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It a no brainer in the gym these days that you need to lift heavy to gain size. Light weights simply won’t cut it right? I have written about this in the past, there is even research showing that muscle tone comes with heavy weight…..

Light weights and high reps or bodyweight movements with high reps mean you are training in an Anaerobic/Aerobic crossover zone which is great for metabolic efficiency but not so great when it comes to building lean, hard muscle….

Not 100% true – New research has come to light indicating that muscle can be build just as efficiently using lighter weights and the important thing is getting a good muscle pump and reaching fatigue.

“Rather than grunting and straining to lift heavy weights, you can grab something much lighter but you have to lift it until you can’t lift it anymore,” says Stuart Phillips, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University. “We’re convinced that growing muscle means stimulating your muscle to make new muscle proteins, a process in the body that over time accumulates into bigger muscles.”

This makes a lot of sense, imagine you were new to strength training and had a “beginners mind” so to speak, how would you go about building your chest or biceps? I am willing to bet you would hit the muscle real hard doing loads of pushups or bicep curls until the muscle just fails. Sort of like the workouts we all did when first going to the gym or getting a set of dumbbells at home……

Also explains why Matthew McConaughey claims to have built his body just running and doing a ridiculous amount of pushups and other bodyweight stuff. I think I read an interview once saying he does 200 pushups per day when training….

Doing high reps and just working a muscle to failure just makes sense. Surely the muscle fibers breakdown and grow back stronger and bigger regardless of how we break them down. Although the scientific proof still indicated more towards lower reps and heavy weights for efficient muscle growth, I think real life shows us that muscle can be built via high reps and getting a good pump. We just need to look at all the great bodies built without the use of heavy weights.

Here’s a Plan

This is great news if you do not have access to a gym or want to go for more a minimal muscle route just using your bodyweight and maybe a light set of dumbbells or kettlebell.

1. Stick to the basics. Master the core bodyweight movements, things like squats, pushups and pullups. I have linked to Mark’s Daily Apple who put in a great tutorial for all of these in the last week. Get these perfected and they can be the staple of a bodyweight resistance plan.

2. Work to Burn. Don’t expect to get a good workout from using long rest times. Try to keep the reps high working towards a burn in the muscle targeted — If you keep rest times down you can also make bodyweight workouts into amazing interval training sessions which cross the line between an aerobic and anaerobic workout, triggering both metabolic pathways.

3. Use High Frequency. I like to do some body weight stuff throughout the day and on a regular basis, this can mean spreading say 100 pushups throughout a day — Randomly getting down and pushing out 20. Or simply throwing in 100 bodyweight squats before you go to work in the morning. These little changes can make a big difference revving up your muscle building and fat burning hormones.

4. Use Metabolic Circuit Training. If you want to try out these methods in the gym I would recommend some circuit training. Simply pick 4-5 of your favourite exercises and go at them hard for 10-15 minutes using high reps and low weight with little rest. For instance:

• Overhead Squats
• DB Chest Press
• Bent Over Row
• Lateral Raises
• Ab Curls

Those 5 exercises make for a great full body workout. Keep reps between 20-30 and rest times at about 1 minute between circuits for best results.

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