If you have ever wondered whether to use heavy vs light weight to build muscle, you’ve come to the right place. In this video, I am going to explain to you whether you need to use heavy weight or light weight in order to build muscle and when to use both in your training. You might think one is better than the other in your pursuit to build muscle, but this might be a flawed way of thinking and you could be leaving gains on the table.

The video starts off with a quiz where I want you to leave your answer in a comment below. In this side-by-side of Jesse performing the dumbbell bench press, I want you to make a guess as to which clip shows Jesse building more muscle. Is it when he uses the heavy weight or is when he uses the light weight? In the heavier set, Jesse is using a 8-10 rep max and in the lighter set, he is using a 20-30 rep max. Clearly he hits failure earlier in the set with the heavier weight and he is still grinding out reps with the lighter weight. Once you have your answer, leave a comment thinking which one builds more muscle.

My answer? Jesse is building muscle with both the heavy weight and the light weight.

If you answered like me or even chose lighter weight as the winner, you would be wrong according to a comment left on a recent video. The commenter believes that you cannot build muscle with anything less than 80% of your one rep max and that using lighter weight is a waste of time.

This is where I have an issue. Research has pointed out that you can build muscle in any rep range as long as the intensity of the set is adequate. At heavier weights, this effort and intensity does not require you to achieve failure simply because the amount of tension on the muscles is greater due to the heavier weight. However, to achieve the same adequate tension required for muscle growth when using light weights, the intensity has to be much greater. That means as the number of reps you perform goes up, the closer to failure you have to go.

See, when it comes to building muscle, tension is the driving factor. With heavy weight, tension is achieved simply by the amount of load used. With light weight, there is far less tension outright, thus to equate it to heavy weight, training to failure is required.

It doesn’t stop there, however. There needs to be an understanding of what failure is within these rep ranges. In low rep ranges with heavy weight, there is no subjectivity. You either can lift the weight or you cannot. When using moderate weight, especially in the 8-12 rep range, failure becomes slightly more subjective. You will probably have a good indication of failure, but in many cases, you might be able to squeeze out another rep or two.

When using light weights and the amount of reps you are performing gets higher, such as in the 20-30 rep range, failure becomes extremely subjective. You might stop the set when your muscles begin to burn, thinking that it’s become too uncomfortable to perform another rep. However, I would argue that this is where your set is just beginning. If you decided to revel in the burn and push past that uncomfortable feeling, you would see that you are capable of quite a few more reps. This is where the magic happens.

I like to say that if you are using light weight and that you give up the set when the burn starts, you’ve wasted not only your set, but your time. The most productive, growth-inducing reps occur when the burn starts. As a matter of fact, those light weights can produce just as much muscle growth as the heavy weights as long as the set is taken to true failure.

As a matter of fact, you should explore training in all rep ranges as we know that heavy tension (in the form of weight) will only produce gains for a limited amount of time. Moderate rep ranges are great for eccentric overload, but with the packaged soreness that comes along with it, there needs to be something else that allows you to train hard. This is where metabolic training comes in thanks to the use of light weights.

But now comes the question; when should you use light weight and heavy weight in your training?

Continue watching the video to see the other scenarios where light weight and heavy weight should be used to build muscle.

Heavy Weights vs Light Weights - http://athleanx.com/x/heavy-vs-light-weight
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