Should you lift light weight or heavy weight to build your muscle faster?

While many experts seem to have different opinion on this topic, some believe that high reps and body weight calisthenic type of exercises are best (e.g., Chris Heria of ThenX), meanwhile others claim that low rep heavy weight training is better for faster muscle growth (e.g., Max Posternak of Gravity Transformation).

So today we’re going to cover which style of training will lead to the best results for you personally based on the scientific data.

To actually find out the answer we need to be clear on what training intensity is.

In exercise science, training intensity is the percentage (%) of your one rep maximum that you can train with, so this mean, if you were using a 100% of your one rep max, that would mean that you're using a weight load that's so heavy that you can only complete one rep and no more. On the other hand, if you’re using 80% of your one rep max, you would probably be able to complete seven to eight reps before hitting failure. And each training intensity level whether it’s a 70%, 80% or 90% correlates with a certain rep count.

So, it's obvious that if you train with less weight or a smaller percentage of your one rep max, you'll be able to do more reps, but if you train with heavier weights or a larger percentage of your one rep max, you'll only be able to perform fewer reps.

But why some lifters claim that you should train with light weights if you want to maximize muscle growth and even recommend that you do reps from 15 up to 25 per set? Well

First, the high rep crowd claims that light weights and high reps are better because they create a lot of metabolic stress ? which is a physiological process that happens during resistance training as a response to low energy levels inside the cell that leads to metabolic accumulation such as lactate inorganic phosphate and hydrogen ions.

Second, training with high reps and light weights often feels more effective, I mean you get a huge pump and you can see your muscles blow up when you look in the gym mirror so many think it must be the ideal training style.

Nevertheless, there’s nothing magical ? about doing lightweight high rep pump training and it's not a bad strategy for muscle growth either, in fact, many popular bodybuilders rely primarily on light weight training although there's nothing magical about it, for example several studies shows that very high rep sets where you only use thirty percent of your one rep max can stimulate as much muscle growth as a traditional bodybuilding rep range where you use eighty percent of your one rep max.

Important things to keep in mind

• Very low rep training such as doing one or two reps per set is very unlikely to be optimal for muscle growth. For instance, doing eight heavy sets of one rep max outs led to worse results than eight sets of eight to twelve reps. So, make sure you select a weight load that allows you to squeeze out at least three reps per set if you want to maximize muscle growth.?
• Training with very heavy loads for low reps happens to be much more stressful on your joints and connective tissues compared to training with a moderate or a high rep range. Studies also confirms that people who trains with low reps heavy load do gain the same amount of muscle you usually see but usually have an higher injury rate, also very low rep training might not be ideal if you have aches or pains in your joints.
• If you like to train with really heavy weight for a low number of reps, it’s not recommended you do isolation exercises like bicep curls or lateral raises, since it's difficult to maintain proper form when doing these isolation movements with heavy weights which can increase your chance of having injury and you're more likely to cheat. Meanwhile, compound exercises like squat, bench press and deadlift on the other hand can be performed with heavier weight loads for lower reps without issue as long as you maintain proper form and aim for at least three reps.

Train to failure:

If you don't train to failure with those higher rep sets you won't reap the full benefits, since most people don't have the stamina to grind out five sets to failure with a very light weight of for instance 30% of your one rep max, it tends to be better to do more sets in moderate and lower rep ranges.

Think about it, even if you did fifty percent of your one rep max for an exercise like squats and try to do as many reps as possible, you'd probably be completely wiped out after just one set.

But please, don't avoid high rep training or in fact any rep range. The best form of training is to use higher rep sets for isolation exercises like lateral raises or bicep curls where excessive fatigue isn't as much of an issue and according to some research, you'll grow more muscle when you train with a variety of rep ranges instead of always trying to hit the same number of reps every set.

Note that, different rep ranges emphasize different muscle building pathways in the body,

High rep training for example primarily triggers the metabolic stress pathway which is a process that has great benefits for muscle growth. Also, high rep training is also better for training slow twitch muscle fibers which are fibers that aren't as strong as fast twitch fibers but they're more resilient to fatigue.

Low rep heavyweight training on the other hand creates high amounts of Mechanical tension and that stimulates muscle growth in a different way it activates specialized proteins and muscle cells which in stimulate your body to build new muscle tissue. Those specialized proteins are only activated by very high levels of tension which is why it's beneficial to also include low rep heavy weight training into your workout routine. Low reps and heavy weights are also more effective for training fast twitch muscle fibers which are muscle fibers that can generate a lot of force but they also tire out very quickly. Also, even though heavyweight lower rep sets are great at building Muscle they're also one of the best ways to get physically stronger and even if you don't care about gaining strength.

So, to sum it up it's best to include low rep moderate rep and high rep sets because they all activate different growth pathways in the body.

If you're older, recovering from a previous injury or you have achy joints then you could focus more on high rep work people that are older can especially benefit from high rep sets because they have less connective tissue due to a lower protein turnover rate which increases injury risk when training heavy by weakening joints and tendons so for older adults and people with nagging Joints or injuries they can do zero percent of their sets in the three to five rep range sixty percent of their sets in the six to twelve rep range and 40 of their sets in the 13 plus rep range.

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