle.

It’s been spread overtime amongst most lifters that incorporating lighter weight with higher reps usually around 12 or more benefits only your endurance and nothing about building muscle mass or also known as hypotrophy. But a 2017 META ANALYSIS review by Doctor Shoenfeld shows that muscle hypotrophy, aka muscle growth, can be achieved irrigardless of the type of load range. meaning irrigardless of the 1-rep-max you are using which is what we need to understand in ordere to help us answer this question. A 1-rep-max, is the amount of maximum weight one can lift only once. And this is measured in percentage meaning if during an exercise you are using around 80% of your 1-rep-max, you are using weight that’s just heavy enough to give you around 7 to 8 reps and no more, wherelse if the weight you are using takes you to a 100% 1-rep-max, that simply means that \ specific weight allows you to hit only 1 rep because its just so heavy.

On the flip side, training with an extremely low rep range is also not ideal. Because that would mean you are using close to a 100% 1-rep-max during your workout, meaning the weight is so heavy that you end up cheating on the form itself or even worse gradually destroying those joints because of the excessive stress on the joints and connective tissues.
If you are going to train heavy and know that your body is more suseptable to injuries and struggles with pains in your joints then avoiding low rep training or a very high 1-rep-max might be ideal.
Now with all this information in mind, how then do you personally train in order to elicit more muscle growth and maximize your results?

Well basically in order to achieve muscle growth with light weight as with heavy to moderate weight, you need to sustain equal intensity or volume, meaning enough weight x reps x sets in order to take you to failure.

How do we achieve this?...
Number 1 periodization.
This is where you’ll be switching your rep ranges every week or 3 to 4 weeks. So essentially youll be picking a rep range that you’ll stick to for about 3 to 4 weeks. For instance if you pick heavy weight lifting that makes you hit failure at 3 to 8 reps,then during the next 3 to 4 weeks you should pick a lighter weight that lets hit failure at 8 to 12 reps then on the last 3 to 4 weeks you pick an even lighter weight than the one before that lets you hit failure at 12 to 20 reps. Then when you reset this cycle, aim to hit higher reps than before within each rep range.
Another way is to incorporating drop-sets.
Usually a good rep range for hypotrophy is around 6 to 12 reps to failure. This is a good mix between heavy and light weight and stimulates muscle growth through different pathways such as metabolic build up and mechanical tension. The best way to arrange this would be to start with heavyweight within the 6 to 12 range as this stimulates mechanical tension then finish off with light weight by utilizing drop-sets or adding a few sets of high 20 to 30 rep range towards the end of your workout in order to cover the metabolic stress mechanism of muscle growth.
These two mechanisms are the main mechanisms for muscle growth. That is mechanical tension and metabolic stress. The mechanical tension is induced when lifting heavy weight and metabolic stress is induced when lifting lightweight with high reps. Basically Inducing one will automatically lower the other hence the reason why, you’ll still see muscle growth when training with either light or heavyweight as these are equated by workout VOLUME and not by the type of mechanism. Therefore in simple terms the best solution for maximized muscle growth is to target both mechanisms by training with both light and heavy weights with things like drop-sets, high rep ranges towards the end of workout and periodizations.
Final conclusion...which weight is best for muscle growth… lightweight or heavyweight….the answer is BOTH of them used in your workout sessions will yield best results. provided that they are used as explained in this video. The real key here is keeping your muscle under tension consistently while maintaining the correct form.

DESCRIPTION:
ATTRIBUTIONS:
Name: Terron Beckham
Channel Name: Terron Beckham
Clip Source: https://youtu.be/iQQ-Su6N_W8
https://youtu.be/bhQI2gzcUFM
License: Creative Commons CC

Channel Name: Ivan BodyBuilding
Clip Source: https://youtu.be/y6T90WT9LnU
License: Creative Commons CC

Name: Steve Cook
Channel Name: Steve Cook
Clip Source: https://youtu.be/6W5lN4nl38E
License: Creative Commons CC

Видео Lightweight vs heavyweight for building muscle…BOTH?( Science-based answer) канала Active AlphitX