Heavy to light or light to heavy when doing weights?

Femilaxx1xo
Femilaxx1xo Posts: 66 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’m new to lifting. My goal is to lose weight. Should you start from heavy weights with low reps and work your way up to light with low reps or light weights with high reps and work your way to heavy weights with low reps? I hope I’m making sense.

Thank you x

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,895 Member
    Or you can do light to heavy and then work your way back down :smiley:

    Ex:
    10 pounds 10 reps
    15 pound 8 reps
    20 pounds 5 reps
    15 pound 8 reps
    10 pounds 10 reps

    That's called a Diamond Pyramid.

    Here are more pyramids: https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-do-pyramid-weight-training-workouts-3498553
  • jdog022
    jdog022 Posts: 693 Member
    I would think of it differently. Prioritize compounds and then throw in some accessories after. Compounds will be more weight moved regardless of going heavy vs light. It’s also good to mix up rep ranges every so often. Periodization. Weekly or monthly etc
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    Femilaxx1xo wrote: »
    I’m new to lifting. My goal is to lose weight. Should you start from heavy weights with low reps and work your way up to light with low reps or light weights with high reps and work your way to heavy weights with low reps? I hope I’m making sense.

    Thank you x

    It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish while lifting. You mention that your goal is to lose weight. With that in mind, I would recommend that you lift in a manner that preserves the most muscle possible the most efficiently.

    As @jdog022 mentions, compound movements are best for that because each movement works an entire kinetic chain. I would avoid things like arm curls and crunches and things like that unless they are accessories to compound lifts.

    There are a gazillion programs out there, but for it to be effective it needs to be a progressive overload system. You can do that using heavy or light weights, but there must be effort (for you technical folks out there, it has to be enough to disrupt homeostasis, which is an event that causes your body to need to recover and adapt).
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,600 Member
    I like to work to failure which means heavy to light.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,600 Member
    Oh but I started lifting in the Arnie era when isolation was key. My workouts are still stuck in that era. The general recommendation now that compound moves are the norm is probably different.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    I would suggest training for hypertrophy even when loosing weight. If you have a significant amount of weight to lose you might gain a small amount of lean mass.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    I like to work to failure which means heavy to light.

    RPE of 0-1 on non compound. 1-3 on heavy compounds.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    Would also include iso and compound.
  • jdog022
    jdog022 Posts: 693 Member
    edited May 2019
    psychod787 wrote: »
    acpgee wrote: »
    I like to work to failure which means heavy to light.

    RPE of 0-1 on non compound. 1-3 on heavy compounds.

    RPE of ten is failure. 1 would be barely trying.
    Also training to failure consistently is unnecessary
  • Keto_Vampire
    Keto_Vampire Posts: 1,670 Member
    edited May 2019
    *thinks people are confusing Rate of Perceived Exhaustion (RPE) with reps...dyslexia/internet alphabet abbreviation soup

    Yes, going to failure is usually unnecessary (ok on a final set for a workout). Leaving a few reps in the tank after a set is a smart way of achieving progressive overload (one can simply do more sets or more reps overall/more volume, etc.) and potentially avoiding injury
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    Keto_Vampire wrote: »
    *thinks people are confusing Rate of Perceived Exhaustion (RPE) with reps...dyslexia

    Yes, going to failure is usually unnecessary (ok on a final set for a workout). Leaving a few reps in the tank after a set is a smart way of achieving progressive overload (one can simply do more sets or more reps overall/more volume, etc.) and potentially avoiding injury

    When working accessory muscles, most of them can take much more volume from my experience and reading vs compound. I would never recommend taking heavy compounds to failure. Too much risk of injury imho. Sorry RIR...

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