Burn out lifting or heavy lifting to be come tone ???

derick337

If you are losing weight what do you guys recommend doing. Lifting lighter weights and more reps or lifting heavy weights to less reps???

cwolfman13

I personally cycle through various rep ranges...I don't live in anyone zone. As a matter of general fitness, I think it's important to work in different rep ranges...I'd only "specialize" if I had some specific goal that required me to do so...like if I was bodybuilding or in a power lifting meet, etc...

jemhh

This question is hard to answer because "lighter" and "heavy" are relative terms. I know of good programs that use reps in the 3-5, 5-8, and 8-12 rep ranges, sometimes with work a bit heavier or lighter than that. Any of those ranges can work well but the more important thing would be the exercises and overall progression followed.

Mycophilia

I'd say periodically vary your rep ranges between 5 and 15 while using enough weight to be 1-3 reps from failure at the end of your sets.

Or just pick any decent beginner program and follow it.

sijomial

I would tailor your lifting program towards your strength goals and only take a calorie deficit into account if you really need to. In which case keep intensity level up but reduce volume (only if you have to).

Personally I train the same whatever my calorie balance and vary my reps between 3 and 12 mostly but for core work I go to extreme high reps (I have some particular/peculiar needs!).

A lot of these questions go away if you just pick an established program or routine suitable for your goals and experience and follow it.

Penthesilea514

I am just starting to do the Greyskull LP program (a variant of the base program), and I like that for the exercises, I do 2 sets of 5 reps then a 3rd set of at least 5 to failure. The program defines how to increase the weight (including if you can do a lot of reps on the last set). But I like that it varies and if I "fail" to add more weight for a lift, I can progress via reps in the meantime (especially while I am losing weight, my weight increases will be slower and this allows for some set based PRs) and allows variation in reps that I am doing.

I would find a structure program that you like and interests you- and follow the rep recommendations there. Lots of great beginner programs (including Greyskull, Stronglifts 5X5, Starting Strength, Strong Curves) are listed on MFP in the Gaining Weight and Bodybuilding stickies.

ETA: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

kwtilbury

You're going to find as many opinions as there are responses. However, if you're interested in becoming "tone", i.e. muscle definition. The best thing you can do is continue to eat at a reasonable deficit and get enough protein.

sgt1372

Strictly, speaking for losing weight only CICO matters.

For gaining strength, there are lots of different theories (and lots of charts) recommending different set/rep schemes to achieve different strength goals but the only proof that you are getting stronger or not is whether or not you can lift more weight doing specific lifts over time.

My goal is progressively increasing my strength doing just 4 core compound lifts - SQT, DL, OP & BP.

I use a variety of weight lifting schemes: 3x5, 4x6, 5x5 and 10x3. I measure my strength doing each by using a lift calculator to measure the "calculated 1RM" for each lift, which is mathematically comparable across whatever set/rep scheme that I use.

So, it doesn't matter in a statistical sense what set/rep scheme I use as long as the calculated 1RM for that lift increases over time.

ecjim

I would say heavier weights for fewer reps - the 5X5 or 5x3 programs work well - Stating Strength - Grey Skull maybe some cardio on off days - intervals, wind sprints or complexes are great

firef1y72

I'd say I've definitely seen more results using heavier weights and fewer reps, although as someone else has said it's steady progression that does the trick. I started out with 5x5 and when I stalled on upper body I transferred over to 5/3/1.
Mind over the summer holidays I've not been able to consistently get to the gym so I've been doing lower weight, high rep on the big four (10 sets of 10 starting at 50% 1rpm and adding 2kg/lower body or 1kg/upper each week) and I'm seeing some great shoulder/chest/upper arm definition (which may well have happened anyway with weight/fat loss).

usmcmp

In my experience many people new to lifting don't have the fitness or strength level to see much progress on a hypertrophy program (8-12+ rep range). Many need to consider doing a strength program (1-6 rep range) first and improving their cardio. I suggest finding a program that interests you and following it. The set up of programs is going to give you the most bang for your buck and doing something that interests you at least get you in and consistent.

Sloth2016

Both

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/phul-workout

Enjoy!

canadianlbs

if it's about burnout, then i'm more of a 'wing it' person than someone who looks for a prescription for everybody. rheumatoid arthritis makes me an outlier anyway, i suppose.

so my default programme is 5/3/1, and technically that takes me towards the low-and-heavier end of the scale. but in practice, sometimes i just go through a stage where 5x10 is either more comfortable for me, or it's just plain more fun. i can't say i'm a terribly Serious Lifter though. i'm consistent in that i do it a lot, but i'm not terribly doctrinaire about 'if this is tuesday then i have to do x whether i'm able to do it or not'.

my trainer and i had a fun conversation recently about the 'russians and the bulgarians'. not a totally serious conversation as idk if it was a historical commentary or a presentation of the current-day truth. but he was saying how the bulgarian training approach was 'do a whole *kitten* ton of workouts, but within any given workout just do what feels 'heavy' right then'. and the russian approach was very clipboard: 'today is june 3 at 7 am. on october 16 at 4pm you will squat This Much weight This Many Times'. i enjoyed the discussion because as a trainer he's flexy enough to let different people partly make their own calls about whether they want to be russian or bulgarian in his space.