One thing can:
- Increase insulin sensitivity
- Keep your metabolism fired up
- Keep you strong & functional
- Put the sexy in your jeans
And it builds something that you’re losing right now!
Unless you’re doing something to prevent it…
Without it, you’ll miss out on adventures as you age…
Any idea what this fountain of youth could be?
Of course, you know, it’s resistance training!
How ‘heavy’ does your resistance need to be? How many reps do you need to do? Great questions.
Here’s the thing, ‘heavy’ is relative to YOU. The resistance needs to be heavy enough to challenge YOUR muscles. Your last reps should be a challenge to complete with GOOD FORM.
How many reps do you need to do? Should you do more reps with lighter weights or less reps with heavier weights?
Another great question! And you’ll love the answer because it’s BOTH!
Physiology says that 5-30 reps build the same amount of muscle through:
- Muscle Growth Stimulus – You need strong signals and high mechanical tension for muscles to grow.
- Effort and Load – You need to apply maximal effort. If you’re lifting heavier weights, this starts at the first rep. If you use lighter loads, this is created after many reps. It’s the EFFORT that needs to be ‘maximal’.
- Rep Range – Higher reps cause more metabolic ‘stress’ (the burn) and you’ll feel your muscles ‘pump up’. This is created as blood is forced into the muscle and is temporary. Some studies suggest higher rep training requires more recovery time. Lower reps are more suited to maximal load training.
Is ‘light load/more reps’ or ‘heavy load/less reps’ better? It’s mostly personal preference.
High reps with lower weights are painful, it burns, you run out of breath…You may stop at 15 reps when you could actually do 20 reps which are the ones that really count. Plus, you may feel overly exhausted after training with higher reps.
Heavier weights with lower reps are HARD and require a certain level of skill to perform safely. There is a mental game to ‘lifting heavy’ as well, your mind may not think you can lift as much as your body actually can, so you miss out on the added load that will build your muscles.
So ‘pick your poison’ where weight lifting is concerned, just make sure you do it with maximal EFFORT whichever route you go.
Workouts don’t have to last hours, you can mix up the heavy/light combination to reap all the benefits that resistance training provides.
And I can help you too! Happy to chat what that looks like for you – there’s rarely a ‘one size fits all’ where health and wellness are concerned.
Here are studies to support this info:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35015560/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37414459/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37385345/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28834797/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25530577/