Can You Get Stronger Without Lifting Heavy? (New Study!)

Help me make more cheesy content:

Referenced Article

One of, if not the only, the tried and true methods to getting stronger is to progressively lift heavier and heavier weights (or any exercise that technically progresses force production). From beginners to the elite, lifting heavier loads is the way to go and follows the very important principle of speecificity.

However, a new study has risen that might just challenge the long held principle or at least append a new method that might take heavy weights out of the equation. Is it possible to lift heavier without... lifting heavier? Let's dive into this new research and find out!

Picturefit on YouTube! I share some of my health and fitness tips with you. Come check out our content! New fitness topics on a weekly basis. Want to learn about more health and fitness topics? Ask it in the comments! Learn all you need to know and what to do at the gym. Learn about aerobics, strength, hypertrophy, power, and endurance!

Any information in these videos should not be taken as personal healthcare advice. If you have questions about your health, please speak directly to your personal healthcare professional. #strength #gains #lifting

[bigpicturegains]

As someone with around 10 years lifting experience, the best option is switching between different styles of training when you hit plateaus. There comes a point where you can’t get much out of a given style of training because the body becomes super adapted to what you are doing, making it increasingly difficult to spur on new adaptations. Do a hypertrophy higher rep muscle connection focused phase, do a strength low rep all out effort phase, play with range of motion, rep speed, higher frequency of workouts, lower frequency of workouts, intensity levels, etc, etc…
Forget gimmicky garbage, forget doing something because a couple short-term studies said so. Stick with the tried and true 💪

[Eversti_Sandels]

The thing is you can’t progress by just adding reps indefinetly. The returns will diminish the further you go over 20 reps. No one in their right mind would do a 100 rep squat set for example, so at some point you’re going to have to add weight.

[leviathen]

Anecdotal evidence: not being able to do push-ups, I did DB presses for several months, not coming close to the 65% of my bodyweight that I'd move in a push up. Managed to pump out 5 push-ups the other day for the first time ever.

[blobski]

Been seeing good gains now doing 12-15 reps. I ain’t going back to heavy lifting for a good while now since my shoulder surgery. The longer you’ve trainees they higher you value longevity

[wheelhouse]

This is old news. We've known pretty much forever that lower weight and higher reps does increase your 1RM but we also know that to optimize 1RM requires training with low rep training since strength is about nervous system efficiencies as well as contractile force. Low rep training increases your nervous system's ability to contract muscles more forcefully at once while higher reps will help increase muscular endurance. If you take a powerlifter and a bodybuilder and compare them at a level where they can both do the same weight for the same number of reps on bench press, squat or deadlift you'll find that the powerlifter will have a higher 1RM. Conversely, if you take them at the same 1RM and then lower the weight to 80% of their max the bodybuilder will be able to do more reps. This is due specificity of training.

[mrabc]

I got big problems with my knees last year so I have been doing more reps with much lighter weights, doubled reps with only 30% of the old weights, feeling pretty good

[banyarmyotin]

Your sense of humour and the graphics adds a whole new flavour to your videos. love them!!

[JoshBenware]

Progress is progress. Use the correct tool for the correct scenario. Don't try to get a +1 on your 5 rep max in squats if you're messing with 4 plates. Common sense to add 5 lbs in that scenario. Also, don't add 5 lbs to your 20 lb lateral raise until you've added many reps, because it will be a 25% increase in weight.

[Zalimaister]

You can use both for building muscle. I like to change my training, from low to high reps and back (always to failure with high reps). Works great🙂

[Sonic_]

I lifted all of 2021 in the 12-30 rep range. I’m 43, 6 foot and 190lbs as well as natural and I was able to bench 345.

[sujayshah]

Yes. I stopped deadlifting for about 1.5 years, recently started doing them again, and now my 1 rep max is 150kg, it was 110 kg when I stopped doing deadlifts. My deadlift 1 rep max increased by 40 kg even though I didn't deadlift for 1.5 years (I still did every other exercises, like squats, bench presses, pull ups, rows etc).

[GiorgiMusic]

🤣0:47 - What happened to "it depends"?

Man, I love your sense of humour. So good.

[Zalimaister]

"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights" 😅😉😁

[do_odman]

I'm skeptical. If these people could put an average 45lbs onto their 1rm in just 8 weeks then I highly doubt they were trained individuals, they might go to the gym and fuck around but that's almost novice progression numbers, it's over 5lbs a week, and almost anything can make a novice stronger, so It's hard to gain anything from this data for me.

Regardless, if your goal is getting stronger then you should use high reps to get big since being big will help you get stronger when training specificity with lower reps. :)

[xMr]

TALK ABOUT STRECH MECHANISM and how it effects hypertrophy. It's the new change of fitness world!

[kasra_mlg]

These results can benefit people who stick to rigid beliefs and training regimens. Meaning that it's okay to go from 3 sets of 10-12 to 4 sets of same reps or 3 sets of 12-15 reps... of course when you reach a certain threshhold, it's better to move the weight up and not rigidly focus on the rep count... so a mixture of both increases are ideal, depending on the excercise, load, rep max, joints and muscles involved...

[Rexai]

To be honest, I kind of already knew this and thought this was common knowledge.

I start with a weight that I can lift about 7-8 times. Then I add an additional rep each workout until I reach about 12.

Then I increase the weight until I find one that I can lift about 7-8 times and the cycle repeats.

[markw]

If you just think in "either - or" terms you won't get max results. Adding resistance bands or chains to the bar can get great results too. Your peak contraction matters and progressive loading THROUGH each rep is something to think about as well. I forget which team but there was also an NFL trainer that added Yoga to the mix and got 6% average increase in max strength. Probably due to the emphasis on holding poses and strengthening stabilizer muscles and possibly just the synapses firing better due to increased contraction time. Food for thought.

[WheyofTheDragon]

As a person who prioritizes high quality reps over super heavy sets, this video is much appreciated 🙂

[HKGunPlay]

I put twenty lbs on since Jan 2023 from eating healthy and working out almost daily but with a 100 dollar weight set from Walmart. So obviously nothing heavy just from mad reps. I push til it burns and try to get as many reps as possible. I want the look not worried about strength but I have noticed my strength is a lot better than expected and since I basically under ate my whole life I blew up quick. My opinion as long as you try hard and put in the work you can achieve small goals and those successes will bring you out of depression and into a better motivated lifestyle. Good luck.