How can you get bigger using lighter wt?

[AllLoadedUp]

I have seen quite a few guys say this. Now bare in mind these are Pro's. And they are going to get bigger using 5 lbs. But I really can't see how you can make a muscle grow in size if you use lighter weights. I have always thought you have to continually try and increase the amount of weight you use on every single exercise to grow. If not then what is the point in doing the same weight over and over.

Now yes I understand the whole idea of supersets, etc. And working faster to increase the intensity. But basically those are things designed to burn fat are they not. And to just give the muscle a shock every once in a while. But how can you really get a muscle to increase in size if you are not continually adding weight to the bar. Or at least attempting to add weight. I am getting older and the heavy weights all the time on my body is getting tougher. Hence my question. TIA.

 

[Omega-Red]

I am probably really going to get some flack for this .... but this is just MY experience , honestly i def put some size on with progressive overload , its a tried and tested method and does work for sure....

However i have a really small bone structure and tbh my body just is not designed for that sort of strategy and secondly i did not enjoy this setup, its to technical for me and takes the fun out of training, i have no aspirations of being the next mass monster, i just want to improve over time and enjoy bodybuilding.

Over the past year my main focus has been to really focus on the muscles i am working and to create maximum tension, contraction and the time spent in that zone. I listen to my body as weird as that sounds, i do not go to workout with a book or paper telling me what to do , i basically go with the exercises i feel the best tension and contraction with , i use a rep range i feel like using that day sometimes its high reps some times its low, sometimes i throw in drop sets if i feel my muscle is up to take a beating sometimes i dont.

I also try to create multiple instances for growth during the week by hitting bodyparts 2 - 3 times, i tend to cycle my workout freq and my calorie intake , so when im cruising i will back down on my training and eating less, when im on AAS i will train more freq and use more calories , i have found good results with this.

To be honest i am actually the biggest i have ever been at this bodyfat and my AAS use is at its most modest. My back has made significant strides as well as my upper chest and delts.

I think the main thing to make gains in consistency , SOLID nutrition and strategic AAS use, honestly i have seen guys who train every sort of routine and make no results due to just not eating enough food , diet really is everything.

Again this is just my outlook, i look at this more as something i want to do till i die, something i enjoy and can stick with, If your goal is to be a mass monster i wouldnt imagine my advice is the best route to pursuit!

 

[ALLEX]

Food and drugs.

 

[Sandpig]

I think both ways work. For a while at least. You gotta change styles from time to time.

Like Omega said, I think the key lies in the food combined with sensible training.

 

[Knight9]

I have seen quite a few guys say this. Now bare in mind these are Pro's. And they are going to get bigger using 5 lbs. But I really can't see how you can make a muscle grow in size if you use lighter weights. I have always thought you have to continually try and increase the amount of weight you use on every single exercise to grow. If not then what is the point in doing the same weight over and over.

Now yes I understand the whole idea of supersets, etc. And working faster to increase the intensity. But basically those are things designed to burn fat are they not. And to just give the muscle a shock every once in a while. But how can you really get a muscle to increase in size if you are not continually adding weight to the bar. Or at least attempting to add weight. I am getting older and the heavy weights all the time on my body is getting tougher. Hence my question. TIA.

Squeeze the fucking muscle.

 

[mytreefiddy]

Call me crazy but I've never seen ANYBODY GET big doing high reps and low weight..

 

[kubes]

As long as you are fatiguing the muscle, resting and eating enough you will grow

 

[Omega-Red]

Call me crazy but I've never seen ANYBODY GET big doing high reps and low weight..

I have never seen anyone get big without eating big, irrespective of routine type.

The strongest guys in the gyms ive been to have not been the biggest or best developed. Again i def think getting stronger builds muscle tissue, would not even argue that , but i think a lot of the time people are using momentum to move weight and getting no where near the results they could if they actually focused on getting the muscle itself stronger.

 

[Boudha]

Call me crazy but I've never seen ANYBODY GET big doing high reps and low weight..

Like omega said it's about feeling the muscle and creating maximum muscle tension within the muscle. Not simply doing high rep with low weight moving weight from a to b. These days I'm using much less weight than I used to and the pump/lactic acid build up is over 100x times greater with much less weight. also like him I have a fucking small bone structure too and I can't afford to simply continually increase load overtime moving weight from a to b. So I choose exercice that works best for me, that I feel creates the most tension within the muscle/maximum pump and increase load overtime that way.

Not everyone was built to bench 5 plate, squat 6 plate and deadlift 7 plate. But if you make each and every 5lbs you add on the bar harder to move by creating a mind muscle connection that makes "light weight" feels heavier than when you really get to some heavy poundage you gonna look different. Almost every gym rat can bench 2-3 plate by moving it to A to B without really focusing on the chest muscle, most of them do not have great chest.

Also some people are just naturally born with great mind muscle connection and joint that can support heavy poundage (those are usually people who are naturally built and look like bodybuilder with a few year of lifting, no dieting, no real clue about training whatsoever)

 

[impulse3k]

I've been feeling over-trained lately. I'm a classic high volume, progressive overload, and everything to failure kind of guy. It's worked for a long time and worked well. Now I've hit my 30's and I just don't recover like I used to, and I get sick a LOT. I'm still making progress, but I feel like my immune system is shot.

Rather than switch to some super low volume or low weight regimen, I decided to stop going to failure every set. I still do one set to failure, so I get my fix of progression and see my numbers moving up every work out, but all sets after that are moderate weight pump sets. Immediately I started feeling better. Too soon to tell how it will pan out, but I'm hoping with increased recovery I can increase frequency and continue gaining. Also with only one set at high weight I feel that I will be less prone to injury.

 

[concreter]

Call me crazy but I've never seen ANYBODY GET big doing high reps and low weight..

Your Crazy.
Like Knight said, Flexing alone is 1 hellava workout.
No weight at all, just contracting the muscle, (muscles) using the mind muscle connection.
Feel like I can tear it rite of the bone!

 

[flexdurden]

Light is relative.... the question is, are you taking the light weight sets to failure? Are you creating enough muscular damage with each training session to permit hypertrophy? Are you creating enough metabolic stress that the body is going to respond with hormones and nutrients to repair and rebuild the muscle?

Heavy weight (say in the 6-12 rep range to failure) is only one factor of hypertrophy, mechanical tension, if you limit mechanical tension then you need to find ways to increase muscular damage and metabolic stress through volume and training technique, rep schemes...etc.

One thing that does need to be noted is that to optimally stimulate the muscle multiple rep ranges to are needed as fatiguing the muscle in different rep ranges (by using a variety of training loads) you create different muscle fiber recruitment patterns and stimulate the muscle differently.

 

[flexdurden]

Your Crazy.
Like Knight said, Flexing alone is 1 hellava workout.
No weight at all, just contracting the muscle, (muscles) using the mind muscle connection.
Feel like I can tear it rite of the bone!

If you are going to call someone crazy, at least use proper grammar...

If you are saying "You are crazy," it would be written as "you're crazy"

 

[concreter]

If you are going to call someone crazy, at least use proper grammar...

If you are saying "You are crazy," it would be written as "you're crazy"

That's whi I did 7yrs hiy skool, 3 nite sckool.
2 many Fargen rulls in gramer.
You shud her how I talk, lik'a Guido from jersy. Ya'no

 

[flexdurden]

That's whi I did 7yrs hiy skool, 3 night sckool.
2 many Fargen rules in grammer.
You shud her how I talk, lik'a Guido from jersey. Ya'no

I am also Italian... I have the dialect of a PA coal miner. Being courteous consists of, "Will ya gimme the fuggin' wichamacallit?"

I just like to mess around once a while and play grammar police, I have no ill intent

 

[concreter]

I am also Italian... I have the dialect of a PA coal miner. Being courteous consists of, "Will ya gimme the fuggin' wichamacallit?"

I just like to mess around once a while and play grammar police, I have no ill intent

All good, Diggin ditches is serving me well.
It is my own company but I think they look past grammar a bit when hiring a concrete company.
My old man made millions. He was kicked out of 3 schools freshman year.
One reasen he made me finish.

 

[tabascotk]

A friend of mine told me this recently: "Just spoke with a patient who lost copious amounts of muscle doing the army's brutal 2 weeks of starving and pack marching in the bush. He was recommended to try "bodybuilding" to restore the muscle mass he'd built powerlifting. He proceeded to LOSE muscle faster than he did starving in the bush!!! He did so following the hopelessly stupid 2-1-2 tempo rubbish that forced him to use mouse weights. He persisted for 7 weeks before assuming he must be sick. I reassured him there was nothing wrong with him. The sickness was in the mentally-deficient PT! You have to be mentally ill to think the motions pro-bodybuilders perform in the gym for drug delivery and oil dispersion is actually an effective training technique without the drugs and oil! No. Training to be as weak as possible is just training to be as weak as possible."

Of course this is just one persons opinion.

 

[brutus69]

ive used progressive overload for a long time. id get hella strong but only see tiny increases iin my measurements.
i used 4-8 reps mostly and wrote every workout down so i could beat it each week. used to do 10 weeks then id burn out.
now im down to 5-6 weeks. i look back on my log book and see id hit certain strengths and poof! id be wore out and have to do recovery.
now im not going under 8 reps but still using heavy enuff to almost positive fail at 10 and fail on only 1 or 2 sets each workout.
another thing is, i see huge guys who never log their workouts, in fact, only a few at the gym do, and they arent competitors. those men and women dont track anything they do.
how can you make gains if u just come in and do whatever? they just do what they feel like doing that day. if progressive overload is the only way to grow over the years, these men and women seem to discount that theory.

 

[concreter]

Its simple, just do whatever you want to do till you cant do it anymore.
Then the workouts over.
Last workout I ended up curling the 5pd dumbells last set.
F'n funny with ripped 21" guns.

 

[b-boy]

tear muscle tissue, repair muscle tissue.... end of story, how well you accomplish this will determine your muscular size.

side note:
I am the weakest right now that i have ever been in my life, my joints, shoulders and elbows kill me, but i am packing more muscle on me right now that i have my entire life.

training intensity and effeciency
nutrition
hormonal profile