Light Weight Vs Heavy Weight: Will Light Weights Makes You TONED?

No, not necessarily true. Forget what you might have heard or saw in magazines, going for light weights do not mean so light that you don't feel it. However, you can still lift a little light weights, work each set and still achieve the same results as lifting heavy weights. It's a matter of perception, how heavy something is. For example, anything over 315lbs is consider heavy, meanwhile someone else would consider anything over 135lbs heavy. Which is why we use the word heavy and don't use numbers.

Too many people just don't understand this "TONED" is having muscle and not having much body fat. Light weights don't give you the overload you need to build bigger muscles, while they may help burn fats. A healthy diet is necessary, however, eating super low calories diets don't always work either in the long term, because your body will fight to resist it. 

The media has us convinced that light weights builds muscles, strength and makes little contribution to gains in muscle mass. Different studies done says both heavy weights and light weights stimulate separate mechanisms. A research carried out by Stuart Philips and his colleagues in 2012 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nch.gov./m/pubmed/22518835, it shows 18 male subjects that were put on training on the leg extension machine 3 times a week for 10 weeks. The results shows that both the light weights and heavy weights groups gained equivalent muscle mass which volume was equated for.

Another study in 2016 on 49 men with an average of 4 years lifting experience still show the same results. Both light weights and heavy weights elicited equal amounts of muscle growth.

It's not really a viable option to stick to lights weights given that you can also achieve the same results, even greater with heavy weights. The two mechanisms are needed for muscle growth. They are basically important during your workout, meaning more of one generally means less of the other. 

The main mechanisms of muscle growth are mechanical tension and metabolic stress. When you lift heavy weights, you induce more mechanical tension. But when you lift light weights you cause more metabolic stress. This is probably why lighter weights and heavier weights leads to equivalent muscle growth when equated for volume, because they each target separate mechanisms but leads to the same outcome of muscle gains.

So, in order to maximize muscle growth, it may be beneficial to target both mechanisms of muscle gains in your workouts. Since heavy weights are more beneficial for muscle growth, mechanical tension increasing strength on your heavy compound movements should be the foundation of your long term training.

You can also consider lower weights in your accessories movement after your heavier sets. As this will enable you to take advantage of the multiple pathways involved. Keep the heavier stuff for the compounds and then do the lighter stuff for the isolation.

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