No need for those heavy weights — just do more reps

[azimuth]

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/sports/no-need-those-heavy-weights-just-do-more-reps

 

No need for those heavy weights — just do more reps

 

 

Study finds that lifting light weights more times results in almost same gains in strength and muscle size

 

NEW YORK — Upending conventions about how best to strength train, a new study finds that people who lift relatively light weights can build just as much strength and muscle size as those who grunt through sessions using much heftier weights — if they plan their workouts correctly.

 

Strength training has long been dominated by the idea that to develop a physique like that of Charles Atlas or even Zac Efron, men and women must load our barbells or machines with almost as much weight as we can bear.

 

In traditional weight training programmes, in fact, we are told to first find the heaviest amount of weight we possibly can lift at one time. This is our one-repetition maximum weight. We then use this to shape the rest of the programme by lifting 80 to 90 per cent of that amount eight to 10 times, until our affected arms or legs shake with fatigue.

 

This approach to weight training is very effective, said Mr Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, who has long studied muscles and exercise. It builds muscle strength and size, possibly, many 
experts believe, by sparking a surge in the body’s production of testosterone and human growth hormone.

 

But many people find lifting such heavy weights to be daunting or downright unpleasant, which can discourage them from taking up or continuing with a resistance-training programme, said Mr Phillips.

 

So in recent years, he and his colleagues have been looking into the effects of a different type of weight training, which employs much lighter weights hefted through as many as 25 repetitions.

 

Since 2010, his lab has published several studies in which volunteers followed either the traditional regimen using heavy weights or an alternative that employed much slighter weight stacks. In general, the lifters’ results were comparable.

 

But those studies had been small and featured volunteers who were new to the gym, potentially skewing the outcomes, said Mr Phillips. 
Almost everyone who takes up weight training shows significant 
improvements in strength and muscle size, making it difficult to tease out the impacts of one version of training versus another.

 

So, for the new study, which was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and published this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, he and his colleagues recruited 49 young men who had been weight training for a year or more. (The scientists plan to study women and older people in future studies.)

 

All completed tests of strength, fitness, hormone levels and muscular health, and were then randomly divided into two groups.

 

One group was assigned to follow the standard regimen, in which weights were set at 75 to
90 per cent of the man’s one-repetition maximum and the volunteer lifted until he could not lift again, usually after about 10 repetitions.

 

The other volunteers began the lighter routine. Their weights were set at 30 to 50 per cent of each man’s one-repetition maximum, and he lifted them as many as 25 times, until the muscles were exhausted.

 

All the volunteers performed three sets of their various lifts 
four times a week for 12 weeks.

 

Then they returned to the lab to have muscle strength, size and health reassessed and their hormone levels re-measured.

 

The results were unequivocal: There were no significant differences between the two groups.

 

All of the men had gained muscle strength and size, and these gains were almost identical, whether they had lifted heavy or light weights.

 

Interestingly, the scientists found no connection between changes in the men’s hormone levels and their gains in strength and muscle size. All of the men had more testosterone and human growth hormone flowing through their bodies after the workouts. But the degree of those changes in hormone levels did not correlate with their gains in strength.

 

Instead, the key to getting stronger for these men, Mr Phillips and his colleagues decided, was to grow tired. The volunteers in both groups had to attain almost total muscular fatigue in order to increase their muscles’ size and strength.

 

That finding suggests, said Mr Phillips, that there is something about the cellular mechanisms jump-started in muscle tissue by exhaustion that enables you to develop arms like First Lady Michelle Obama.

 

This data does not prove, though, that one approach to lifting weights is necessarily better than the other, said Mr Phillips.

 

“But some people will find it much easier or less intimidating” to lift lighter weights, he said, even though they need to complete more repetitions in order to tire their muscles.

 

They also may experience fewer injuries, he said, although that possibility has not yet been tested.

 

For now, someone hoping to strengthen his or her muscles should choose a weight that feels tolerable and then lift it repeatedly until the effort of the final lift is at least an eight on a scale of one to 10, said Mr Phillips.

 

“There should be some discomfort,” he said, “but the dividends on the back side” in terms of stronger, healthier muscles “are enormous”. THE NEW YORK TIMES

[heliumduck]

but strength is nervous system, mass is muscular....
i feel grand teacher's xyd disturabance in the force liao....

[xydboy]

On 7/24/2016 at 9:31 PM, heliumduck said:

but strength is nervous system, mass is muscular....
i feel grand teacher's xyd disturabance in the force liao....

Dr Phillips who was mentioned in the article (not Mr Phillips), was my prof's supervisor back then when she was doing her post doctoral research. He's the true grandmaster of the field in protein and muscle research. Seems that the actual mechanism in fatigue and hypertrophy is promising.

[stellabell]

You can try to eat avocado. It helps lose weight.

A research devided participants into two groups. The first consumed a meal with avocados while in the meal of the other group, there was no avocado.

Researchers started to pose questions about satiety and hunger to both groups.

The first group who consumed avocados was less eager for foods by 28 percent in the 5-hour period.

Moreover, the high content of fiber and low amount of carbs in avocados contribute to weight loss as well.

Source: https://wikihomenutrition.com/avocados-health-benefits/

[marysenter]

I think it ok if you choose the best way for you to loose weight.

There are several recommendation for you to loose weight.

1- you do exercise everyday from 2-3  hours

2- Eat in front of mirror (this is just the tip to see how is it going to happen when you take a look at you in the mirror)

3- Cut down on white food and junk food.

4- eat smaller bowl

5- supply enough energy for your body to work for a day

6- Do not skip breakfast...