New Study Shows Building Muscle Doesn’t Require Lifting Heavy Weights

Current gym beliefs holds that to build muscle size
you need to lift heavy weights, however an important
new study demonstrates that effective, long-term muscle
building can also be achieved by using lighter weights,
more repetitions.

However, a new study conducted at McMaster University
has shown that a similar degree of muscle building can be
achieved by using lighter weights. The key factor to achieving
excellent results is to pump iron until you reach muscle fatigue.

The findings are published in PLoS ONE.

“Rather than grunting and straining to lift heavy weights, you
can grab something much lighter but you have to lift it until you
can’t lift it anymore,” says Stuart Phillips, associate professor of
kinesiology at McMaster University. “We’re convinced that
growing muscle means stimulating your muscle to make new
muscle proteins, a process in the body that over time accumulates
into bigger muscles.”

Phillips praised lead author and senior Ph.D. student Nicholas
Burd for masterminding the project that showed it’s really not the
weight that you lift but the fact that you get muscular fatigue that’s
the critical point in building muscle. The study used light weights
that represented a percentage of what the subjects could lift. The heavier weights were set to 90% of a person’s best lift and the light
weights at a mere 30% of what people could lift. “It’s a very light
weight,” says Phillips noting that the 90-80% range is usually
something people can lift from 5-10 times before fatigue sets in.
At 30%, Burd reported that subjects could lift that weight at least
24 times before they felt fatigue.

“We’re excited to see where this new paradigm will lead,” says
Phillips, adding that these new data have practical significance
for gym enthusiasts but more importantly for people with
compromised skeletal muscle mass, such as the elderly, patients
with cancer, or those who are recovering from trauma, surgery or
even stroke.
The lighter weight exercises can be achieved utilizing:
· Weight Machines
· Weight Training with Free Weights
· General Fitness Training

Journal Reference:
Low-Load High Volume Resistance Exercise Stimulates Muscle
Protein Synthesis More Than High-Load Low Volume Resistance
Exercise in Young Men. PLoS ONE, 2010;