Should You Lift Light Weights For More Reps, or Heavy Weights For Less Reps?
Everything you need to know to stay safe and make the most progress.
Written by: Jonathan Fletcher
Should you lift light weights and do a lot of reps, or should you lift heavier weights and do fewer reps.
If there’s one variable that has improved our results, it’s knowing the right answer to this question.
In this article, we’ll share what we know, and how we put it into practice with our clients today.
If you want the “just tell me what to do” answer, I’ll put a summary at the end.
Why Should You Lift Weights?
Let’s start with the assumption that the reason we’re lifting weights is because we want to be stronger for life, and to have visible muscles.
Oh yeah, we also don’t want to get hurt or constantly be sore.
We also know that most people don’t want to get “big and bulky”.
Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it), getting big and bulky doesn’t have to do with whether you lift heavy vs. light weights. It has to do with how much you eat.
If that topic interests you. you, check out our article on getting strong while staying lean.
What Rep Ranges Make You Strong?
Building strength and muscle is less about the actual weight of your dumbbells or barbell, and more about the effort level of every set you do, and how many of those sets you do per week.
Muscle and strength is built with high-effort level sets. This is the reason that air squats don’t build much muscle or strength, and why you’ll never see any progress doing curls with dumbbells that weigh less than White Claws. They don’t cause enough effort.
The sweet spot for best results is to stop your sets with just 1 or 2 good reps left in the tank. In other words, not a max effort, but not easy either.
We call these “Hard Sets”.
Here are two short videos that show you exactly what I mean. Click each to watch.
Now that you know how hard you should be pushing, let’s go back to the original question.
How To Pick Your Weights
Should you use heavier weights and do fewer reps, or use lighter weights and do more.?
When picking a weight and rep range for an exercise, we base our decision on what will help us work at the right effort level effectively efficiently, and safely.
Let’s say I’m trying to make my arms look a little more impressive by doing biceps curls.
I could certainly make a set of curls hard by grabbing a pair of 60lb dumbbells. The problem is that I could probably only do 2 or 3 reps until I failed, and I’m pretty sure my elbows and low back wouldn’t appreciate the effort.
I could also do a hard set of curls with 5lb weights, although it would take me roughly 200 reps per set to get close to failure. That would take more time than I’ve got to train, and I’d be insanely sore from that much volume.
Instead, I’d be better off using a moderate weight for my strength level like 25 or 30lbs which would let me do a hard set of 8-15 reps. Remember, a hard set is one that stops about 1 or 2 reps before failure.
My elbows would thank me, I wouldn’t get too sore, and it would only take about 30 seconds per set.
What Exercises Should You Do Lighter Weights and Higher Reps?
This is the approach we recommend taking for exercises like:
Biceps Curls
Triceps Push Downs
Triceps Kickbacks
Triceps Extensions
Lateral Raises
Front Raises
Dumbbell Presses
Pullovers
Face Pulls
Rows
Romanian Deadlifts
Don’t go light, don’t go heavy. Pick a moderate weight that challenges you in the 8-15 rep range.
What Exercises Are Best For Lower Reps and Heavier Weights?
Now, what about other exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and overhead presses?
We take a different approach with these kinds of exercises because they involve a lot more muscle mass all at once.
Oh by the way… We just dropped the only resource you’ll ever need for nailing the perfect, safe deadlift every single time.
We covered everything from the right shoes to wear, to selecting the right weight, and even threw in a sample training program too.
We call it “The Ultimate Deadlift Guide”. - Grab it today before it’s too late by clicking the Yellow Button below.
Ok, back to exercises…If you were to do hard sets of squats in the 8-15 rep range, you’d be quite sore. You’d also probably get really out of breath and want to quit before you actually got close to muscular failure.
The same would be true for deadlifts, bench presses, overhead barbell presses, and the like.
These compound exercises that use a lot of muscle mass all at once are better reserved for doing fewer reps, with heavier weights.
In general, we use sets of 5-8 for these guys.
That tradeoff allows you to do hard sets that challenge your ability, without unnecessary risk of injury, and without them being limited by your cardiovascular ability.
I know for a fact that not understanding this concept of weight and rep selection is holding soooooo many people from getting the result that they want.
Is it holding you back?
Are you lifting weights, or just doing cardio?
How many reps are you doing each set?
How much weight are you using?
Why did you make those choices?
Are your workouts based on a “routine” of doing a certain number of reps while your actual progress hinges on effort, not your ability to count?
If you aren’t making progress, it’s time to get more specific!
Our 1:1 custom training programs are the answer!
Read more, and apply today!
P.S. - Blakley wrote a 100% free 5-Week Training Program that will give you the flavor of our training secret sauce. You can download your copy HERE.
