*READ FULL ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS*
This article is going to go over the differences between light weights vs. heavy weights. The goal here is that by the end of this article, you’ll be able to apply these concepts to your workouts and your current goals, and to not be confused anymore. I get asked this question all the time in the comment sections of my videos, on my website – this question just generally pops up a lot.
First of all, we’re going to talk about light weights. I have four different categories that I place light weights in, where I would use ‘lighter weights’ in my workouts in order to achieve a specific goal.
Light Weights #1: Circuit Based Workouts
Usually when you’re doing a circuit based workout your goal is to burn as many calories as possible, work on muscle endurance, or both. Usually in those workouts your rep ranges are going to vary maybe as low as 12-15 reps, or even as high as 25-30 reps per exercise. When you’re doing reps that high, you can’t exactly be working with 40lb dumbbells trying to do a bicep curl, or an overhead shoulder press (unless you’re a freak of nature). Personally, if I’m doing a circuit based workout, I stick with 20lb, 15lb or 10lb dumbbells, depending on how many exercises I’m doing. For those of you who have seen some of my circuit training videos, you’ll know I never go that high in weight, but I still get a killer workout.
So, are you still building muscle and strength using light weights doing circuit based workouts that are focused on muscle endurance? Well, the answer is yes, but only to a point because you will plateau eventually. For most people, the goal of circuit based workouts is to maximize calories burned to maintain or lose body fat. When people tell me they built some muscle doing circuit based workouts with super high rep ranges, I have a typical reaction. If you’ve never been to the gym and placed any sort of stimulus on your body, then you are going to build some base muscle and strength in order for your body to be able to adapt to handle the workouts that you’re doing.
However, if you’re trying to build big biceps and you’re only staying in that 25-30 rep range, you’re probably not going to get much higher than using 20lb dumbbells, maybe 25lb dumbbells max. There aren’t too many people I know who can grab a 40lb dumbbell and hit if for 20 reps (with proper form). So what happens if you try to use light weights for a muscle building workout? What’s going to happen if you try to stay in that really high rep range is you’re going to plateau, and you’re not going to be able to utilize things like progressive overload because you’re going to fatigue out too quick. While some people might start off using light weights in muscle building workouts, they’re going to quickly plateau and have to rethink their game in order to progress and build more muscle and strength.
Light Weights #2: Build A Stronger Mind-Muscle Connection (MMC)
Let’s say you’re doing a biceps workout, but you just can’t feel your biceps working. There are certain exercises you can do where you need to use lighter weights, or you can do exercises and adjust the tempo to go a bit slower to feel those muscles activate a bit more. For example, I can stand up and do a dumbbell curl with a 40lb dumbbell, but if I wanted to really focus on flexing and squeezing my biceps, I might do an exercise like a concentration curl. This would keep my body in one position and force me to really focus on that flex and squeeze, so maybe I wouldn’t want to use a 40lb dumbbell. That’s because I want to focus on going slow on the way up, really contracting and flexing my bicep for a second or two at the top of the movement, then go really slow on the way down.
Utilizing a method like that is called changing the tempo. Usually when you try to change the tempo to focus on MMC, you use something like a 2-2-4. That means 2 seconds on the concentric phase, 2 seconds on the pause, and 4 seconds on the eccentric phase of the movement.
*CONTINUE READING HERE*
Program Selector – Get The Right Program For You! –
—————————————-
Subscribe To My Channel –
—————————————-
1 on 1 Online Coaching –
—————————————-
DOWNLOAD MY APP! – iPhone & Android!
—————————————-
MORE TIPS! – s
