Heavy or Medium Weights? Both Work for Women New to Lifting
The Effects of Moderate- Versus High-Load Resistance Training on Muscle Growth, Body Composition, and Performance in Collegiate Women
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Lifting heavy weights (5-7 reps) or medium weights (10-14 reps) until tired gives similar muscle and strength gains over 8 weeks.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
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Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Lifting heavy weights (5-7 reps) or medium weights (10-14 reps) until tired gives similar muscle and strength gains over 8 weeks.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 546 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Cholewa JM, Rossi FE, MacDonald C, Hewins A, Gallo S, Micenski A, Norton L, Campbell BI
Related Content
Claims (6)
For women who don't usually lift weights, doing lots of lighter reps or fewer heavy reps both build similar muscle size and make you stronger after two months.
When young women who don't usually exercise start lifting weights, their bodies lose some water inside their cells and overall, which might mean their muscles are holding less water, but it doesn't affect the water outside their cells.
In simple terms, this means that doing resistance training with either medium or heavy weights leads to about the same amount of fat loss in young women who are new to exercise over 8 weeks. Both types of workouts can help you lose fat.
For young women new to weight training, lifting weights until you can't do more reps (either 5-7 reps per set or 10-14 reps per set) three times a week for two months gives about the same muscle growth and strength gains, no matter which rep range you use.
When young women who don't exercise start lifting weights, using medium or heavy weights didn't make their arms grow differently, but their legs did grow more with one type. This might be because they did more leg exercises than arm exercises.