Well, if you exercise until you can’t lift 50 pounds for another rep, you’ve fatigued your muscles more (deteriorated more myofibrils) than if you exercise until you can’t lift 180 pounds for another rep, although you’re not going to build your fast twitch muscles as much only doing low weight.
… and you are quite possibly just overtraining, leaving yourself worse off than before!
Although I’ve never used it myself, I know guys who swear by the method of working with high weights to depletion, then lower weights, then lower, until they fail to lift a fraction of their maximum. Whether your muscles can recover from that in a timely manner depends largely on the kind of condition you’re already in, I wouldn’t suggest trying it if you’re not already a veteran.
Although I’ve never used it myself, I know guys who swear by the method of working with high weights to depletion, then lower weights, then lower, until they fail to lift a fraction of their maximum.
I have tried it and it is a lot of fun! It can work too… if done in the right balance.
I merely affirmed what you said and pointed out that turning the dial one step further into the ‘high amount of fatigue’ end of the spectrum can not only reduce strength gains but outright reduce them. Overtraining really does make you weaker. Not to mention chronically tired. (I’ve tried that too.)
Whether your muscles can recover from that in a timely manner depends largely on the kind of condition you’re already in, I wouldn’t suggest trying it if you’re not already a veteran.
Some would say that you need more recovery time if you are already well built than if you are less so. We can improve our ability to restore muscles via training but not as much as we can increase the amount of muscle mass that needs to be restored.
… and you are quite possibly just overtraining, leaving yourself worse off than before!
Although I’ve never used it myself, I know guys who swear by the method of working with high weights to depletion, then lower weights, then lower, until they fail to lift a fraction of their maximum. Whether your muscles can recover from that in a timely manner depends largely on the kind of condition you’re already in, I wouldn’t suggest trying it if you’re not already a veteran.
I have tried it and it is a lot of fun! It can work too… if done in the right balance.
I merely affirmed what you said and pointed out that turning the dial one step further into the ‘high amount of fatigue’ end of the spectrum can not only reduce strength gains but outright reduce them. Overtraining really does make you weaker. Not to mention chronically tired. (I’ve tried that too.)
Some would say that you need more recovery time if you are already well built than if you are less so. We can improve our ability to restore muscles via training but not as much as we can increase the amount of muscle mass that needs to be restored.