It’s never been clearer that lifting lighter weights can be a very effective training strategy.
So by the end of this video, I’ll teach you exactly how to use light-weight training
to build muscle AND strength without going all pike pose on your deadlifts.
If you’re wondering, yes, there is plenty of scientific data supporting the use of lighter
weights, like this study in 2010, this study in 2012, this meta-analysis in 2014, this
study in 2015, 2016, 2019, 2022, and this research review in 2023.
The consensus is that lifting lighter weights can lead to similar muscle hypertrophy, or
muscle growth, as lifting heavier weights.
And we’re talking weights where you can do 30 plus reps per set.
For strength gains, the story is a bit different.
By and large, the greatest strength gains are achieved by lifting very heavy weights.
Lighter weights can still somewhat improve strength and sometimes even rival the strength
gains of heavy weights like we see in a 2016 study.
But the point of this video isn’t to convince you to train one way or the other.
We’re here to talk about how to use lighter weights to make some decent strength gains
and match the muscle gains as our fellow heavy-lifting fitness folks.
Surprisingly, you can’t just pick up the lightest dumbbells in the gym and start flailing
them around, in the air, at your friends… and expect to make any real progress.
There is a strategy that, for the most part, follows the same principles as any other resistance
training protocol but with a few yet very important caveats.
Let’s get right to it.
Like everything else, progressive overload, or the gradual increase of work done, is very
important.
Although there are many others, we usually adjust three training parameters to progressively
overload a given exercise: the number of reps, the number of sets, and the weight lifted.
These are also the three factors you multiply together to calculate your work volume, which
is how progressive overload is commonly tracked.
Now in normal circumstances, you have a lot of flexibility on how you adjust these three
factors.
But here comes caveat one of lifting with lighter weights.
Since our goal is to keep things light, the rate that we increase the weight lifted will
be slower than with heavier weights.
That then means we must rely more on increasing reps and sets to maintain a solid rate of
progressive overload.
But, that’s also where we run into a caveat two.
For lighter weights to match heavier weights in effectively stimulating muscle fibers and
hypertrophy, the research shows that it’s important to train very close or all the way
to failure.
This is an EXTREMELY crucial point you need to consider if you wanna train with light
weights.
If you thought light weight training equals light effort training, then you’ll be more
disappointed than that one time I bit into a purple carrot thinking it was a Chinese
sausage.
Just ask anyone that trained to failure with 25 plus reps.
They’ll tell you not only how painful it is, but how much effort it took to achieve
it.
That said, let’s talk instructions: When taking sets close to failure, you wanna
stop about 1 to 3 reps shy of it, maybe sometimes 4 or 5 if things get really tough.
I recommend occasionally taking your set ALL the way to failure, usually reserved for times
where your progression starts plateauing.
Just like any other training strategy, you also wanna split your workouts to train similar
muscle groups in the same session.
Try to hit each muscle group 2 to 3 times a week and wait at least two days before hitting
the same muscle group again.
Research shows that you can lift as low as 30% of your 1 rep max and still make good
gains.
At 30%1RM, depending on the exercise, we’re looking at about 20 to 35 reps per set.
However, since we gotta train close to failure, in my opinion, that higher end of the rep
range is a bit too much when we consider the buttload of fatigue it can cause, not to mention
it’ll also make your workouts longer.
Instead, I think aiming for 40 to 50 percent 1RM would be solid, especially for you younger
folks that don’t wanna go too light.
That puts you closer to 15 to 25 reps per set, which I think would be more practical.
For progression, you want to increase your reps first and then adjust either the weight
or the number of sets, but staying within 2 to 4 sets max.
Again, you can run into fatigue issues, so be very careful with how quickly you progress.
If you end up constantly skipping sessions because you need more time to recover, then
you gotta go back to the drawing board.
Okay, that was the main gist of it and now I wanna leave you with an extra 5 rapid tips.
Number 1, perform your compound exercises first in your workouts.
That’s things like your squats, bench presses, rows, and anything else that uses multiple
joints.
Number 2, it might be best to stay a bit further away from failure with compounds, like about
3 to 5 reps.
For single-joint, isolation exercises, like curls, you can bring it a bit closer to 1
to 3 reps.
Number 3, I suggest you spend some time training to actual failure first.
It’s hard to know when to stop a few reps before failure if you don’t know how failure
feels like in the first place.
It’s much further than you think.
Number 4, nutrition is still very important.
For muscle growth, a slight calorie surplus with ample protein is your best bet.
And number 5, it makes sense to still lift heavy weights to take advantage of the strength
gains.
If it was up to me, I’d save the light-weight, high rep stuff for isolations and stick with
the heavy, low-rep stuff for compounds.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a heavy thumbs up and share it with your lightweight
loving friends.
Subscribe for more and let me know what you think in the comments.
As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to GET YOUR PROTEIN!