Do you always do so few sets/reps for your body parts. Eg for arms your only doing one set of BB curls up to 6 reps then two sets of DB curls up to 6 then the cable work. Does this ever produce a pump for you? Just seems rather small. Is this a style you've always used? I'm not having a go here i just wanted to know your reasoning behind your lifting style.
Maybe one of the AE guys can answer this but would this product me more effective in the higher rep range say 8-12?
I read through the MD column late last night so apologies if im asking q's that have already been answered but i've forgotten half of the stuff i read already :hammer:
This is what most people think they should do. This is what most people have been told to do. However, this exactly what you should not do.
One adage that you should sear into your brain is to let the weights build the muscle and let your diet remove the fat. High reps and lower weight will not efficiently allow this to happen.
For some reason most people think that by using lighter weight and increasing the reps you'll burn more fat. Not true. Not true at all. Weightlifting, no matter how high your reps, is not an aerobic exercise. The amount of reps you do has no direct bearing on the amount of fat your body burns during the exercise. In fact, lighter weight will indirectly make it more difficult to decrease body fat and increase your definition.
I know, that goes against all that you have ever been told about weight training. Well, I'm here to tell you that most of what you have probably learned is wrong. And if it's not completely wrong, in most cases it's certainly not the "optimal" way.
Whenever you lift weights you are doing so to build, strengthen, and/or tone the muscle you are training. This is accomplished most effectively by overload. Overload is accomplished by using a weight that allows between 4 to 6 reps. You don't lift weights to burn fat so you shouldn't attempt to use weightlifting for that purpose.
High reps will not supply sufficient overload to efficiently provoke a muscle growth response. You may get a slight response but not at all efficient or any where near a maximum response.
When you are attempting to decrease your body fat levels while maintaining or increasing your muscle mass, maximizing the overload for 4 to 6 reps is far more effective at obtaining the desired result.
Following this overload principle allows you to induce muscle growth while you let your diet effectively decrease body fat. Conversely, decreasing the weight and increasing your reps will set you up for failure because the lower weight and higher reps will not be supplying sufficient overload to maintain adequate muscle mass, much less build more. This coupled with a calorie restricted diet will cause your body to preference lean mass for its energy need instead of fat stores.
Also, as your body is preferencing muscle tissue for its energy needs it is making your body become less and less efficient at burning calories. This makes it more and more difficult to burn body fat and easier to burn muscle tissue. This is just the opposite with overload training. Overloading the muscle will build more muscle tissue creating a more efficient metabolic environment for burning stored body fat.
This means maximizing overload to the muscle while you train. This means heavy weight for 4 to 6 reps.
If you start training lighter with high reps you are reducing the stimulus for muscle growth. Combine high rep training and increased cardio with caloric reductions and you are asking for muscle loss.
It is important to understand that high reps with light weights does not equal more definition. Increasing your definition is the result of reducing your body fat and that is accomplished by paying close attention to your diet and incorporating cardiovascular exercise. Training with higher reps and lighter weights will not burn fat but it will reduce the stimulus for muscle growth.