https://bsky.app/profile/rhomancer.bsky.social/post/3lwtkufxstx2x

Former if you wanna lose weight, latter if you wanna put it on

Swole is right tho, this is most important bsky.app/profile/swol...

Both are good for different things. More sets with (relatively) lighter weight is good for size, fewer heavier is good for strength. At the end of the day, what matters most is rate of perceived exertion. Also commonly agreed that over 20 reps is endurance training.

My real, non-nerd answer is when in doubt, find a weight that gives you a 7/10 exertion at 8-12 reps and calibrate from there. Jumping into high weight at low reps or spamming a movement incorrectly for 25 reps are both good ways to hurt/irritate your body

Also matters what you’re training. Lateral raises are best served with 10-15 reps, anything less risks injury. Deadlift? You can go into the 3-5 rep range or lower depending on the program

Just to add some nuance, the strength / size tradeoff is very mild, they're heavily correlated at the single muscle level. Both high reps and low reps have similar effect on both strength and size.

Agreed! I don’t know enough of the hard science to say it with confidence, but my general read is both produce largely similar results

What are you trying to accomplish?

I should explain: If you're rehabbing a muscle or joint, very low weight and high reps are good If you're trying to get strong at a particular thing, very heavy weight low reps is the way If you want to build muscle, heavy with low to medium reps; very heavy will work but is hard on the joints

Both are good for the same thing. Damage under contraction while burnout out the locally stored glucose. High reps with low weight hurts more, but you do you. Not a gym bro, got my beginner gains and was satisfied, so take with a grain of salt. But if a beginner, anything will work.

If using a lighter weight then you should increase reps rather than sets. But most reps-per-set numbers below 20-30 have been shown to work.

The important thing is that, beyond the warmup, you don't end a set feeling like you could easily do a bunch more reps, because that's low stimulus. In that case, increase weight or reps. But tbf just check the r/fitness wiki

This feels like a cry for the Casey Johnston signal, and in particular her Liftoff program - I'm just a desk bound 50 yr dude who has been mostly consistent with that program since March. It's a good time, super simple.

I've had my best results alternating between the two. But @swolecialism.bsky.social is right, consistency is the key.

"I want to be more muscular" Low reps, high weight "I want to be more lean/toned" More reps, less weight

all I know is we're doing 20 second yielding ISOs immediately before doing 6-8 reps with the same weight and this is very good for making your eyeballs shake

Best is sets taken close to, but not quite, failure. Easier to achieve that with the latter.

Yep

Yep which one?

Why pick one

agreed, switching it up every so often is good. muscles adapt to what they are doing and unless you are training for a specific competition you are better off forcing them to adapt to new things every couple months or so.

Reject the false binary. Consistency is what matters

100% this. also reject the notion that if you're not always adding weight you're losing. mobility, technique, comfort, stamina - these are all wins, too. if you can lift the weight but your arms are screaming from tendonitis, you're not actually improving

You leave my elbows out of this, Robert.

flashback to when I was hitting deadlift PRs with crippling golfer's elbow and when I helped move something at work someone said "oh I didn't realize you were strong, you didn't look... well, ah, nevermind"

What are your goals 👀

I need to stop being a flabby slug

I really hate the gym, so I go out for aggressive day hikes on weekends when the weather complies, and have some hand weights and a kettlebell at home. I'm just a little baby at this so can get serious over time but for now am just doing some small things in the morning before work to get it going.

If that's what you've got, then more reps. Those are all comparatively "low weight" vs a machine or plates or something There are also some more aerobic things you can do with kettle bells vs simply "lifting" them As long as you're moving and you're not hurting yourself, do whatever you enjoy

The kettlebell I used to do squats (for now).

You can like swing those things around and stuff, too 🤣 I've got a friend (not on here to @ him ha) who got certified in kettle bell instruction and he was raving about all the things you can do with them even in a relatively limited space (some seem safer than others 😅)

Yeah I have to get a smaller one for the swings, I use a 20lb kettlebell for squats but that's too heavy for me to swing safely or without dropping and putting a hole through my floor.

Replacing your floors is also a heck of a workout tho... 🤔

The best thing to do is the stuff you'll keep doing. Don't worry about optimizing your workout for some vague goal and instead just try shit out and keep doing what satisfies you. If you like the more endurance-y feeling of a lot of reps of lower weight then do that, if you like pulling really hard

then grab bigger weights. You can worry about tailoring your regime later once you've built the consistency of habit.

Agreed!

I think whatever you do, whether heavier weight for fewer reps, or lighter weight for high reps will be great. I do both depending on the lift or day

fwiw I found that rock climbing was a lot more enjoyable as a form of gym exercise for me than conventional weightlifting. so if you're finding yourself having trouble getting yourself to do weight routines, you could look in to different workouts

I loved rock climbing and was in the best shape of my life then I got a massive blood clot and went on anticoagulants and all my doctors flipped out when I said I was a climber and I had to stop, the risk of fatal brain bleed from a bad fall was too high.

oh no, that sucks

Yeah it really sucked, I finally found something I really enjoyed and I had to stop it cold. I also had to stop snowboarding but that was less of a problem since I really only did it because I was sleeping with a snowboard instructor and that came to an end shortly after anyway.

Higher reps stimulates more muscle growth, higher weight stimulates more strength gain. High reps being 9+ per set. To maximize muscle growth you want 15-20 sets/per week on the muscle. Strength focus would be more like 2-4 reps per set

If you have time, this was a fantastic discussion (this series with Andy Galpin is the only Huberman podcast I’ve enjoyed, so don’t let that deter you): open.spotify.com/episode/0pkm...