The quickest answer from most would be to lift as much weight as you can while doing as many reps as possible in good form, which really works to get a muscular physique eventually.
Basically overloading on your weights will stress the muscle which leads to small tears in the muscle that will build back and grow bigger with the proper rest and diet, of course, preparing you for the next heavy workout.
But as all things in life there is a limit, and the body finally stops gaining so much or so easily.
At this point is where another training principle comes in to shock us. Lift lighter weight with higher reps to stimulate the muscle differently into growth.
But can you really build muscle with light weights and high reps? Yes indeed!
Haven’t you ever noticed that pros as well as amateurs compete in their older ages and wondered how?
A couple of factors:
1. Supplementation/Diets
2. Better Training Methods
3. More Rest
4. And more precautions with regards to their health
Everybody has heard of heavy or HIT training (High Intensity Training) you gain muscle mass with this method, thick dense muscle, but even Dorian said that HIT training affected the length of his career and he eventually had to stop competing, so is training heavy with low reps ideal? At the end of the day it truly works however you pay the price. But would all these athletes achieve what they had if they did not train heavy? Well honestly it’s a big dilemma, I would say mixing it up they could have seen better results and endured longer careers, achieving even more.
To offer you one of my training principles as an example I train 3 weeks heavy low reps and then 1 weeks moderately light and high reps, I might even throw in a drop-down or super-set to shock the muscles even more and to spice up the workout regime.
In conclusion my answer is YES, even with light weights you can achieve muscle gains, the reason being that light training increases the number of red blood vessels feeding the muscles more leading to growth while heavy training does the opposite, decreasing the amount of red blood cells supplied to the muscle but on the other hand causing microscopic damage to the muscle fibers forcing them to repair and grow.
So at the end of the day MIX IT UP PEOPLE! and try to look out of the box don't be steroid types with your workouts do not limit yourselves. Just as I do. It’s safer due to a smaller risk of injury and you don’t really get bored of your workout, keeping things interesting. Remember variety is the spice of life!
The video below is with me,Neil Hill, Kris Gethin and Marika Johansson using the Y3T training principle for a quad workout
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Peace and Love and big muscles
