3498: How Heavy a Weight Should You Use by Mark Fisher of MarkFisherFitness on Strength Training

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily. How Heavy a Weight Should You Use? By Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. And I'm your host and narrator, Dr. Neal Malik. Hey there, happy middle of the week Wednesday and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily, where I read some of the best health and fitness blogs to you, and always with a bit of my commentary at the end. Now, today's Wednesday, and like I do every Wednesday, I want to share a little bit of inspiration with you. Now, today's inspirational quote is actually really short.

[00:01:30] If you tune out for a second, you might miss it. Okay, so are you really ready to hear it? Okay, so here we go. Quote, Start by starting. Meryl Streep. See, I told you it was going to go by quickly. All right, now that we're in the right frame of mind, let's get right to today's article and start optimizing your life. How Heavy a Weight Should You Use?

[00:01:58] By Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. In today's installment of Answering Ninja Questions, we have a classic. This is an awesome question with absolutely no answer in a vacuum, as it depends on your training experience and goals. Assuming your lifting techniques stay solid, the easiest way to discuss weight is in terms of how many reps you can lift before your technique fails. You can also describe the relative heaviness of a weight

[00:02:27] as a percentage of the heaviest weight you can lift for one rep. But for our discussion today, rep ranges are a bit more user-friendly for most trainees. As a general rule of thumb, different rep ranges will elicit different changes in your body. Classically, weights that you can lift for one to five repetitions will make you stronger. Weights that you can lift for six to twelve repetitions will make your muscles grow.

[00:02:54] And weights that you can lift for thirteen or more reps will train your muscular endurance. Having said all that, it all depends. In the beginning. When you first start training, any rep range will make you stronger. Additionally, any rep range will probably add a bit of muscle, though how much will depend to a large extent on genetics, gender, and nutrition. Since everyone is a unique little snowflake,

[00:03:21] intermediate and advanced trainees will have more success at different goals in different rep ranges. While advanced trainees will indeed need to lift heavier weights to get stronger, and will need to do more reps to develop endurance, a more contemporary approach to growing muscle will emphasize the breadth of rep ranges. Though even here, it seems much above 20 reps in a single set starts to require too light of a weight for the intermediate or advanced trainee.

[00:03:50] Lifting for fat loss Where does fat loss fit into all of this? Fat loss is predominantly created by your nutrition. However, you can and should use training to expedite the process and encourage the body to maintain muscle. Counterintuitively, It seems a mix of heavy weights and moderate reps are more effective than lots of high rep toning sets. Although the higher rep sets allow you to feel the burn,

[00:04:18] using heavier weights actually facilitates fat loss better. By focusing on lifting moderately heavy weights, more fat will be burnt after your workouts through something called post-exercise oxygen consumption. In non-scientific terms, you've basically increased your metabolism for the next 24 to 48 hours. For the purposes of fat loss, once your nutrition is locked in, your best bet is to follow two strategies.

[00:04:46] First, make sure you're lifting a low volume of heavy weights, one to five reps, to maintain your strength levels. You will generally want to do this at the beginning of your workouts while fresh. This is always a good idea, but particularly key when working at a calorie deficit. After you've hit a few heavy sets on one to two lifts, you can move on to a more moderate rep range like six to twelve reps. Unlike your heavy sets, which will warrant sufficient rest to really recover between sets,

[00:05:16] like two to three minutes of rest, you can move a little bit more quickly on your moderate weight sets. This is also a great place to employ alternating sets. In other words, instead of doing dumbbell bench press eight to twelve reps, rest 60 to 90 seconds. Repeat, dumbbell bench press eight to twelve reps, rest 60 to 90 seconds. And again, dumbbell bench press eight to twelve reps, and so on.

[00:05:46] A more time efficient and fat loss friendly approach would be the following. Dumbbell bench press eight to twelve reps, rest 30 to 60 seconds, then perform bent over barbell rows for eight to twelve reps, rest for 30 to sixty seconds, then go back to dumbbell bench press for eight to twelve reps, rest for 30 to sixty seconds,

[00:06:11] then go back to the bent over barbell row for another eight to twelve reps, and so on. This allows the muscles to rest a bit longer between sets of the same exercise, but forces you to keep your heart rate elevated and challenges your system to stay active and do more total work in less time. The way you set up your workouts will depend on the overall scope of your program. For instance, if you're doing two to three days of metabolic resistance training,

[00:06:40] you're essentially doing a cardio with weights workout, focusing on some variation of the protocol just described. Think basically CrossFit style workouts. If that's the case, your weights with weights days may be lower volume and focused mostly on lifting heavy weights. For people with less time, you can combine them into one workout by following the outline suggested. Start with heavy weights and sufficient rest first,

[00:07:06] then move on to moderate weights with incomplete rest afterwards. If you're trying to lose weight with only a few workouts per week, you may consider adding a finisher to your workouts at the end of your workouts. Generally speaking, finishers fall on the far spectrum of the extreme and often employ little to no rest and moderate to relatively light weights. Examples include battle ropes, kettlebell circuits, and body weight circuits.

[00:07:35] A word to the wise, more is not better. More is just more, and sometimes more will set you back. When you're working at a calorie deficit, exercise is adding one more stressor to the equation. Some exercise is important and will help speed things along and help maintain your muscle. Too much exercise and you will freak your body out. You just listened to the post titled,

[00:08:03] How Heavy a Weight Should You Use? by Mark Fisher of markfisherfitness.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Now, it's just me and a small team behind this show, so I get how much the right hire matters. When you need the right person, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs.

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[00:10:28] When Mark was describing why it's important to start lifting with heavier weights at the beginning of a workout, it reminded me of a question I often get asked. What if I want to do some weight lifting and cardio as part of one workout? Meaning, I want to lift weights for like 15 minutes and I want to go for a jog for like 30 minutes. Should I use the 30 minute jog as my warmup and then hit the weight room after? No.

[00:10:55] You would actually want to start by hitting the weights first, then jog or bike, row, walk, whatever, after. This is a common question and often people do this backwards. Now first, I only recommend people combine weights and this type of cardio when they're a little bit more advanced. I don't recommend people do both workouts when they're just beginners. But when I would go to the gym, I would always see folks running on the treadmill

[00:11:24] for long periods of time, then move on to the weight room. This was backwards. Instead, start with a light warmup on the treadmill, bike, elliptical, whatever you prefer. Then, head into the weight room. Once you're done in the weight room, then go for your longer jog, bike, walk, row, elliptical, whatever. Here's a little secret about why performing exercises in this order might be so helpful. You might actually help the body burn more fat this way.

[00:11:55] Alright, that'll do it for today. I hope you have a great rest of your Wednesday and I'll see you back here for tomorrow's show where your optimal life awaits. You can find your limits of life rotations. If you have any questions, please put the Threads down here on your feet and look at and see the