Lose Fat Build Muscle - Heavier Weight Or More Reps?

What weight should I choose?

This is one subject that messed me up for a long time. Should I get a heavier weight or do a few more repetitions? Well, the answer lies within what you want out of strength training and what muscle you’re currently training. I’ve noticed that lifting 200lbs for 6 reps can do a lot for a chest but not too much for a bicep. There are also other little factors that come into play like how many sets you complete for the same muscle, or which motion your doing in the exercise. Here is a simple explanation for you to determine what you’re going for. First and for most you have to determine what your looking to get out of strength training. Is it muscle size, strength or tone? I know you can also be looking for a mix of all 3 but you have to prioritize to what you want the most. Muscle size requires heavy weight in low repetitions for not so many sets, but you also might want to work that particular muscle more times a week basically the same motions (exercises). For example, you want to get the chest large? Lift heavy weights (struggling from the beginning, all the way to muscle failure), maybe 6 reps on the regular bench 3 times a week; by the 3rd week you’ll have a chest bulging through your shirt.

If you are looking in the area to just have a stronger muscle, then your approach is slightly different. First off you want heavy weights, for a stronger muscle you’re going to have to tier as many fibers as possible and give them the longest time to recover. In addition, execute the exercises in an explosive matter. Lift the weight as fast and “explosive” like as you can (without hurting yourself). This insures you get the muscles deep in there that only ever show when you’re “exploding” so to speak. Those muscles are usually 25% of extra strength that usually only show when you’re full of adrenaline. You’ll also want to consider doing a few more reps on your exercise, and not work it out as often throughout the week. So an example of a strength building set up, you can lift heavy weights for about 8 reps, but don’t exercise that same muscle for an entire week. You also want to do all possible movements of the muscle. Example, for chest don’t just do the bench and that’s it; do the straight bench, then some butterflies, the incline, decline, ext. don’t stick to the same exercise cause then you’ll only gain strength in that movement.

Finally there’s toning, with toning you’re basically just shaping the muscle and maintaining muscle memory. You benefit by gaining strength and muscle size but the effect is more calm and longer of a process. You usually gain endurance the most when it comes toning. With toning you can lay off the heavy weights, you still want weights heavy enough that you’re struggling on the last 3 or 4 reps but can still continue. Toning also requires the most diversity among muscle groups. What does that mean? Well, you don’t want to just work out chest, do some chest then some shoulder a little bit of back; basically anything that is “connected”. Also like muscle strength, you’ll also want to work on all motions of the muscle. Like the bicep, it doesn’t just lift you palm up to your chest but it also twists your wrist. So make sure you do a lot of different exercises of the same muscle group. Now the number count on toning should look something like 10-12 reps on a lot more of the same muscle exercises.

Now for the amount of sets you do on an exercise should depend on what muscle your working out. Basic rule of thumb here is the larger the muscle the more sets. Quads are very large muscles, when you work them out you should do 4 sets. On the flip side, your triceps is decently small; they should only do 2 sets. Your goal has a little to do with it also. If your toning you’ll want to diversify rather than do more sets, but if your building muscle you’ll want to do more sets than diversify. All in all, strength training, no matter how you approach it, will give you all 3 effects (size, strength, and tone). You just might to consider the different outcomes of the different ways of strength training and approach them according to your goals.