It’s an old debate for fitness junkies. What is better for building muscle: lifting heavier or lifting more frequently?
Now, fitness professionals have attempted to definitively settle the question of reps vs. weight.
According to Amanda Place, personal trainer and founder of UK-based training company Sculptrition, if you want to increase the size and strength of your muscles, a relatively short duration workout will do the trick.
But it won’t be easy.
She explains: “If your goal is to maximize muscle size and strength, the preferred approach is to lift heavier weights with fewer repetitions, as it promotes hypertrophy and significant muscle growth.”
Doing high reps with lighter weights can help you build endurance
Ali Malik, personal trainer and founder of UK-based boutique gym Fitness Labs. explained to the stylist that this is a “fundamental principle in strength training and exercise science.”
“It involves gradually increasing the demands placed on the muscles, usually by lifting heavier weights or increasing resistance over time,” he says.
This leads to muscle hypertrophy or growth.
According to the University of New MexicoThe strain of lifting heavy weights causes small tears in muscle cells, which the body quickly steps in to repair.
When your body repairs these tears, it adds new tissue on top of the old, slowly increasing the amount of muscle you have over time and strengthening the entire system.
Malik adds: “Progressive overload (increasingly heavier weights) also requires greater joint stability and muscle activation, which can help protect against joint injuries and improve overall joint health.”
You should increase your weight as much as you can handle without compromising your form, Malik explained. Discomfort is okay, but if you feel intense, sharp pain, it could be a sign that you’re seriously hurting your body by lifting with poor form.
“The effects of weight gain without proper form can lead to serious injuries, especially in strengthening exercises that can put pressure on the spine,” Malik said.
But increasing reps has different benefits and is also an important part of weight training, experts say.
“Working in a higher rep range helps improve your muscles’ ability to function for a long period of time,” explains Ali Malik.
“Performing more repetitions with shorter rest intervals can also elevate heart rate and improve cardiovascular conditioning.”
Doing fewer reps with heavier weight can help you build bigger muscles
The true sweet spot is a combination of both, because that way you can get cardiovascular benefits from high rep training while increasing muscle mass.
This concept, known in the research community as periodization, has been around since at least the 1950s and can help you achieve weight loss and muscle growth without reaching a plateau in progress, according to George Mason University.
To find a balance between heavy lifting and high reps, you need to pay attention to when your workouts start to feel too easy, Malik said.
If you’re advancing quickly, “reaching the max of your rep range during sets with proper form can be a sign to move up in weight,” he said.
Some of the common resistance exercises you can incorporate into your training
Some popular weightlifting exercises are barbell squats, bench press, and shoulder press.