What qualifies as "heavy lifting"?

waldo56

I think of lifting heavy as lifting enough weight (or doing BW exercises of sufficient difficulty) that you reach failure in 1-8 reps. That is the benefits of your lifting will be heavily slanted to strength gains more than anything else. Lifting heavy is done to get stronger. Lifting a weight so light that you can do 10+ reps is a pitifully inefficient way to get stronger.

The fastest gains come when you working at a weight you'd reach failure in 3-5 reps if using a normal set protocol. Increase your rest times and increase the total number of sets (as in live in the gym or have a home gym suitable) and you'll gain strength even faster if you are working even heavier, where you'll fail after 1-2 reps.

10+ reps does virtually nothing for your strength if your not a noob. What it does is increase your capacity to do reps and sets, it increases your capacity to do work (which makes muscles grow bigger too, but they don't get much stronger). While this is a useful trait for muscles to have (bodybuilders tend to focus here because this is where most size gains occur), this is surely not what is implied when people refer to lifting heavy. Lifting heavy is lifting with the goal to get stronger.