Light Weight, Baby!

Your 6-Week Plan to Pack on Size Without Heavy Weights

 

“Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, don’t nobody wanna lift no heavy-ass weight!”

 –8X Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman

 

Bodybuilders Train Too Heavy!

Despite the popularity of that oft-quoted catchphrase of Ronnie’s, it’s just not accurate. The reality is that most bodybuilders are obsessed with using the heaviest weights possible and insist on doing so even when factors like recurring injuries and lack of muscle growth would seem to indicate heavier loads aren’t the best course of action. Please don’t get me wrong and misconstrue the intent of this article and training program. There is certainly a time and place for heavy weights, and it would be nearly impossible to find any great physiques that were built without them. Still, there are some compelling reasons why you should consider taking a break from them for a few weeks and giving lighter loads a chance.

 

5 Reasons to Lighten the Load

 

1. Time Under Tension

Numerous studies over decades have confirmed that the mechanisms of muscle growth require a certain amount of time under tension to stimulate the growth response. Thus, shorter bursts of extreme power as seen in Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting are more suited to increases in strength rather than size. Check out Olympic weightlifters in particular, and you will be perplexed at how humans with such relatively little muscle mass can possibly move the amounts of weight they do in the snatch and the clean and jerk. For example, Wu Jingbiao of China weighs only 123 pounds, but can clean and jerk, which is picking the bar off the floor and pressing it overhead, 376 pounds! That lift happens in almost the blink of an eye. Many bodybuilders do sets in the rep range of three to five with ballistic form. Their muscles aren’t under tension very long in sets like these, but they feel they are productive because the weights are very heavy. Contrast that with a set of 12-15 reps with a pause to contract the target muscle and a controlled negative. The muscle in question is under load and tension for roughly four to five times as long. Ironically, those who argue for heavy weights love to point to Ronnie Coleman’s physique as proof of its success. But watch Ronnie’s DVDs or even clips of them on YouTube. Aside from a few “stunt lifts” like his famous 800-pound squat and deadlift, Ronnie’s sets for upper body were always right around 12 reps, and he would go even higher for legs. The muscles need that stress under load to break down the slow-twitch fibers and grow larger. A few quick reps won’t cut it.

 

2. Longevity in Training

At 49 years old, I am fairly typical of many bodybuilders my age. I began lifting at 14 and used very heavy weights throughout my 20s and 30s, almost exclusively. A brief and undetailed list of my injuries would include several muscle tears along with chronic lower back and shoulder injuries as well as osteoarthritis and fully worn-out cartilage in the shoulders. I’m still in the gym just about every morning, but the damage done to my body restricts what I can and can’t do, as well as how heavy I can go. There are certain exercises I can’t do at all anymore that were favorites and points of pride for many years because of how exceptionally strong I was on them. Pain is my constant companion, and I live with the reality that another injury is always right around the corner if I do anything stupid or even let my form slip for a moment. Had I taken breaks from very heavy weights all those years, I and so many others like me would not be in this situation today. I know it’s hard to even imagine what you will be dealing with in 20 years if you’re 20 or even 30 years old, but try to focus on how much you enjoy training and being able to improve your physique. Your practices and habits in the gym today are setting the stage for your future. Should you live purely in the moment with a YOLO attitude, you won’t be having great workouts years from now. You will be struggling to maintain your muscle mass due to injuries and chronic pain, if you haven’t simply given up training out of frustration and disgust.

 

3. Engage and Feel the Muscle

We talk about the mind-muscle connection all the time, which is really nothing more than an esoteric term for consciously feeling the muscles contract and lengthen when we train them. This connection is critical, because without it, it’s far too easy to unwittingly let other muscle groups take the stress away from your intended target. For example, hordes of lifters over the years have stimulated mainly front delts and triceps when they bench press, leading to shallow pecs despite impressive amounts of weight being hoisted. When you use weights that are so heavy that they limit you to anything less than six reps, it’s exceedingly difficult to truly feel the muscle working. You’re too concerned with moving that crazy weight!

 

4. History of Injury and Joint Pain

Men are stubborn creatures by nature, and particularly bodybuilders. I know a local guy who has been around 300 pounds for a couple of decades now, and who used to do reps with 500 in the bench and 600 on the squat any old day in his younger years. He’s now had over a dozen surgeries on his shoulders and knees yet refuses to give up heavy lifting. You can see discomfort in every move he makes. Someone like this should be doing more reps, as his body is sending him a steady barrage of signals that it does not like heavy weights anymore. If you have already done serious damage to your joints and connective tissues, it would seem obvious that very heavy loads are just a terrible idea. 

5. Better Form and ROM

Finally, you are guaranteed better form and range of motion when you lighten the load. You may not be aware of how your form is going to shit when you are maxing out on lifts. Have someone film you with your phone sometime and I bet you suddenly see it does. Squats are not taken to full depth, pressing movements don’t go low enough or are locked out, and the lower back is rounding like a turtle shell on barbell rows and deadlifts. But hey, you just deadlifted 600 pounds for a single, bro!

The Mental Barrier to Using Lighter Weights

I could cite research that has shown lighter weights are just as effective as heavier loads at building lean muscle tissue, such as the well-known studies conducted by Stuart Phillips and his team at McMaster University, yet many of you would still scoff at the idea. We have been so conditioned to believe that heavier weights always translate directly to bigger muscles that we find it inconceivable that it may not be true. The common denominator for what we do in the gym, no matter what our goals, is progressive resistance. We start out only being able to use certain amounts of weights in various exercises, and over time, we grow stronger and the weights increase. You may be able to bench press 405 pounds now, but the first time you got under a bench you might have struggled with 95 pounds. And in a case like that, you see that you are much larger and more muscular now that you have also grown stronger. It would seem counterproductive to go backward and use lighter weights if the goal is to continue growing larger. Won’t you get smaller? Quite to the contrary, switching things up will lead to new gains in lean muscle tissue, especially if you’ve never trained with higher reps.

 

Then there’s the matter of machismo and male pride. Most of us started lifting as teenagers, and back then it was all about how much you could bench press as a marker of who the alpha male was. That attitude often carries over well into adulthood. Many strong men take pride in being able to lift more than anyone else around, and rightfully so. They toiled long and hard to build that level of power. And it is the nature of the human male to constantly compare himself to others around him. Who among us doesn’t automatically do a split-second scan of how much weight the other guys are using around us at the gym, and then do another split-second calculation to determine whether or not they are stronger than us? It’s nothing to be ashamed of, as it’s more instinct than anything else.

 

How to Accept the Value of Lighter Weights

If you still can’t wrap your head around the idea of training lighter, even for a few weeks, ask yourself this million-dollar question. Would you rather lift 1,000 pounds and not have a physique anyone would look twice at, or be big and muscular without lifting 1,000 pounds? You can’t answer “both,” as that was not a third option. If you identity yourself as a bodybuilder, that means the appearance of your physique takes precedence over its performance ability, specifically strength in this case. If you could do something different with your training that would result in gaining new lean muscle mass, that should be more than an adequate payoff for the psychological anxiety over training with less than your usual weights for a while, or even for the possibility of temporarily losing a small amount of your strength (which you will regain very soon, once you return to your normal rep ranges after the six weeks). Really, you have nothing to lose that you won’t get right back, and odds are very good that you’ll add new muscle mass for perhaps the first time in years! Ready to give it a go?

 

Your 6-Week Training Program

Rather than performing only traditional sets with higher reps, we’re going to utilize some excellent intensity techniques as well. These are all designed to deliver the maximum pump for the target muscle group. These will include drop sets, rest-pause, varying rep tempo, and sevens. It’s only fair to warn you that if you have been training exclusively with straight sets in the low to average rep ranges, the muscle soreness you will experience in the first seven to 10 days will be significant. After this period, your muscles should adjust somewhat to the new forms of stress and soreness should diminish. Rather than give you an exact body part split for these six weeks, I will list workouts to follow for each body part for weeks 1-3 and 4-6. You can arrange your muscle groups and training week any way you like as long as you follow the prescribed routine for that body part.

 

Weeks 1-3

 

Chest

 

Dumbbell Incline Press

Warm-up:          1 x 15

Sets:                 4 x 20, 15, 15, 12 (increasing weight)

Machine Bench Press

Sets:                4 x 10 + 10

(Do 10 reps slowly and pausing to contract on each rep, then 10 reps faster with no pausing)

Pec Flye Machine

Sets:                7 x 12

(Use the same weight and rest only 30 seconds between sets. The first 3-4 sets should feel easy, by sets 5 and 6, the burn should be setting in and by the final set, it should take all your effort to get 12 reps)

Dip Machine

Sets:                3 x 15 (lean forward to involve more pecs)

 

Back

 

Lat Pulldown – 2 angles with standard grip

Sets:                                        4 x 12 + 12

(Perform the first 12 reps sitting upright and pulling to the clavicles. Then, lean back at 45 degrees and pull at an angle to your mid-chest)

Barbell Row

Warm-up:                                  1 x 15

Sets:                                        4 x 20, 20, 15, 15 (increasing weight)

Close-Grip Lat Pulldown

Sets:                                        12 + 12

(Use grip attachment normally used for seated cable rows. Do 12 reps, then drop the weight and do 12 more)

Seated Cable Row

Sets:                                        3 x 30 total

(Select a weight you can get 15 reps with. Once you fail at 15, rest for 10 seconds and continue. Repeat this process until 30 total reps have been completed. That’s one set)

Dumbbell Shrugs                  4 x 25

 

Shoulders

 

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Sets:                            4 x 15 + 15 + 15

(These are double drop sets, meaning start with 15 reps, grab a lighter pair of dumbbells and do 15 more, then go down one to one more lighter pair for a final 15 reps, totaling 45 reps for each of these sets)

Machine Overhead Press

Sets:                            3 x 15 slowly and with pause

                                    3 x 15 faster, no pause

Rear Delt Machine – alternating arms

Sets:                            3 x 30, 10 at a time

(Do 10 reps with your left arm, then 10 arms with your right, and repeat this two more times with no resting at any point until you have done a total of 30 reps on each side. Do three of these sets for a total of 90 reps each side. The weight should not feel heavy at all for the first round of 10)

Wide-Grip Barbell Upright Row

Sets:                            4 x 20

 

Biceps

 

EZ-Bar 21’s                             

Sets:                            4 x 21

(7 reps in the bottom one-third of the rep, 7 reps in the mid-range of the rep, and a final 7 in the top one-third range of motion)

Dumbbell Hammer Curl

Sets:                            3 x 10 + 10

(10 reps with both arms together, then alternate reps for left and right arms until you have completed 10 more for each arm)

Seated Machine Curl

Sets:                            4 x 20, 20, 15, 15 (increasing weight)

 

Triceps

 

Rope Pushdown

Sets:                            4 x 15 + 15

(Spread ropes apart on first 15 reps, hold ropes together for second 15 reps)

Close-Grip Bench Press on Smith machine

Sets:                            4 x 10 + 10-12

(Do 10 reps with a weight that feels like you could get 2-3 more reps than that. Rack the weight, count 10 seconds, then go again for 10-12 reps)

One-Arm Overhead Dumbbell Extension

Sets:                            30 each arm

(Select a weight you can get 15 reps with. Once you fail at 15, rest for 10 seconds and continue. Repeat this process until 30 total reps have been completed. That’s one set.)

Bench Dip                    7 x 10

(Rest only 30 seconds between sets. If you are unable to get 10 reps for less than 5 sets with feet elevated, you can do these with your legs straight out in front of you and feet on the ground)

 

Quadriceps

 

Leg Extension             4 x 25

Hack Squat                  4 x 15 + 15

(Perform 15 reps slowly with a slight pause at both the top and bottom of the rep, then 15 faster with no pausing at any point – the weight should not feel heavy for the first 15 reps or there is no way you will get the last 15!)

Leg Press                     4 x 20

(Rest only 30 seconds between sets)

Walking Lunge

Sets:                              3 rounds of 20 steps, each leg

 

Hamstrings

 

Lying Leg Curl

Sets:                                        4 x 12 + 12

(12 reps with full range of motion, then 12 more from the full stretch to halfway up)

Barbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift

Sets:                                        4 x 20

Seated Leg Curl          

Sets:                                        4 x 15 with extra contractions

(On each rep, come down to a full contraction, then let it back up one-third of the way and squeeze back down again before releasing into the stretch position. That’s one rep)

Leg Press – feet wide and high on platform

Sets:                                        4 x 25

 

Calves

 

Standing Calf Raise

Sets:                                        4 x 10 + 10 + 10

(Double drop sets)

Seated Calf Raise                   4 x 50, 30, 20, 15 (increasing weight)

 

Weeks 4-6

 

Chest

 

Flat Bench Press Machine

Sets:                                      3 x 20, 20, 15, 15 (increasing weight)

                                              2 x 12 +12 (drop sets)

Incline Press on Smith Machine

Sets:                                      4 x 12 + 12

(Perform 12 reps, rack the weight and count to 10, then do 12 more)

Cable Crossover                  4 x 21

(7 reps in just the final one-third ROM to full contraction, 7 reps in just the first one-third ROM emphasizing the stretch, then 7 full ROM reps)

Push-Ups

Sets:                                       5 x 20

(Rest only 30 seconds between sets)

 

Back

 

Lat Pulldown                          4 x 12 + 12

(First 12 are full ROM reps, second 12 are from full stretch just to top of head)

Machine Seated Row – neutral grip

Sets:                                        4 x 10 + 10

(First 10 reps are done normal speed but with no pausing, last 10 reps are done slower and with a squeeze to contract the lats on each rep)

One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Sets:                                        3 x 30

(Do 10 reps with your left arm, then 10 arms with your right, and repeat this two more times with no resting at any point until you have done a total of 30 reps on each side. Do three of these sets for a total of 90 reps each side. The weight should not feel heavy at all for the first round of 10)

Seated Cable Row – use lat pulldown attachment and overhand grip

Sets:                                        3 x 20 + 20 (drop sets)

Barbell Shrug                         4 x 15 + 10-12

(Do 15 reps, set bar down and count to 10, pick it up and get 10-12 more)

 

Shoulders

 

Seated Dumbbell Press                      

Sets:                                        5 x 25, 20, 15, 15, 12 (increasing weight)

Seated to Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Sets:                                        4 x 12 + 12

(Do 12 reps seated, with or without back support, then stand and do 12 more)

Bent Dumbbell Rear Lateral Raises, supported to freestanding

Sets:                                        4 x 12 + 12

(Do the first 12 reps facedown on an incline bench, then immediately take the same dumbbells and do another 12 reps standing and bent over)

One-Arm Cable Lateral Raises

Sets:                                        3 x 30

(Same format as previous 30-rep sets)

Machine Overhead Press

Sets:                                        5 x 10-12

(Rest only 30 seconds between sets, weight should not start feeling heavy until set number 3)

                       

Biceps

 

Incline Dumbbell Curls to Standing Curls

Sets:                                        4 x 12 + 12

(12 reps of incline curls, both arms at the same time, then stand up and do 12 more reps, again with both arms. Do not supinate the curls – always keep palms facing forward)

Preacher Reverse Curls to Preacher Curls

Sets:                                        4 x 10 + 10

(10 reps of reverse curls, then flip hands over and continue for 10 more reps of standard preacher curls)

One-Arm Machine curls

Sets:                                        3 x 10 + 10 (drop set)

 

Triceps

 

Reverse Cable Pushdown to Cable Pushdown

Sets:                                        4 x 15 + 15

(15 reps with a reverse grip, flip hands over and do 15 more. A short straight bar attachment works best here)

Seated Dip Machine

Sets:                                        4 x 10 + 10

(10 reps only in the final one-third ROM to emphasize the contraction, followed by 10 reps in the full ROM)

Overhead Cable Extension

Sets:                                        4 x 15-20

Two-Arm Dumbbell Kickbacks

Sets:                                        3 x 20 each arm

(Take minimal rest here. If you can do all 6 sets, 3 for the right and 3 for the left, without resting, do so)

 

Quadriceps

 

Leg Extensions                                   

Warm-up:                                  1 x 20

Sets:                                         4 x 12 + 12

(Do 12 reps, count to 10 while you rest, then do 12 more)

Squats                                      5 x 20, 20, 20, 15, 15 (increasing weight)

Single-Leg Press

Sets:                                          4 x 20, each leg

Hack Squats   

Sets:                                          3 x 15

Superset with

Sissy Squat                              3 x 15

 

Hamstrings

 

Single-Leg Curl

Sets:                                        5 x 20, 20, 15, 15, 12, each leg

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

Sets:                                        4 x 30, 25, 20, 15, 15 (increasing weight)

Lying Leg Curl                       4 x 12 + 12 (drop set)

Sumo Squat on Smith Machine

Sets:                                        4 x 20

 

Calves

 

Seated Calf Raise

Sets:                                        4 x 15 + 15

(Do 15 reps, rest for 10 seconds, do 15 more)

Calf Raise on Leg Press

Sets:                                        3 x 15 + 15

(15 reps with standard foot placement at shoulder width, 15 more reps with feet together)

 

Lighten Up and Grow!

I am very confident you will make noticeable gains in the six weeks you follow this program. The gains will be even better for those of you who have never or only rarely utilized higher reps and shorter rest intervals between sets. You can go back to heavier weights once this is over, of course. You may find the results were so satisfying that you will either want to revisit the program again in a few months, or at the very least, incorporate some of these techniques and rep schemes into your workouts to add variety and provide your muscles with a different type of stimulus. Hopefully you will learn as I did that higher reps and lighter weights can be keys to muscle growth just like the heavier iron!

 

References:

Mitchell CJ, Churchward-Venne TA, et al. Resistance exercise load does not determine training-mediated hypertrophic gains in young men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00307.2012

 

McMaster University. "Pumping iron: Lighter weights just as effective as heavier weights to gain muscle, build strength." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 July 2016.

 

Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram

 

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