How Light Is Too Light for Maximizing Muscle Growth?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- What loading may be too light to maximzie muscle hypertrophy? This video, we'll assess some theoretical & experimental evidence, with the aim of answering this.
2 meta-analyses indicate light loads can produce similar growth to heavier loads, when reps are performed to or close to failure. In the 2 meta-analyses, most studies used loads from 30%-85% of a person's one-rep max (1RM).
For instance, Mitchell et al. had subjects perform 3 sets to failure on the leg extension with a 30%1RM or 80% 1RM, 3x per week for 10 weeks. Increases in quadriceps volume were similar when using a 30% or 80% 1RM load.
A strong reason behind why loads as light as this can produce similar growth to heavier loads relates to mechanical tension, the best-understood mechanism of hypertrophy at this time.
A key component of mechanical tension is active tension. This is equal to the force produced by a muscle. High levels of muscle fiber recruitment & high levels of force generated by the recruited muscle fibers means high levels of active tension.
Heavier loads readily demand high levels of muscle fiber recruitment & high levels of force produced by the muscle fibers. As you near failure, these things would likely increase further.
But, evidence indicates light loads can achieve this too. Taking a light load to or very close to failure will require increased muscle fiber recruitment & force produced by the muscle fibers. Resulting in a similar stimulus to heavier loads.
If we were to take these ideas alone, an interesting question arises. Why would a load be too light for muscle growth? So long as we take any load to or very close to failure, surely high levels of muscle fiber recruitment, & high levels of force produced by those fibers, are present?
1000 reps, so long as the last rep was a failure, should be as good as 10 reps. Instinctively, this does not sound right.
One potential hypothesis that can help us here relates to central fatigue.
Remember, the reason muscles produce force is because they receive electrical signals originating from the central nervous system. The more electrical signals a muscle receives, the more muscle fibers are recruited & the more force produced by the recruited muscle fibers.
Central fatigue refers to a decrease in the electrical signals sent down to the muscle by the nervous system, resulting in a reduction in muscle fiber recruitment & less force produced by recruited muscle fibers.
Low load longer duration sets appear to produce more central fatigue than higher load shorter duration sets. Yoon et al. had 9 men and 9 women, on separate days, perform a contraction of their biceps at either 20% of their maximum voluntary contraction force or 80% of their maximum voluntary contraction force. On average, subjects held the 20% contraction for around 14 minutes before they could no longer produce the required force, whereas the 80% contraction was only held for around 25 seconds. But, the 20% contraction produced greater central fatigue than the 80% contraction.
During sets on typical exercises, some degree of central fatigue will probably be present. Lighter loads, when taken to or close to failure, would produce more central fatigue than heavier loads.
Given evidence indicates loads as light as 30%1RM can produce similar hypertrophy to heavier loads, we can safely say any central fatigue produced with this load is not an issue.
But it possible that some load below 30% of your one-rep max, whereby if taken to failure, may fail to achieve sufficiently high levels of muscle fiber recruitment & force produced by recruited muscles, due to the interference of central fatigue.
Let us now look at the actual research.
A few papers have assessed the impact of using loads below 30%1RM for growth.
Jessee et al. found that increases in anterior and lateral thigh thickness were similar when using a 15% of 70%1RM load on the leg extension, indicating a 15% 1RM load may still be able to maximize hypertrophy.
However, Buckner et al. found that increases in elbow flexor thickness was greater for a group using a 70%1RM load versus a 15%1RM load on the dumbbell biceps curl. Suggesting a 15%1RM load may be too light to maximize muscle growth.
Looking at other research, Lasevicius et al. found increases in elbow flexor and vastus lateralis cross-sectional area were similar when using a 40, 60, or 80% 1RM load on the dumbbell curl and leg press and all greater than when using a 20% 1RM load. Indicating a 20%1RM load is not able to maximize muscle growth.
A study by Roie et al. further confuses things. They found that in older subjects, using a 20%1RM load on the leg extension produced similar increases in upper leg volume to using an 80%1RM load.
Due to the conflicting evidence, it's probably sensible to ensure that if your goal is hypertrophy, most of your training should be done within the 30%-85%1RM zone
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I thought I'd add this extra point in the comment section rather than the video itself:
This whole video discusses loads during normal resistance training without anything extra like blood flow restriction bands.
There is good evidence (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29043659/) that blood flow restriction training with really light loads (10% to 20% one-rep max), when taken to or close to failure, can produce similar hypertrophy to normal training with heavier loads.
With this in mind, loads as light as this (10%-20% one-rep max), with blood flow restriction, appear to have the ability to maximize hypertrophy.
Thanks for watching :)
No one please restrict the blood flow. It's absurd.
Well thank you for making it clear by this comment, Because I came to the comment section to say with all my due respect of your hardwork we can't compare traditional training with BFR training. And I really doubt the 10% of BFR I have done a research about BFR and most meta analysis and studied used 20-30% of 1RM
@@yorumcu31 BFR is a safe training method if applied correctly
Yet another top quality video : concise and highly informative. I live in a country were gyms have been closed since October 2020, so the practical takeaway could be keep training @home, even if much lighter weights are used.
Thank you for the kind words! Also, that's a great point, thank you for mentioning it :)
Anything up to 100 reps is good for hypertrophy. Beyond that it becomes too aerobic.
I train whole body 6x a week for a general range of 20-100 reps to failure, 1 set of 1 exercise per bodypart, and that has worked better for me than anything else I've tried in my 38 year training history. When I do multiple sets per bodypart I always end up overtraining and don't gain as much or at all, so the central fatigue factor is definitely a consideration.
Wow, that's really interesting to hear. Somewhat of a unique training style, I like it!
I'm 49 and I workout in similar fashion the difference I used less frequency but more set per body part...because I can't train everyday because I'm a driver..before I used heavy weight..but light weight and very high rep.make miracles in me.sorry my grammatical errors I speak little english
Interesting, thank you for sharing. You english is very good :)
I'm inclined to agree, but from my experience, there's no reason to aim for someone as absurdly high as 100 reps unless you're doing drop sets. 30-50 reps is ideal for me. It allows me to focus on the technique throughout the set and go 100% to failure without the fear of killing myself. And I'm definitely not "miserable" doing it. However, I think there may still be benefits to heavier loads in the 5-12 rep range. Maybe including training with heavier loads is necessary for stronger bones and joints.
Logically speaking there are probably 2 factors that could determine when a load is too light.
The first one being a mental factor. It's simply more mentally demanding to do 20 reps of squat to failure than it is to do with 8 reps. Most certaintly because of CNS fatigue being greater while PNS fatigue remains the same (because both are to failure)
Secondly being the reason marathon runners don't have giant legs. At some point the load gets so light that CNS burnout happens before PNS fatigue can be achieved. At some point the load is so light you cannot recruit the fast twitch muscle fibers before motor neurons in the brain essentially burn out too much.
In real life terms both of these 2 would determine what load is too light. As if your CNS gets too fatigued, you cannot fatigue your PNS. You would literally feel too tired to continue exercising as opposed to your muscles actually going to failure.
So theoretically one could get equal amounts of hypertrophy with any load given that you go to true muscular failure, but that isn't realistic as at some point the load gets so light that CNS burnout is going to happen before PNS fatigue kicks in ( and needless to say, you cannot continue doing reps if you are knocked out as a result of CNS burnout)
I’ve switched to doing the highest number of reps I can tolerate for an exercise. I believe it’s the most logical and underrated thing to do. We get brainwashed into thinking there’s something magical about the 10-12 rep range but in reality you want to use as little weight as possible for better recovery and less injury risk. You can build the same muscle with heavy or light weight long as you do enough quality reps. I think that’s something many still don’t understand. The driver of hypertrophy is not weight, it’s not even sets or volume per say. It’s how many quality reps you do. Someone who does a 5x5 did more quality reps than someone who did a 3x10 even though it’s 25 reps vs 30, assuming that they dropped the weight in the 5x5 to account for being fatigued
I definitely think cardio vascular fitness has an impact on this. If you’re super heavy, and you try jog, you’re gonna gas out faster due to the strength demands, whereas if you’re light you will likely just get physically exhausted, but still capable of doing a squat once your lactic acid is broken down. I reckon the lactic threshold could have something to do with that, though that calls into question whether holding your breath (not recommended obviously) while doing cardio could result in Hypertrophy. While I agree it’s common people who do long distance cardio aren’t particularly large, I think that’s just because it’s almost a requirement. My father was a road cyclist, and his quads and calves were absolutely huge but he never weight trained, and he never had great genetics for quads (I would know lol), so there is something to cardio that doesn’t necessarily rule out Hypertrophy, but the nature of the sport of cardio rules out excessive Hypertrophy.
It makes me wonder if perhaps cardio can enhance your peformance beyond just recovery and blood flow, but also by increasing potential reps through more efficient oxygen usage, breaking down lactic acid. I’m not sure it would bare relevance on strictly strength reps between 2-6 (or more for advanced individuals), but maybe what is a 20 rep max could become a 30?
I really wish he'd add a summary at the end of his videos giving the TLDR answer.
The rough part is that people have different mindsets and "failure" could be when they are just tired of the exercise. Also having no idea how much weight was used. Did they all have similar 1 Rep max or was it various from each person? Were they all similar body types and weight or just whoever they were able to get? Little subtle things like that will change the data. Unfortunately we can't provide Star wars clone troopers for these tests.lol
The most likely reason why the studies have conflicting results is because some of them have flawed methodology. It is well known that when doing experiments, you vary and test *ONLY* one variable at a time, and the rest need to be held constant. In some of those studies, they did one set versus two, rested 30 seconds versus 90 seconds, etc. Out of the studies looked at in this video, there was only one that used proper experimentation protocol in holding all variables constant apart from the variable being tested (heaviness of load).
But anyhow I personally like to do light-load training because it's easier on the joints. Joints, specifically cartilage, do not heal completely if injured. You can reduce inflammation and pain, but the injury remains. So why lift heavy and risk damaging joints? To me it's not worth the risk, if light loads can give you the same hypertrophy.
Please,please do something like this for when you can go too heavy for growth.
really curious about the different rep ranges video, cant wait!
Haha, thank you :) should be out some time next week!
It seems that part of the reason for the inconsistencies in the results has to do with the definition of “1 Rep Max.” An individual’s maximum is difficult to define. Guaranteed, a person will lift a heavier load in an emergency/panic/flight or fight situation compared to a load that they are voluntarily lifting. Additionally, I would say a person’s maximum load they can lift is at the point of injury.
So the final product is hypertrophy,but wouldn't the result be in the case of lighter weights taken to failure sarcoplasmic hypertrophy?if i understood correctly.Also love your content is the most informative i've found on youtube!
Thank you my friend, there's not much evidence to suggest lighter weights produce sarcoplasmic hypertrophy currently: th-cam.com/video/wHibrCW6XvU/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for putting in the work❤️
No problem! Thank you :)
Problem is Exercise sessions take too long with lighter loads. It's makes more sense to increase the load just for pure efficiency alone.
Yeah, I agree. Though, in some instances where there is no access to heavier loads, knowing that higher repetitions can still build muscle is useful. Like with body weight exercises, for example.
@@HouseofHypertrophy True
@@HouseofHypertrophy Can you do a video on recovery time tables. Whether a person who trains a muscle group 1 time or 2 times or 3 per per week grew more muscle or the same. I feel it's better to over recover then under recover to build muscle mass long term. Assuming you are progressive overloading.
Yep! I actually have a series of videos on training frequency planned.
@@HouseofHypertrophy some people say you should hit the muscle while it's still sore. To me it's like a drain filling up if you move the plug you may lose some of that hard work if the tub (muscle)is not filled up yet, completely recovered. Basically greating damage to the muscle before you can reap all the (recovery )gains. It's nearly impossible to tell how recovered a muscle is on a micro level. Plus the more recovered you are the harder you can hit that muscle the next muscle time. Progressive overloading is key. If you didn't do anything more then last session probably didn't get anywhere. Rep/ weight change etc...
i tend to do drop sets , so for instance so i may end up doing a total of 25 reps for dumbell curl using 3 different weight Dumbells , but i only do 3 sets all to failure
Interesting, sounds good!
Great job! But next time please put the study links in bio!
Thank you. By the way, the links are in the description (at the bottom).
I have subscribed to 20% 1RM training
That much be painful haha :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy I don't end the set until I cry..
But..
I am up 10lbs in 14 days, no fat gain, 4000 calories per day. 1 HIT workout per week at 80% 1RM, and 6-10x 1 set 20% 1RM burnout workouts to utter failure, 12 hour rest periods between workouts (2x per day). This is an amalgam of all your conclusions in your videos. And its working!! Thank you Brother!!!!
Excellent videos!!! Love all the info you put out
Thank you! great to hear :)
Thank you very much for you work!
No problem, thank YOU for checking it out :)
So 60 or 80 reps of bicep curl is same as 12 reps if taken failure
If that 60-80 reps is peformed to failure with a 30%1RM load, I believe the current evidence would indeed support that.
@@HouseofHypertrophy should there be difference between rep-ranges and one reps max?,why some people with the same percentages of 1rm can lift with different repetition?
Yeah there seems to be large variations between different individuals in the number of reps they can perform with a given % of their one-rep max. For instance, one individual may perform 12 reps with an 80%1RM while another person may only perform 8 reps.
Great as always! Love your videos!
Awesome to hear, thank you for your support!
Great video as always , but it would very helpful if u can make a video on " how to calculate the one rep max "
It's quite simple, you can either test it, or guess it via using online calculators. For instance, if you think you can perform a maximum of 5 repetitions with a 50kg (110lbs) load on an exercise, your one-rep max will be around 56-ish kg (123lbs) according to this calculator strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator. Of course, these calculators are not neccessarily 100% accurate, but they may give you a rough idea. Hope this helps, let me know if you have anymore questions.