Light Weight vs Heavy Weight: Which One?
One makes you "toned" and one makes you "bulky" ... or does it?
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“I want to slim down and ‘tone up’. I’m not looking to get bulky.”
Working as a professional trainer, I have heard this more times than I can count. It’s usually at the start of working with a female client when we talk about goals or visions. I see it when I go to the gym and notice how rare it is to see women using anything heavier than 15 pounds. But I don’t just hear it from prospective clients or see it in practice. I hear it from other men at the gym who say: “Wow that girl looks a dude.” *soo many issues with that statement. takes deep breath*.
It’s a self-sustaining myth that if women decide they want to regularly lift weights, they are destined to turn into a meathead. Most fitness marketing has shamed women in some way or another to idealize a singular goal: be skinny. The underlying message: be skinny but also fragile, submissive, and non-threatening. The fear of getting “bulky” but desire to be “toned” is not only misogynistic but intentionally vague. It’s meant to keep women from making attempts to get stronger. What if I grab that heavier dumbbell today? Oh, no I can’t because what if *that* dumbbell pushes me over the edge and I get *gasp* bulky!!
When I hear someone wants to get “toned,” I’ve found it takes a long time to narrow down what they actually mean. Do you want to see visible definition? Do you want to lose fat? Build muscle?
My trainer brain translates “toned“ to: low enough body fat to reveal visibly shaped muscle beneath the skin.
Let’s break that down into its two main sections:
“Low enough body fat”:
Lowering body fat is done by adhering to a calorie deficit. There’s no way around it coming down to implementing an intentional nutrition protocol.
“Visibly shaped muscle”:
Like we’ve discussed, muscles will only grow if they are forced to do so with enough stimulation. They are damaged via training, and repaired to become thicker fibers. That visible muscle you want? It will only be noticeable by changing the muscle you currently have. You have to make it bigger. And you do that not by changing its length, but its diameter.
The idea of creating “long and lean” muscles and avoiding “short and bulky” ones has no scientific merit. The fibers in our muscles are settled at predetermined lengths by adulthood. Changing their thickness is what changes their appearance (the “shape” you’ve always been after).
If you are looking to create shape, stop focusing on only small muscles and train the big ones - and train them hard.
The muscles that create the most shape on our body are the ones that take up the most surface area. They are the powerhouse performers: glutes, quads, hamstrings, lats, pecs, shoulders.
Training the bigger muscles will inherently work on the smaller ones, as they perform in groups. This won’t make you “bulky” – because muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue, it will take up less space, and you will appear more compact, slim and athletic. But you have to train those muscles with weights hard enough to appropriately create stimulus. Read: light weights are a good option - but they aren’t the best for those large muscles.
“…because muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue, it will take up less space, and you will appear more compact, slim and athletic.”
Our bigger muscles contain a lot of fibers, making them very powerful. Forcing them into adaptation with light weights takes a long time. A looonnggg time. And most people grab those small dumbbells, do some reps and say “that’s probably good enough.”
*if you’re saying that at the end of your set, it wasn’t enough*
Heavier weights take the shortest amount of time to cross that threshold - which doesn’t make them better, just more efficient.
Whether you choose light, moderate or heavy weights, the overall goal is the same: force adaptation by pushing the muscle between RPE 7-9.
Not sure what that scale is referring to? Check out more info here.
The following graphic is a great visual on how each category of weight affects the muscle the same way – we just have to do more reps with light weights to get there. These findings are confirmed in this systematic review published in 2017 – if you’re into reading systematic reviews like I am.
Using heavy weight causes “near maximal motor unit recruitment” (how many muscle fibers are triggered to contract together to perform an action) from the very beginning… because it’s a heavy weight. And requires more effort to move.
The lighter the weight gets, the more reps you have to do to hit those really hard reps that trigger hypertrophy - sometimes 30+ reps in my experience!
ALL OF THIS TO SAY:
Ladies, you deserve to feel strong as hell and experience the transformation (both internal and external) from consistent strength training. Anyone who is threatened by your strength isn’t worth your time.
Training with light weights is okay, but your effort has to be high.
Training with moderate weights is okay, but your effort has to be high.
Training with heavy weights is okay, but your effort has to be high.
My preference on how I train (my clients and myself) is to utilize all three ranges of weights to ensure the bigger muscles are being challenged in multiple different ways. It also helps keep training more interesting and engaging.
An entire workout of super-light, 30+ rep exercises would take forever and be so boring.
An entire workout of super-heavy, 5 rep exercises would be so fatiguing, I don’t know if anyone would make it out without feeling destroyed (never the goal by the way).
Mixing between different weight ranges, light to heavy - while prioritizing effort - is a great way to keep workouts feeling fresh and ensuring strength gains.
Take all that you have learned from the Essential Education of Strength Training and make a workout tailored to YOU. Post 5 of this 6-part series, Build Your Own Program, is complete with exercises and training variables all set to varying experience levels for paid subscribers.
Any advice on what to do when your hands get tired long before the rest of you? I am struggling with weak fingers and wrists!