Is Effort or Weight Lifted Important For Muscle Growth?
September 19 2010
Weight Lifted: Is defined as the amount of weight you can lift. This is usually denoted as 10 RM or 5 RM.(for ex, 5RM or 5 Repetition Maximum is the maximum amount of weight you can lift for 5 reps.)
Effort: Effort is the degree of difficulty in performing an exercise. This is more subjective and hard to quantify. The effort required for a 10RM to fatigue can be very similar to 5RM though the weight used is much different.
Is weight lifted or effort Important for Muscle Growth?
Type 2 Fiber Recruitment: Type 2 fibers are the fibers which makes you big. They have greater growth potential and much stronger than Type 1 fibers.
According to the size principle, the greater the effort, the greater the activation of Type 2 fibers. If the weight is heavy ( less than 6 reps), all fibers are recruited from the first rep. For moderate weights (greater than 6 reps), it is the effort in those last few reps that determine Typ2 fiber recruitment .
Protein Synthesis Studies: In line with the Type 2 fiber recruitment, recent studies have shown that moderate weights taken close to fatigue can stimulate protein synthesis to a similar extent as heavier weights. Occlusion studies clearly shows light weights with greater effort can cause similar muscle growth to using heavy weights.
Anecdotal Evidences: It is common to hear natural bodybuilders say it is the intensity (or effort) that matters not the repetition range and the program.
The same goes with power lifters. Most people think it is not the program but the crazy training intensity at their gym is what makes Westside lifters among the best power lifters in the world.
Practical Recommendation
- It is not required to train with heavy weights ( less than 5 reps) for muscle growth.
- Using Heavier weights (< 5 reps) can cause greater fatigue, and may delay recovery. Also, there is a risk of injury with heavier weights.
- Moderate weight ( between 5 -15 reps) trained with high intensity is ideal for muscle growth for most folks.
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| Sun September 19, 2010
This article has a good point in there somewhere but it’s hidden by the wording. You say intensity is important but lifting 5RM or heavier is not necessary. This is a contradiction as intensity, as defined in resistance training refers to the percentage of 1RM lifted. So, high intensity means <5RM. Intensiveness defines what you are aiming to say with the natural bodybuilders comment. Intensiveness is the amount of effort put into a lift.
The Westside powerlifters example you use is also conflicting as the primary training method in Westside is the use of 1, 2 and 3RM (maximum effort method). So, they do train with high intensity, but the intensiveness/effort comes into play with the dynamic effort method. This involves performing a movement, loaded to 50-60% of 1RM, with maximal acceleration.
This article would be much better rounded off by examples of how one can increase “effort” or intensiveness to increase type 2 fiber recruitment.
Anoop | Sun September 19, 2010
Hi Boris,
Thanks for the comment. I know what you mean.
In fact, i started writing the article as Intensity Vs Effort. The whole intensity thing (the Repetition Maximum) is only privy to people who have some knowledge about strength training. I get questions about what is a RM when I talk about 1RM or 5 RM. I just talked to one of my friends who is just an average joe and he couldn’t fathom the whole intensity thing and RM. Most folks equate effort with intensity.Hence the change in wording.
West side trains with weights around 3RM and trains high reps with assistance/auxillary exercises for moderate and low reps. When westside lifters do 1 RM or 3RM, that is whole different story than the regular folks doing a 3 RM.
If you take a guy from our regular gyms and plant him into westside, his 3RM will atleast 25 lbs more than his regular 3RM. That is the “do or die” atmosphere at westside.
Hope to see you in the forums.
| Sun September 26, 2010
So what do you think about the popular starting strength program which only uses 3sets of of 5?
| Sun September 26, 2010
Good article!
Hans Selye, an Austrian endocrinologist did some extensive research in the area of adaptation response to high intensity training and his findings were pretty conclusive that it’s intensity of a set that stimulates muscular growth, not high volume, low weight.
In other words, the degree of an organism’s response is depedent upon the intensity of the stress it encounters.
Also, growth stimulation is not cumulative. Doing another high intensity set after the intial working set will not double that stimulation. If done so, the message to the brain causes negative feedback loops that actually inhibit progress (growth).
BTW, I LOVE your website! I just recently discovered it by accident. Accidents can be a good thing I guess. LOL!
Anoop | Wed September 29, 2010
Hi Jerry,
It is basically an another version of the Bill Starr routine. It is well periodized and has a really good progression plan.
If you are into muscle growth, I would have a higher rep range and add a few more isolation exercises. And it really depends where you are the training stage and what your goals are. Bill starr came up with that program for his football players as a way to train over 70 players with very little time and equipment.
Anoop | Wed September 29, 2010
Thanks Joe for the comment.
There is some theory floating around about inhibition. But no really shown in research I think.
Hope you registered in the forums
| Mon March 21, 2011
‘Occlusion can cause muscle growth’.
How does this relate to superslow training, if at all?
| Mon March 21, 2011
What if one was to start an exercise with a heavy weight, take the set to concentric failure, then dramatically lower the weight to a level that requires higher reps to reach failure. Wouldn’t this cover both bases?
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