Lighter weights help build muscle

Do you want to build your muscles? We aren’t talking Schwarzenegger here, just some healthy musculature that we all know is good for health. Maybe you want to build that muscle but the thought of what you would have to do to achieve it is just too daunting? If that is the case for you, then a new study may be just what you need to hear.

Maybe you want to build that muscle but the thought of what you would have to do to achieve it is just too daunting?

For the study, researchers used two groups of men who were all experienced weight lifters. For 12 weeks, the men followed a whole body weight-lifting program designed to build muscle. The difference between the two groups was that one group lifted lighter weights (no more than 50 per cent of maximum strength) while the other lifted heavier weights (up to 90 per cent of maximum strength). Both groups lifted to the point of failure, where they could not lift any more.

Analysis of blood and muscle samples showed that gains in muscle mass and muscle fibre size were virtually identical for the two groups.

What that means is that, so long as you lift to the point of exhaustion, it doesn’t matter if the weights you are lifting are heavy or light. At the point of fatigue, you are trying to maximally activate muscle fibres to generate force and that promotes muscle mass.

So, if you want to build bigger stronger muscles, you don’t need to be lifting scarily massive weights, you just need to lift until you can lift no more.