There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
How Heavy Should You Lift? There is a Method to the Madness
What if lifting less could actually make you stronger? Join me, Rob Maxwell, as I challenge the age-old belief that heavier is always better in strength training. We'll dissect the science behind load percentages and why 60% of your one-rep max might be the sweet spot for building strength. Uncover the fascinating differences between hypertrophy—muscle enlargement—and pure strength gains, and learn how to strike the perfect balance in your workouts without wearing yourself out or risking injury.
Embark on a journey through the latest research and insights in load science, equipping yourself with the knowledge to fine-tune your strength training regimen. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or just starting your fitness journey, this conversation promises to provide valuable tips on maximizing your gains and achieving your strength goals. Let’s unravel the methods behind the madness and empower your workouts with science-backed strategies.
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell. I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I'm the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most important, why it works. Hence the name.
Speaker 1:There is a Method to the madness, or follow the science. We're going to talk about load today. How heavy should you be going in your strength training? Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your house is worth? 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:All right, so, as I have said before, there are acute program variables. So program variables are what we use to help us to decide the correct strength training program. For example, the repetitions, the amount of sets, the type and amount of exercises, the rep ranges, the rest, the tempo and, finally, the loads. All of these are important. All of those give us different clues to help me write the best program for you and for myself. And accredited, certified, accredited trainers are going to use this methodology to help them design a program too. So this is pretty common stuff in the world of exercise physiology.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about the load today, or how heavy. There is a science behind it and you might find it to be pretty interesting. I know that I do. So. First off, let me state that most research shows that anything greater than 60% of the one rep maximum or maximum load a person can do is going to be a heavy enough stimulus to help a person get stronger. So 60%. So, for example, if you were to sit down on a chest press machine and you huff and puff and blow that house down oh no, that's a different story. You huff and puff and push that load up on a chest press or any other exercise and let's say it's a hundred pounds and you gave it your max effort and you got it. You got it your max effort and you got it. You got it. You pushed, you got it. You got it in good form barely, but you got it. So your one repetition maximum on that exercise would be 100 pounds. So, based on what we know, if you then used 60% so that would be 60 pounds and did that for your working sets, it should be sufficient enough for you to get stronger, so we don't have to go super, super heavy to get stronger.
Speaker 1:That's the first takeaway from that. All right, and then the second takeaway, though, is you do have to use a high enough stimulus. You'll see some people going to the gym and using really light loads I mean, maybe it's as low as, say, 20% of their single rep maximum. Well, you're probably not going to get the adaptation necessary to get stronger. You may burn some calories and you're getting some activity in, and that's great, but as far as getting stronger, you probably aren't. So the first takeaway from all this is and I'm going to lump one and two together is that the load has to be sufficient, but the load doesn't have to be overwhelming for us to get stronger.
Speaker 1:Now, one caveat to that is that there has been some recent research done in exercise physiology in the bodybuilding world that states that the load percentage can be as low as 30% versus 60%. But that was more on hypertrophy, which is muscle cell enlargement and the muscles getting bigger, and basically what it said was that if you use 30% of the load, which is pretty light, and you went to failure doing super high reps and the range has worked out to be in the range of 25 to 30, then you could still add muscle. So I mean, sure that's out there. That's been some legitimate research on hypertrophy, but I think we still need to really focus more on that 60% baseline as far as getting stronger, because there are some subtle differences between strength and hypertrophy. They're connected, but there's also some differences.
Speaker 1:All right, now let's learn a little bit more about load science. We know from research. There's a nice little linear percentage chart that you can follow and it's going to be in my new book. It's nothing I invented, it's very common, but it basically shows anywhere from, say, 16 repetitions to 2 as to what percentage of the single rep max is going to be correlated to that rep range. So it's not a perfect science, but it's pretty darn close.
Speaker 1:So, for example, in research it shows that you should be able to do two repetitions with 95% of your single rep max. You should be able to do four repetitions at 90% of your one rep max. You should be able to do six repetitions with 85% of your one rep max. You should be able to do eight repetitions with 80% of your one rep max. You should be able to do 10 repetitions with 75% of your one rep max. You should be able to do 10 repetitions with 75% of your one rep max. You should be able to do 12 repetitions with 75% of your one rep max. You should. That was 70% for 12 reps, excuse me. You should be able to do 14 repetitions with 65% of your one rep max. And then, finally, you should be able to do 16 repetitions at 60% of your one rep max. So there's that magic number, 60%. So that's pretty high reps.
Speaker 1:If we're doing 16 reps, Now keep in mind that's rep max or failure that we're trying to hit to do that. So we know, scientifically measured, that there's a percentage of the load that we should be able to do rep ranges with. So when you come in and you say so, we're doing this repetition, whether it be or rep range, whether it be, say, 12 to 16, like a lot of people do, or say 8 to 12, or 10 to 14, depending on the person and what we've seen work best, and sometimes it alternates. For sure, all the rep ranges are good if you apply them correctly. But the reason why we apply the reps is because they are correlated to the particular load. As long as you are using the best load that you can. So in other words, if you go into a gym and say I'm going to do three sets of 10 on my exercises today and I'm going to use the best load that I can use for 10 reps and the best load means that you're doing it in good form, but you really can't go any heavier, not even a couple pounds, to complete 10 reps. That would be your best load Well then chances are that's going to be 75% of your maximum. So it's not like you need to figure out all of your maxes to figure out your rep ranges and nor do we. We do with some people on some exercises to get an idea, but it's not necessary to get the one rep max. Once we understand that there's a correlation between rep ranges and load, all right. So there is definitely a science to it. There's a science to how many reps we should be doing, because it is based on the percentage of load you should be doing.
Speaker 1:Now a couple more things. There has been a study that has shown that not every muscle group is created equal. In other words, on a study done a while back this is a pretty old study it was found that people can do more repetitions at a Larger muscle groups and the exact exercise was a leg press versus an arm curl machine. So in other words, the larger muscle groups, the bigger movements, were able to squeak out a few more repetitions than you quote should unquote, and the smaller muscle groups, like the biceps on the bicep machine, was not able to get as many as the larger muscle groups. So what does that tell us To me? It tells me that with the larger muscle groups you're getting a little bit of more assistance with the synergistic muscle groups helping you eke out a few more repetitions. So again, it's research like that that tells us that it's not a perfect correlation, it's not a perfect science, but it really is a good science and it definitely gives us a good way to think about how much load we should be using for the repetitions that we're doing, rather than just wing it.
Speaker 1:If you're going to a place where you don't know well, use some trial and error, because, let's say, getting back to my original example of the 100 pound single rep max on the chest press and then using the 60% of that, so 60 pounds, okay. So that is on the chest press that you might be using at my gym. If you travel somewhere, it may be a different, most likely a different chest press, and so that 60 pounds isn't going to feel the same. So you will have to do trial and error when you travel for sure. Now, with free weights, like dumbbells, it is what it is, unless somebody, like you know, waters their dumbbells more, you know, fertilizes them a little more and makes them grow a little bit more in the garden. Hopefully you know I'm joking, but the weights free weight, should be. Whatever weight is stated on the dumbbell we hope.
Speaker 1:I have seen some really old beat up dumbbells before where they were like chipped and pieces were off of them. Well, common sense tells us they were a little lighter than they originally were before they got broken and I'm sure you can understand that. So load science, in my opinion, is really cool. I mean, the short message is I want you to understand that there is a science to it. If you don't know how to do it, if you're not working out with me and you want me to help you figure it out, you know, hit me up. I'll help you figure out what your weight should be based on your numbers If you're going to the gym here just know that we put a lot of thought into the loads.
Speaker 1:Now, once we've established the loads at a given rep range like, let's say, you're doing the 12 to 16 range, like a lot of people do well, then we simply follow the two by two progression scheme I talked about last time, where once you've hit the reps at their highest end, you go up by 5%. So once we get the load going, then it comes back to following overload and progression. So we really think about all these variables. It's important to understand that. We just don't want to wing workouts like if you're following people, influencers on social media and they're telling you that how many reps to do, I mean, don't really pay attention to that, because there's a science to use and you're an individual and you have to use the appropriate loads for you, because the whole idea is that we want to get stronger.
Speaker 1:This will all be part of my new book too, so I'm going to have all these charts and fun things in there. Again, this is the fun part for me. Making programs is really cool. I think it's fun. I can't say fun, more, fun, fun, fun, fun. There. I said it more, but it really is fun for me.
Speaker 1:So hopefully, listening to this, you understand a little bit more of my method to the madness. Now, why don't you get out there, since it's Cyber Monday? Well, when I'm making it it's probably Tuesday when you listen, or later in the week, and they're not really going to give deals on their garage doors for Cyber Monday. I don't think. But you know I try to be funny here. But check out Overhead Door of Daytona Beach because, all joking aside, they are absolutely the best in their door, in their product, in their service. Give them a shout at overheaddoordaytonacom. Please remember to download these shows. Just hit automatic download. Whether you listen on Spotify or Apple or YouTube or whatever, hit automatic download. Please share it to your friends and share it to your social media. It helps me keep the price down of doing these. Until next time, be max fit. Be max well.
