Weights... heavy and slow or light and fast?

jazi719

This always confused me.

I have Chalene Extreme workout and her moves are heavy and slow. Then there's Les Mills Pump which is light weights and more reps, faster movement.

I enjoy both of them but which is more beneficial for toning?

Lula16

I also have both of those programs so I would like to see some comments about this. I love les mills pump. I had great results on the first round- I lost 9lbs and my body shrunk. Chalean extreme i have tried it several times but I lose interest quick. Right now I just started a hybrid with another round of les mills pump and insanity.

WooggyBear

Les Mills Pump is designed to work your fast twitch muscle fibers and burn fat using a lot of reps and lighter weight. CE is designed to help you build a little muscle and the slow twitch muscle fibers while burning fat and converting fat to muscle. Both are great for losing weight and burning fat. But for toning Pump if the better of the 2 because it doesn't let you build much but it lets you burn the fat around your existing muscle exposing your already established muscle. AKA: Toning

So again it depends on where you want to take your body. Also you have to take into consideration your body type and your type does play a role in choosing your training regiment and style.
Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Happy Researching

Leadfoot_Lewis

Losing fat and gaining muscle is what toning is - the speed of your reps is irrelevant. You always want to lift the heaviest weight you can with good form in a lower rep range e.g. 6-12 reps.

Also, Body Pump is a cardio workout, not a strength training workout.

jacksonpt

Both have benefits. Which you do depends on your specific goals. For toning, I'd tend to say heavy and slow/controlled.

jazi719

Also, Body Pump is a cardio workout, not a strength training workout.

Have you done Les Mills Pump? I can't imagine it being a cardio workout.

jazi719

Both have benefits. Which you do depends on your specific goals. For toning, I'd tend to say heavy and slow/controlled.

So lets say my specific goal right now is to just lose weight.

jazi719

Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Happy Researching

This seems like it's geared toward men.

jeffpettis

Les Mills Pump is designed to work your fast twitch muscle fibers and burn fat using a lot of reps and lighter weight. CE is designed to help you build a little muscle and the slow twitch muscle fibers while burning fat and converting fat to muscle. Both are great for losing weight and burning fat. But for toning Pump if the better of the 2 because it doesn't let you build much but it lets you burn the fat around your existing muscle exposing your already established muscle. AKA: Toning

So again it depends on where you want to take your body. Also you have to take into consideration your body type and your type does play a role in choosing your training regiment and style.
Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Happy Researching

Just to clarify, fat doesn't turn into muscle. Fat gets burned as energy or stored for later. Fat is fat and muscle is muscle. :drinker:

jacksonpt

Both have benefits. Which you do depends on your specific goals. For toning, I'd tend to say heavy and slow/controlled.

So lets say my specific goal right now is to just lose weight.

That's about diet, not exercise.

jmreich30

I did Les Mills Body pump and lost 80lbs doing it about 2 times a week and 2-3 days of cardio and lots of walking. I like to call Body Pump aerobic lifting. It definitly gets your heart rate up, probably about into the low end of cardio and the top end of fat burning zone. I never used a heart rate monitor but I did use a BodyMedia Link while taking it. Its light weight but you can get up to 60Kg on the bar for squats, and when your doing about 100 squats in 5 minutes thats plenty of weight. As long as you continously try to challenge yourself continously adding weight to the bar when you can you'll get results. Also if you have a good instructor. I have two friends who teach it, they are the ones who got me into it. A good instructor will continously change up the workout routines with different BP releases so that you don't get the muscle memory to the same release doing it for more that 2 or 3 weeks.

I just started a 10 week extreme fitness class last week with boot camps and kick boxing just to change it up a bit after doing Body Pump since January. But I plan on going back to it after as its a great work out and has some good music.

RGv2

Les Mills Pump is designed to work your fast twitch muscle fibers and burn fat using a lot of reps and lighter weight. CE is designed to help you build a little muscle and the slow twitch muscle fibers while burning fat and converting fat to muscle. Both are great for losing weight and burning fat. But for toning Pump if the better of the 2 because it doesn't let you build much but it lets you burn the fat around your existing muscle exposing your already established muscle. AKA: Toning

So again it depends on where you want to take your body. Also you have to take into consideration your body type and your type does play a role in choosing your training regiment and style.
Ectomorph
Mesomorph
Endomorph

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-types-ectomorph-mesomorph-endomorph.html

Happy Researching

A) OP is female. She's not going to "build much" with either program.
No One "builds much" when in a caloric deficit to lose weight.

cwolfman13

Both have benefits. Which you do depends on your specific goals. For toning, I'd tend to say heavy and slow/controlled.

So lets say my specific goal right now is to just lose weight.

That's about diet, not exercise.

I just want to belabor this point because it is spot on. Diet for weight control, exercise for fitness.

msf74

Either is fine.

With higher rep range work you perhaps need to have greater awareness that the last few reps are challenging. Otherwise it can simply turn into a cardio type workout which can cause an excessive calorie deficit (which is the problem - not the actual rep range itself.)

Leadfoot_Lewis

Have you done Les Mills Pump? I can't imagine it being a cardio workout.

Yes I have. Lifting a light weight a zillion times is cardio in my world. Lifting a weight so heavy that I can only do 8 reps or so with good form IS what strength training IS.

bcf7683

Also, Body Pump is a cardio workout, not a strength training workout.

Have you done Les Mills Pump? I can't imagine it being a cardio workout.

Yes. And it's WORLDS different than lifting heavy to build muscle.

To build muscle you squat A LOT of weight for 5-10 reps. Not 15lbs until a 3 minute song is over.

Lifting heavy weight with a steady (not fast) tempo is to build muscle. Lifting light weight for high reps is cardio. It elevates your heart rate and builds muscle endurance, not muscle size.

No_Finish_Line

most definetly one can do cardio with resistance.

If you've ever done the Asylum DVDs, you know what a cardio dumbell routine is. hell, even p90x resistance workouts are very close to cardio workouts if you never pause it.

I'm assuming that less mills is going to deliever more of what your looking for based on your question, but dont under estimate how many calories lower rep training can do, especailly with high set volume.

either way, if you don't go to failure your wasting your time. obiviously its more difficult and perhaps more dangerous to go to failure with lighter weights in a less mills type workout, but the closer you flirt with actual failure, the more effective it will be.

bottom line, light weight or heavy, regardless of tempo, if your doing a set and you think you can do more, do more.

RGv2

Have you done Les Mills Pump? I can't imagine it being a cardio workout.

Yes I have. Lifting a light weight a zillion times is cardio in my world. Lifting a weight so heavy that I can only do 8 reps or so with good form IS what strength training IS.

Agreed.

juliewatkin

Both have benefits. Which you do depends on your specific goals. For toning, I'd tend to say heavy and slow/controlled.

So lets say my specific goal right now is to just lose weight.

That's about diet, not exercise.

Yeah. I was going to add, eat less.

FrnkLft

Man we really need an FAQ on this site...

Deadlay

Who says you need to pick?

Do both and vary your routine.