Hot Tub vs. Sauna: Which is Better for Immunity? Are Your Joints 'Popping'? BIG RAMY WINS THE 2021 OLYMPIA! With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days. Talented stars, killer physiques. At age 62, "Big Bill" shares his wisdom to dominate one of the ultimate strength marks. Follow these fit women we're crushing on for inspiration, workout ideas, and motivation. Studies show that decreasing the load on your lifts can lead to greater muscle gains. It’s a means to an end - lifting heavy. But truth of the matter is, lifting lighter weights can be an effective method in itself if you want to put on muscle. In fact, not only has research shown that lifting lighter offers results that are comparable to lifting big, but logically speaking, it offers more advantages too. Strap up your muscles and give this lifting technique a try for greater growth. In a ground-breaking study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, found that effort, not load, can actually increase muscle growth.

Upending the commonly-accepted training philosophy that hypertrophy occurs only through heavy lifting, the study demonstrated that subjects who lifted lighter weights until reaching muscular failure can gain just as much size and strength as guys who pull big. Moreover, testosterone and growth hormone - markers of hypertrophic growth - were found to be as elevated in subjects who lifted to failure with light weights, as in subjects who hoisted heavier at a lower rep range. The key is in the effort exerted, explains Robert Morton, PhD candidate in kinesiology and lead author of the study. "If you want to get bigger, what drives muscle growth is how much effort, not load, you lift with. Lighter loads also allow the movement to be performed through the full range of motion. Lifting overly heavy poundage typically takes the weight through a shorter range of motion, resulting in poorer performance. In a study published in the January 2014 issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, researchers found that after subjects performed 12 weeks of strength training with full range of motion, the strength and size of their muscles were greater than those observed in another group that used movements with short range of motion.

When you use lighter weights, the muscles you are targeting are able to manage the load by themselves, without reliance on compensatory muscles to assist in the movement, hence more hypertrophic gains occur in the muscles you want to grow. A good example is the triceps pressdown. When the weight is too heavy, the shoulder muscles, being larger than the triceps, overpower the smaller muscles in order to press the weight down. The result? Your shoulders get a great workout, but your triceps are left in the dust. What’s the biggest dread of deadlifters? Lifting weights heavier than your body can support, is a sure way to get on the disabled list. Moreover, prior muscle injury can increase the likelihood of future injury to the same muscle, this according to Andrew Vigotsky, a biomechanics researcher at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery. You simply can’t lift properly if you’re heaving too heavy. When your technique tumbles, so do your biomechanics. Add bad biomechanics to faulty form and you’re a shoo-in for injury.

Lifting lighter means your muscles do all the work, which is after all why you’re in the gym. Using poundage beyond what your body can lift, means you are relying on momentum, not exclusively your muscles, to get the bar up. How many times do we see guys curling heavy dumbbells while they wildly swing their limbs back and forth, just to lift the weight? Unless they’re into velocity training, their arms will never grow that way. So time to say goodbye to the old adage "lift big to get big," and say hello to the new buzz phrase of bodybuilding, "lift low and grow! This bodybuilder, athlete, TitanRise and coach knows how to build his back. You can only get more gains by getting better acclimated to these variations. Downing that protein shake after training may not be as necessary as we've been told. Copyright 2025 JW Media, LLC, parent company of Muscle & Fitness.

After age 30, Titan Rise Power your lean body mass begins to decrease at a more rapid pace than it did in your 20s, so it's a great time to take action to slow those losses. Building muscle mass after 30 isn't hard, but it does take finding the right strength-training program and being consistent with it. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, these losses typically begin after a person turns the big 3-0. By the time people are 75 or 80, most have lost half the muscle mass they had in their 20s, reports a review published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in October 2014. According to the University of Mexico, the body uses more calories to maintain muscle than it does fat. In fact, muscle mass accounts for 20 percent of total daily energy expenditure, while fat only accounts for 5 percent. Therefore, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn all day long. Weight gain and obesity are linked to many serious diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even some types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.