Healthy Living • YMCA Health and Fitness
Ask A Trainer: should I lift heavy, or do more reps?
03 July 2018 - by Nicole Meredith
People hire personal trainers for all sorts of reasons, but they all have one thing in common: no one wants to waste their time. It’s tough enough to haul your butt to the gym, quake through an hour’s worth of lifting, and suffer the DOMS afterwards — but it’s even worse if you feel like your hard work isn’t paying off. So what’s the secret to maximizing your strength gains as efficiently as possible? We asked Kyle — a personal trainer and group fitness instructor at the Cooper Koo YMCA — to reveal his strength training secrets. Here’s how he says you should be investing your time and energy to see real results from a lifting regime:
Pretty much everyone you see in a gym wouldn’t mind getting stronger and more toned. The thing is, you need a different game plan to achieve either of those goals — goals that most people don’t even realize are different.
Here’s what I mean:
Strong = being physically powerful
Toned = looking lean and firm
Accomplishing either goal means eating and working out a bit differently — or at least, getting yourself to failure differently.
As any good lifter knows, gains are all about taking your muscles to the point where they literally can’t do one more rep. When it comes to strength training, you can reach failure two ways: lift heavy weights until you can’t anymore, or lift light weights until you can’t anymore. You’ll fail faster with the heavier weights, but be able to do many more reps with the lighter ones. The important thing is that you reach that point of no return, when you can’t finish the exercise with good form, and you need to give up. Going all the way to failure is the only way you’re going to get results of either the strength or muscle tone variety.
The first thing you should be thinking about is the weight you’re lifting. To get strong, you need to lift heavy — heavy enough that you can only manage, say, three to five reps before you reach failure. To have the energy for that kind of heavy lifting, you’re going to need some serious fuel. Make sure to stock up on healthy grains for energy, and lean protein to help rebuild your muscles. So, your training formula will look like this:
Lots of nutritious fuel + lifting heavier + fewer reps = strength gains
Start at the other end of the spectrum: think about what you’re eating. Looking lean and firm means you need to have lower overall body fat. To achieve that, focus on mindful eating (i.e., maybe say no to that sixth cookie, and yes to a protein-packed salad). But when we consume less, we only have the energy to lift less. So, opt for lighter weights, and get yourself to failure by doing more reps. Your formula will be:
Mindful eating + lifting lighter + more reps = muscle tone
You can strategize about weight loads and reps all you want, but in the end, everyone’s body is unique. If a 60-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man both told me they wanted help getting strong and toned, I’d give them very different protocols. The key is knowing how to get your body to failure — and if you haven’t figured that out yet, don’t hesitate to ask a personal trainer for some tips.
Kyle is a graduate of Durham College’s Fitness and Health Promotion program, and is currently finishing a degree in Rec and Leisure studies at Brock University. He’s a CanFitPro- and YMCA-certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor who’s been training and teaching for nine years. Kyle is currently the Adult Program Supervisor at the Cooper Koo Family YMCA, where he teaches Bootcamp, Kettlebell, CycleFit, and MuscleFit classes weekly. See him in action in the YMCA’s Sweat For Good video, and check out his Y story on the blog.
Do you have a question for our personal trainers? Message us on Twitter or Facebook.
Pretty much everyone you see in a gym wouldn’t mind getting stronger and more toned. The thing is, you need a different game plan to achieve either of those goals — goals that most people don’t even realize are different.
Here’s what I mean:
Strong = being physically powerful
Toned = looking lean and firm
Accomplishing either goal means eating and working out a bit differently — or at least, getting yourself to failure differently.
Why you want to “fail”
As any good lifter knows, gains are all about taking your muscles to the point where they literally can’t do one more rep. When it comes to strength training, you can reach failure two ways: lift heavy weights until you can’t anymore, or lift light weights until you can’t anymore. You’ll fail faster with the heavier weights, but be able to do many more reps with the lighter ones. The important thing is that you reach that point of no return, when you can’t finish the exercise with good form, and you need to give up. Going all the way to failure is the only way you’re going to get results of either the strength or muscle tone variety.
How to get strong
The first thing you should be thinking about is the weight you’re lifting. To get strong, you need to lift heavy — heavy enough that you can only manage, say, three to five reps before you reach failure. To have the energy for that kind of heavy lifting, you’re going to need some serious fuel. Make sure to stock up on healthy grains for energy, and lean protein to help rebuild your muscles. So, your training formula will look like this:
Lots of nutritious fuel + lifting heavier + fewer reps = strength gains
How to get toned
Start at the other end of the spectrum: think about what you’re eating. Looking lean and firm means you need to have lower overall body fat. To achieve that, focus on mindful eating (i.e., maybe say no to that sixth cookie, and yes to a protein-packed salad). But when we consume less, we only have the energy to lift less. So, opt for lighter weights, and get yourself to failure by doing more reps. Your formula will be:
Mindful eating + lifting lighter + more reps = muscle tone
How to make strength training work for you
You can strategize about weight loads and reps all you want, but in the end, everyone’s body is unique. If a 60-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man both told me they wanted help getting strong and toned, I’d give them very different protocols. The key is knowing how to get your body to failure — and if you haven’t figured that out yet, don’t hesitate to ask a personal trainer for some tips.
Kyle is a graduate of Durham College’s Fitness and Health Promotion program, and is currently finishing a degree in Rec and Leisure studies at Brock University. He’s a CanFitPro- and YMCA-certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor who’s been training and teaching for nine years. Kyle is currently the Adult Program Supervisor at the Cooper Koo Family YMCA, where he teaches Bootcamp, Kettlebell, CycleFit, and MuscleFit classes weekly. See him in action in the YMCA’s Sweat For Good video, and check out his Y story on the blog.Do you have a question for our personal trainers? Message us on Twitter or Facebook.
