It’s probably the most widely-shared piece of advice you hear in the gym – “lift big to get big.” Conventional thinking says that lifting light is good only for two reasons:
But truth of the matter is, lifting lighter weights can be an effective method in itself if you want to put on muscle. In fact, not only has research shown that lifting lighter offers results that are comparable to lifting big, but logically speaking, it offers more advantages too.
In a ground-breaking study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, found that effort, not load, can actually increase muscle growth. Upending the commonly-accepted training philosophy that hypertrophy occurs only through heavy lifting, the study demonstrated that subjects who lifted lighter weights until reaching muscular failure can gain just as much size and strength as guys who pull big.
Moreover, testosterone and growth hormone– markers of hypertrophic growth – were found to be as elevated in subjects who lifted to failure with light weights, as in subjects who hoisted heavier at a lower rep range. The key is in the effort exerted, explains Robert Morton, PhD candidate in kinesiology and lead author of the study.
“If you want to get bigger, what drives muscle growth is how much effort, not load, you lift with. Using light weights until ‘failure’ will stimulate and grow both your type I and type II muscle fibers – the type II fibers being those which had always been associated with only heavy lifting.”
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Better Range of Motion
Lighter loads also allow the movement to be performed through the full range of motion. Lifting overly heavy poundage typically takes the weight through a shorter range of motion, resulting in poorer performance.
In a study published in the January 2014 issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, researchers found that after subjects performed 12 weeks of strength training with full range of motion, the strength and size of their muscles were greater than those observed in another group that used movements with short range of motion.
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More Hypertrophic Gains
When you use lighter weights, the muscles you are targeting are able to manage the load by themselves, without reliance on compensatory muscles to assist in the movement, hence more hypertrophic gains occur in the muscles you want to grow.
A good example is the triceps pressdown. When the weight is too heavy, the shoulder muscles, being larger than the triceps, overpower the smaller muscles in order to press the weight down. The result? Your shoulders get a great workout, but your triceps are left in the dust.
Lifting weights heavier than your body can support, is a sure way to get on the disabled list. Moreover, prior muscle injury can increase the likelihood of future injury to the same muscle, this according to Andrew Vigotsky, a biomechanics researcher at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery. There are several reasons for this he says, including scar tissue formation, which is usually weaker than connective or muscle tissue, setting you up for possible future injury
You simply can’t lift properly if you’re heaving too heavy. When your technique tumbles, so do your biomechanics. Add bad biomechanics to faulty form and you’re a shoo-in for injury.
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Lighter Weight Actually Works the Muscle
Lifting lighter means your muscles do all the work, which is after all why you’re in the gym. Using poundage beyond what your body can lift, means you are relying on momentum, not exclusively your muscles, to get the bar up. How many times do we see guys curling heavy dumbbells while they wildly swing their limbs back and forth, just to lift the weight? Unless they’re into velocity training, their arms will never grow that way.
So time to say goodbye to the old adage “lift big to get big,” and say hello to the new buzz phrase of bodybuilding, “lift low and grow!”
