Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The Key to Muscle Growth is Lifting to Failure, Not the Amount of Weight
According to a new study, if you want to get strong and grow muscle, it's ok to use light weights, but the key is to lift until you can't anymore.
This may be important for runners, particularly older ones like myself that want to reverse age-related muscle loss but avoid potential for injury that may occur with heavy lifting.
For more information, go to runnersworld or the globe and mail.
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Hey Dave, But if you are training everyday, is it not better to stimulate growth by weights and keep inflammation to a minimum by doing controlled sets that don't go until failure so that you can train day after day? (if you have a rest day after the weights session then no problems I guess)
ReplyDeleteWithout doing some digging I would say the research probably supports 2-3 days of recovery following lifting to failue for optimal growth. I think everyday at less than 100% is ok for maintance though- ie push-ups.
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