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Lift heavy to build muscle: Thatâs advice youâve probably seen in a million places, whether you're aiming to get stronger, get "toned," or simply reap the health benefits of putting on a little muscle. But how heavy is âheavy,â and how do you know if your workout qualifies?
Thereâs no specific number of pounds that will constitute âheavyâ for everyone. Whatâs heavy for a teenage girl picking up a dumbbell for the first time will be a lot less than whatâs heavy for a pro strongman. (If you do want to compare your lifts to other people's, sites like Symmetric Strength can show where you standâbut please consider these comps as just for fun.)
In basic terms, training âheavyâ is shorthand for resistance training that is in a low-rep range and gets heavier over time. This is the type of training that delivers the biggest gains in terms of strength and muscle size.
Training heavy is not the only way to build muscle, but itâs an effective one. Here are the questions you should ask yourself when trying to figure out whether you're training heavy enough.
Training for strength usually has you doing 1-5 reps in each set. Training for hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is often in the 8-12 range.
The truth is, there isnât much difference in results between the two methods; getting stronger gives you bigger muscles and getting bigger muscles makes you stronger. Iâd say that as long as youâre doing 12 reps or fewer, youâre in an appropriate range to say you are training heavy.
Once youâre doing much more than thatâ15, 20, 50 repsâyouâre training your muscular endurance more than strength. You can build some strength this way, but it's not what you're going for when you're trying to train heavy.
Letâs say youâre doing squats in sets of eight. That could count as heavy training, but only if youâre loading the squats enough that itâs hard to do all eight of them. For some exercises and some goals, you might be aiming to train "to failure"âliterally, going until you canât do another rep. An example would be if youâre doing eight bicep curls and canât manage a ninth.
But you can also get close to failure without quite going there. For example, if youâre doing squats, a set of eight might be done at a weight that you could manage for 10 or 11 reps if you really pushed yourself. That still counts as heavy training.
What doesnât count is if youâre doing eight reps of goblet squats with a light dumbbell because itâs the only dumbbell you have, or because youâre intimidated about going up in weight. Heavy lifting is when youâre doing the appropriate rep range with a weight that is challenging within that range.
The only way to keep the lift challenging as you get stronger is to keep increasing the weight. This doesn't mean you need to go heavier every time, but it does mean that you pick up a heavier weight once you've gotten a bit stronger.
To use that goblet squat example, maybe squatting with a 20-pound dumbbell was challenging the first time you tried it. But a week or two later, you can probably do the same eight reps with a 25-pound dumbbell. Before long, it may make more sense to do front squats with a barbell, to make it easier to add more weight. OK, now youâre lifting heavy.
But if you kept doing the same sets of eight squats with the same 20-pound dumbbell, youâre not efficiently challenging yourself to build muscle or strengthâyouâre just doing an exercise that keeps getting easier. Thatâs still good for you, because itâs still exercise, but it no longer fits the description of lifting heavy.
This is where a lot of people go wrong, especially if theyâre doing home workouts or are focused on calorie burn. You shouldn't lift heavy for the calorie burn (or heart rate zones) during the workout; you should lift heavy to build muscle, and save the cardio for another day.
If youâre constantly working to keep your heart rate up, with little to no time to rest between exercises, you arenât going to be able to train heavy. More likely youâre doing a strength/cardio hybrid such as circuit training. Crossfit âmetconâ WODs (workouts of the day) often fall into this category, as do many home workout videos that bill themselves as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Theyâre usually not really HIIT, but thatâs a rant for another time.
If you arenât resting, that means you arenât approaching each set of lifts with fresh, rested muscles. Reducing rest times makes the workouts feel harder, but it also means youâll be working with less weight. That means these exercises are usually too light fit the definition of working heavy. They might still help you build strength or muscle size, but not nearly as efficiently.
If you take a few minutesâ rest between exercises, then youâre lifting heavy. A typical range would be 2-4 minutes between exercises that work smaller or fewer muscles (like curls or presses) and 3-5 minutes or more between sets of big compound lifts (like squats or deadlifts). With an appropriate rest time, youâll be able to properly lift heavy.
Full story here:
Thereâs no specific number of pounds that will constitute âheavyâ for everyone. Whatâs heavy for a teenage girl picking up a dumbbell for the first time will be a lot less than whatâs heavy for a pro strongman. (If you do want to compare your lifts to other people's, sites like Symmetric Strength can show where you standâbut please consider these comps as just for fun.)
In basic terms, training âheavyâ is shorthand for resistance training that is in a low-rep range and gets heavier over time. This is the type of training that delivers the biggest gains in terms of strength and muscle size.
Training heavy is not the only way to build muscle, but itâs an effective one. Here are the questions you should ask yourself when trying to figure out whether you're training heavy enough.
How many reps are you doing?
Training for strength usually has you doing 1-5 reps in each set. Training for hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is often in the 8-12 range.
The truth is, there isnât much difference in results between the two methods; getting stronger gives you bigger muscles and getting bigger muscles makes you stronger. Iâd say that as long as youâre doing 12 reps or fewer, youâre in an appropriate range to say you are training heavy.
Once youâre doing much more than thatâ15, 20, 50 repsâyouâre training your muscular endurance more than strength. You can build some strength this way, but it's not what you're going for when you're trying to train heavy.
How hard does the set feel?
Letâs say youâre doing squats in sets of eight. That could count as heavy training, but only if youâre loading the squats enough that itâs hard to do all eight of them. For some exercises and some goals, you might be aiming to train "to failure"âliterally, going until you canât do another rep. An example would be if youâre doing eight bicep curls and canât manage a ninth.
But you can also get close to failure without quite going there. For example, if youâre doing squats, a set of eight might be done at a weight that you could manage for 10 or 11 reps if you really pushed yourself. That still counts as heavy training.
What doesnât count is if youâre doing eight reps of goblet squats with a light dumbbell because itâs the only dumbbell you have, or because youâre intimidated about going up in weight. Heavy lifting is when youâre doing the appropriate rep range with a weight that is challenging within that range.
Are you increasing the weight over time?
The only way to keep the lift challenging as you get stronger is to keep increasing the weight. This doesn't mean you need to go heavier every time, but it does mean that you pick up a heavier weight once you've gotten a bit stronger.
To use that goblet squat example, maybe squatting with a 20-pound dumbbell was challenging the first time you tried it. But a week or two later, you can probably do the same eight reps with a 25-pound dumbbell. Before long, it may make more sense to do front squats with a barbell, to make it easier to add more weight. OK, now youâre lifting heavy.
But if you kept doing the same sets of eight squats with the same 20-pound dumbbell, youâre not efficiently challenging yourself to build muscle or strengthâyouâre just doing an exercise that keeps getting easier. Thatâs still good for you, because itâs still exercise, but it no longer fits the description of lifting heavy.
How long are you resting between sets?
This is where a lot of people go wrong, especially if theyâre doing home workouts or are focused on calorie burn. You shouldn't lift heavy for the calorie burn (or heart rate zones) during the workout; you should lift heavy to build muscle, and save the cardio for another day.
If youâre constantly working to keep your heart rate up, with little to no time to rest between exercises, you arenât going to be able to train heavy. More likely youâre doing a strength/cardio hybrid such as circuit training. Crossfit âmetconâ WODs (workouts of the day) often fall into this category, as do many home workout videos that bill themselves as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Theyâre usually not really HIIT, but thatâs a rant for another time.
If you arenât resting, that means you arenât approaching each set of lifts with fresh, rested muscles. Reducing rest times makes the workouts feel harder, but it also means youâll be working with less weight. That means these exercises are usually too light fit the definition of working heavy. They might still help you build strength or muscle size, but not nearly as efficiently.
If you take a few minutesâ rest between exercises, then youâre lifting heavy. A typical range would be 2-4 minutes between exercises that work smaller or fewer muscles (like curls or presses) and 3-5 minutes or more between sets of big compound lifts (like squats or deadlifts). With an appropriate rest time, youâll be able to properly lift heavy.
Full story here:
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