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Lighter weights/high reps vs Heavier weights/low reps

CharleePear
CharleePear Posts: 1,948 Member
edited February 7 in Fitness and Exercise
Okay so here is the thing. I used to be married to a fitness and nutrition nut. From the day we started our relationship he gave me (often unwanted) advice. When we worked out I used to do 2 sets of 6-8 reps for each of my weights exercises. Fast forward a few years, lots has happened I got really unwell and haven't done weights for many years. I am now reading research to support the lighter weight high rep option, I have been doing that for 3 months but haven't seen increased strength. I do want to tone but I don't want to stay the same strength either. Any advice?

Replies

  • jaysonhijinx
    jaysonhijinx Posts: 663 Member
    When you say lighter, are you saying light enough where you're barely struggling on your last rep?

    You'll often see people talking about rep ranges for strength gains and rep ranges for hypertrophy (time under tension to stimulate muscle development).

    Maybe consider doing a strength based program for a while like StrongLifts 5x5. I did SL for a while last year and definitely got stronger while getting a bit leaner. You'll get stronger and will "tone" up (god I hate using that word).
  • CharleePear
    CharleePear Posts: 1,948 Member
    When you say lighter, are you saying light enough where you're barely struggling on your last rep?

    You'll often see people talking about rep ranges for strength gains and rep ranges for hypertrophy (time under tension to stimulate muscle development).

    Maybe consider doing a strength based program for a while like StrongLifts 5x5. I did SL for a while last year and definitely got stronger while getting a bit leaner. You'll get stronger and will "tone" up (god I hate using that word).

    Thanks, I will have a go at that! Yeah sorry for the use of that word, but its the most obvious way to describe what I want to achieve. Thanks again :D
  • jamiek917
    jamiek917 Posts: 610 Member
    tone= muscle. they are truly interchangable- u wont bulk unless you REALLY put forth the effort, and that can take years.

    light weight high rep is good for muscle endurance, but if you arent pushing your limits, you wont change the size or shape of the muscle (i.e. giving you the "toned" look) and you wont be increasing your strength much

    im not saying you have to push to failure, but if you want to gain lean muscle and see the strength difference, you will have to up the weights. i do the compound lifts between 5-8 reps, and constantly challenge myself. the other exercises im typically in the 8-12 rep range- still challenging myself a lot, but i have to be able to push out at least 8 reps.

    make sense?
  • jaysonhijinx
    jaysonhijinx Posts: 663 Member
    Haha, all good! And good luck! Hope you find a program that suits and gets the results you want! :)
  • CharleePear
    CharleePear Posts: 1,948 Member
    tone= muscle. they are truly interchangable- u wont bulk unless you REALLY put forth the effort, and that can take years.

    light weight high rep is good for muscle endurance, but if you arent pushing your limits, you wont change the size or shape of the muscle (i.e. giving you the "toned" look) and you wont be increasing your strength much

    im not saying you have to push to failure, but if you want to gain lean muscle and see the strength difference, you will have to up the weights. i do the compound lifts between 5-8 reps, and constantly challenge myself. the other exercises im typically in the 8-12 rep range- still challenging myself a lot, but i have to be able to push out at least 8 reps.

    make sense?

    Yeah it makes perfect sense thanks.
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
    I mean if you are sticking somewhere between say 5-12 reps you are fine. At the end of the day what matters is that you are progressively overloading and that can take place in a few different ways. Increasing your weight, increasing reps, decreasing rest time between sets. Different things work appeal to different people and a lot of great programs really intermix both strength and hypertrophy in their programs. The key is that you do have to push yourself and use a challenging weight and keep progressing as often as possible....even if that looks like 1 more rep/set than you did last workout, ya know? If you aren't seeing results from you have been doing, it could either be due to lack of progressive overload or your diet as well, depending on what your goals are.

    Hope this helps! Good luck :flowerforyou:
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