Benefits of lifting low weight / high reps

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    I don't know what you guys are all on about - I saw a lady come into the gym looking normal - first set of curls and she had arms like Arnie.

    True story*



    *not a true story

    Must have been on a deficit.
  • MamaWannaRun
    MamaWannaRun Posts: 273 Member

    I suddenly feel the need to look like an "off season fitness model" Quick question? Do I need to lift like an "in season fitness model"? To achieve that goal....in two to three years? Lol.

    Tabi- Sure, if you never, ever, ever want to eat a piece of bread again! go for it! ha!

    OP-
    Please check out the book the New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women! It's all you need!
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I'm thinking that with the aerobic/cardio effect of low weight/high reps, you have probably just burned off the fat covering the muscles that already existed rather than built/grew any muscle tissue. I could be wrong, but it's all speculation, isn't it?

    That would be my guess. Building muscle takes a lot of hard work and a calorie surplus. Revealing muscle just takes weight loss.

    My problem with the 5# or less dumbbells (which I still use when I'm dong cardio-type exercises at home) is that it's not going to make me any stronger. And I know a lot of people, especially women, don't care about being stronger, but I like being able to carry all my groceries in the house in one trip. I like being able to toss a 40# bucket of kitty litter into my shopping cart, or from the shopping cart to my trunk, with one hand without struggling. I like doing home improvement projects and being able to load sheet rock onto my roof racks and bring them in the house. And as someone who used to get injured all the time doing those things, I really like doing all that without ended up on the couch with a heating pad for a week. I don't want to waste my time doing an exercise that's going to enable me to hoist something the equivalent in pounds to a Big Gulp 20 times.

    Other than the sheet rock, I do all that stuff but I've never owned a heating pad. And lift grandkids, and load bikes on/off the car, pick up a 40 lb dog that likes to play dead everytime she has to get in the car, lug 40 lb bags of dirt and fertilizer. Put up swing sets and jungle gyms. I flip all the mattresses once a week. Just the other day my neighbor across the street said my grocery carrying skills were 'impressive' (I had a 6 pack bag of wine and a case beer plus a few reusable bags that day). Last summer I proved to my grandson that his granny could still climb that tree in the yard. Maybe that's why I don't feel the need to lift heavy weights. I've been "lifting heavy" all my life!
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    Other than the sheet rock, I do all that stuff but I've never owned a heating pad. And lift grandkids, and load bikes on/off the car, pick up a 40 lb dog that likes to play dead everytime she has to get in the car, lug 40 lb bags of dirt and fertilizer. Put up swing sets and jungle gyms. I flip all the mattresses once a week. Just the other day my neighbor across the street said my grocery carrying skills were 'impressive' (I had a 6 pack bag of wine and a case beer plus a few reusable bags that day). Last summer I proved to my grandson that his granny could still climb that tree in the yard. Maybe that's why I don't feel the need to lift heavy weights. I've been "lifting heavy" all my life!

    :laugh: Yeah, some folks have "eyes that are bigger than their stomachs," and I had eyes that were bigger than my strength. Most of the time, I was ok lugging all that stuff around, but every now and then, I'd twist just the wrong way, and I'd end up walking like a question mark for a week. Haven't had that happen since strength training.
  • chrishgt4
    chrishgt4 Posts: 1,222 Member
    I don't know what you guys are all on about - I saw a lady come into the gym looking normal - first set of curls and she had arms like Arnie.

    True story*



    *not a true story

    Must have been on a deficit.

    You can gain on a deficit, I've seen studies.*

    * that give brief mention to the fact that they were working muscle groups that they had rarely worked.

    Totally applies to me though. I gained half a stone of pure muscle and lost 3lbs of fat on a deficit of 1000 cals / day.
  • nelsaphine
    nelsaphine Posts: 212 Member
    low weight high reps for lean tone muscles
    heavy weight low reps for more bulk

    just depends what you are looking for.

    So I'm just a bit confused...the person above you just said the exact opposite. I want to start lifting, and am curious about the difference of light/heavy or less/more reps :)
  • Angie80281
    Angie80281 Posts: 444 Member
    Bumping to read later.
  • danascot
    danascot Posts: 100 Member
    I just wish the bulking myth would just go away...urgh

    No kidding. There's so much misinformation in this thread.

    Lifting Barbie weights for endless reps is a serious waste of time. It will get you nowhere. Lift heavy or go home.

    We need to make up t-shirts with this sentence "Lift heavy or go home" ............
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    yeah i think it depends on what your goals are. some people really dont care about anything besides "how does it make me look" which is fine....for them.

    lifting light weights/high reps is just a waste of time for me because i want to be able to do things like pushups, chin ups, pullups, etc. lifting a 5 lb weight 1000 times is not going to help me do those things. plus who has time to be lifting for that long?

    i've actually walked out of gym classes that were too focused on light weights/high reps. one of which the instructor tried to make me use a 5 lb weight instead of the 10lb one i was compromising with.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    Well this is disappointing. I don't have the money to be going out and buying a whole bunch of heavy weights. I was planning on doing a jillian michaels workout which is all strength training and I'm pretty sure it's low weight/high reps. Is that not going to do anything for me? Even if it's hard and I am sore the next day?
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
    Well this is disappointing. I don't have the money to be going out and buying a whole bunch of heavy weights. I was planning on doing a jillian michaels workout which is all strength training and I'm pretty sure it's low weight/high reps. Is that not going to do anything for me? Even if it's hard and I am sore the next day?

    What is realistic for some people just doesn't match with what is 'best' or 'most efficient'. If you don't have access to the tools to lift heavy safely...well then don't lift heavy.

    It's not that other lifting strategies don't work, it's just a question of efficiency. In general, you'll get more bang for your buck with heavy lifting. Plenty of people do Jillian Michaels or P90X or Insanity and have great results. If it's what you have access to, by all means go for it.

    The importance, as I mentioned previously, is intensity. If you're lifting barbie weights for an hour and you don't feel anything, then you're not going to get much out of it. If you're doing bodyweight exercises and such and you're really pushing yourself, your body will respond.
  • pitbullmama
    pitbullmama Posts: 454 Member
    Bump

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