You DON'T Need Heavy Weights to Grow Muscle!

[ThirdLawPair]

I don't mind the pain, but I do not have the patience for these high-rep sets. Boredom is worse than pain.

[y]

I don’t go heavy for ego, it’s cause I’m too lazy to do high reps.

[Hybrid_Training]

Those high rep ranges are just mental as fuck.

[jasonwhitehead]

Finally someone in the muscle industry that speaks like they know how to read. Good work

[Mario-G-Man]

I've trained light weight til failure my entire life and you're absolutely right

[JGD]

I grind even harder whenever I see Dr Mike's huge, bulging, veiny head.

[KanyeT]

This is what gets me. Sometimes going for longer than 12 reps really starts to burn and I end up ducking out early.
I really need to try hanging on and pumping hose reps out until the very end of failure.

[TheWhyteKnyte]

I wouldn’t mind high reps, it just adds up to a significant time difference. I like to spend as little time in the gym as possible, so going heavier usually works better for me in achieving that

[MBussin]

I recently decided to take my health and fitness seriously. At 44, I find high reps to be much better, as it feels like the risk of injury is much lower, joint strain is much lower. But man pushing to failure at 30 reps hurts like hell. The pump is incredible though.

[luismatias]

I love 20 - 30 reps, you can feel burning the muscle and mind muscle connection is great.

[ahmadabdeljabbar]

I tried going to 20 reps for a chest workout last night. It feels different but lifting heavy is more fun. I was convinced to try it out after seeing a video of Jake Cutler saying if you're stuck on a pr take 2 weeks doing 15-20 reps and then try heavy again and you'll see a difference.

[kovulion]

The difference is, heavy weight, when you cant lift it anymore will cause injury, light weights wont injure you but it takes a long time to get to failure causing more time

[aaronbeverley]

This is really helpful for me. Makes me feel less lame! A guy starting out using light dumbbells until I can find cheap upgrades. Skinny 40yr who doesn't like eating. 5'7 130 normally, 8lb dumbbells and bodyweight and now I'm 142 heaviest of my entire life. 5ish weeks. Thanks Dr Mike you've helped me feel my best.

[leemiah]

The respect is amazing this is what boxing is about true warriors

[KingoftheNorth]

I think that the 5-8 rep range is the best bang for your buck (hypertrophy and strength wise, of course if these reps sre taken to or close to failure)

[Buckeyeknight]

I never lift too heavy. Good to know you can still grow muscle.

[jasonz]

I was a gym rat for over a decade and didnt gain a pound, I got stronger but no muscle growth. Going a little lighter and slowing it down with a pause at the bottom and doing strict form to failure and cheating some more is how I grew. I also got strict on the rest periods and started wearing a watch doing 1 minute rest periods. Every set was to failure!!! Never rack it if the last rep was comfortable.

[BUFFALO_cougar_slayer]

I like relatively heavier weights because A) it’s easier for me to maintain focus for only 5 to 12 reps as opposed to more where I tend to unavoidably get bored and B) a preponderance of evidence suggests that you can stimulate maximum hypertrophic stimulus with lower reps and heavier weights with a couple reps in the tank, but with very high reps, it seems you have to take it to or extremely near failure just to equal that stimulus. It’s just personal preference. Some people like me like to hyper focus with lower rep sets and pour 100% intensity into that; others are able to maintain that concentration with higher reps and are able to conjure up just as much sustained intensity. It depends on how you’re psychologically wired and your mindset. I don’t think one way is necessarily better than the other in terms of results and injury prevention as long as the programming and recovery is all dialed in

[totallyfrozen]

I’ve heard this before from Dr. Mike and I guess I failed to really internalize what he said. So I ended up needlessly injuring my elbow during curls. While your muscles like to push heavy weight, your joints hate it and they’ll punish you for it. Lighter weight with higher reps is easier on the joints (as Dr. Mike has said before).

[talesoftwobros]

you're actually correct! i would know from doing both approaches.