Post by @liftrunbang

I’ve noticed a trend lately from some “evidence based” crowd who are more or less poo pooing on heavy loads and saying that light loads will get you the same benefits. I have no idea where this is coming from. Yes you get similar hypertrophy outcomes from a wide rep range but that isn’t the whole story. But first we have to clear up what defines these most of the time. 1. Heavy loads - 1-5 reps 2. Moderate loads - 6-15 reps 3. Light loads - 15+ reps The rep range being this wide, I’m not a fan of because there’s a massive difference between just 8 reps and 12 reps in terms of acute fatigue and velocity loss (which I will show below). And there are some overlapping benefits from heavy to moderate loads of course. However my take is that anything over 12 reps is “light”. So we can proceed. 1. Sets of 12 reps cause more acute CNS fatigue in the session. Making the subsequent sets less effective because it will reduce motor unit recruitment. (in fact sets of 12 cause so much acute fatigue that it wipes out the benefits of 2 RIR) PMID: 21311352 2. Light loads cause more muscle damage, making recovery time longer. And the fact that you have to take high reps to failure to achieve max motor unit recruitment means you DOUBLE DOWN on the muscle damage and recovery time PMID: 30036284 Heavy loads - Reduce voluntary activation deficits better, so you get more motor unit recruitment faster and greater neural adaptations - PMID: 28611677 Get you maximal motor unit recruitment from the first rep - This is basically in every EMG study where they use 85% of load Tendon stiffness - Heavier loads and isometrics are far better at creating stiffer tendons. Bone mineral density - Yes, it is true that moderate and light loads will also get you some of these benefits however heavier loading does it better and more effectively. PMID: 38318407 Yes, ideally we want everyone to lift weights. However this idea that all rep ranges are equal and produce “similar results” ONLY applies to muscle growth. And even then, I don’t think that light loads and higher reps are going to produce the SAME amount over long periods at a time. Lift heavy. Pet dogs