Light or heavy weights grow muscles the same
Do the anatomical and physiological properties of a muscle determine its adaptive response to different loading protocols?
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Light weights caused equal hypertrophy to heavy weights when taken to failure.
Contradicts common gym wisdom that heavy loads are superior for muscle growth.
Practical Takeaways
Use light weights (20-30 reps) and push to failure for similar gains as heavy weights, reducing injury risk.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Light weights caused equal hypertrophy to heavy weights when taken to failure.
Contradicts common gym wisdom that heavy loads are superior for muscle growth.
Practical Takeaways
Use light weights (20-30 reps) and push to failure for similar gains as heavy weights, reducing injury risk.
Publication
Journal
Physiological Reports
Year
2020
Authors
B. Schoenfeld, A. Vigotsky, J. Grgic, Cody T Haun, B. Contreras, Kenneth Delcastillo, Aston Francis, Gilda Cote, Andrew Alto
Related Content
Claims (5)
When untrained young men lift lighter weights many times until they can't lift anymore, it builds just as much muscle in their calf muscles as lifting heavier weights fewer times. Both ways made their muscles about 10% bigger after 8 weeks.
When people do strength training, the outer calf muscle grows more than the inner calf muscles, no matter how they lift weights. This shows that some muscles naturally grow faster than others.
For beginners, lifting heavy weights a few times or lighter weights many times both make your calf muscles about 15-18% stronger after 8 weeks.
Different types of muscle fibers in your calf muscles don't affect how much they grow from lifting heavy or light weights, because both the mostly slow-twitch and mixed fiber muscles grew about the same with both types of training.
When untrained young men lift weights until they can't lift anymore, their calf muscles grow bigger by 7-14%, no matter how heavy the weights are. This shows that pushing hard is what makes muscles grow, not how heavy the weight is.