Great physique and strength comes from lifting as heavy as you can, right? NO. There is a misconception in the fitness industry that we have to lift extremely heavy to be considered as “strong” or “fit” or even “attractive”. 👎🏻

If your goal is to maintain/improve your general fitness, you DO NOT need to lift heavy weights and still be able to look as aesthetic as you like.

To determine if you have to lift heavy to get the result that you want, you will need to set up a specific goal for yourself. Your goal could be focusing on the following aspects for a period of time depending on your meso-cycles: Power / Strength / Hypertrophy / Endurance.

For power and strength focused training programs, heavy weights are definitely essential, but you should carefully work around the meso-cycles to ensure sufficient recovery without pushing yourself to the “over-training” states.

For hypertrophy folks, the so-called “rep range” are super blurred as there is no clear recommendation for “hypertrophy”. We will all get hypertrophy effects from rep range between 1 – 30 reps OR 30% – 100% of 1RM. The traditional “8 – 12 reps” does not work on every single muscle for our body when you are trying to maximise muscle growth. You should tailor your rep range / % of 1 RPM depending on the type of muscles (Type I, Type IIa, Type IIb). For example, you would want to hit 15-30 reps with a lower weight for the best hypertrophy growth in your deltoids).

For endurance focused training, heavy weight is probably a bad choice for you as your goal is to continue to activate the muscle fibres for as long as you can. Usually, your training load will be at the lower % of your 1RM and that is totally fine. You will still get the aesthetic results regardless (probably not gaining as much mass), but your body will be able to go through much longer physical stress.

Take home message: Weight is a tool for you to achieve your goals. Drive yourself with a individualised program is more important!