Influence of training weight on muscle building?

What role does training weight play in building muscle?

You have probably already asked yourself what influence training weight has on building muscle.

The goal of strength training is to fatigue the target muscle used in the exercise as much as possible within a period of approx. 60 - 120 seconds. The more the muscle is fatigued in this time, the stronger the anabolic response to this training stimulus will be (provided that protein intake and timing are right).

When you move the resistance for the first time, we can assume that you still have 100% of your available muscle strength (provided you are rested). With every repetition, or every second, part of your strength diminishes due to fatigue. Now let's assume you do your strength training with approx. 90% of your maximum possible resistance; you can then move the resistance until your strength falls below these 90%.

Are you really fatigued then?

Rather not. You still have almost 90% of your possible strength available. You simply can't move the resistance anymore, because the resistance is too heavy. In this case you would have to complete countless sets of the same exercise to fatigue the muscle. This costs you unnecessary time and additionally strains the central nervous system.

Now let's assume you choose a resistance for your strength training that is approx. 60% of your possible resistance. You can then move the resistance until your muscle strength for the exercise task is less than these 60%.

So which training weight is the right one for building muscle?

The resistance should be chosen so that you cannot move it by a millimetre at the earliest after 60 seconds and at the latest after 120 seconds.

You can also choose the resistance so that you can move it for approx. 60 seconds. As soon as you can no longer move the resistance, it would make sense to reduce it once. You can then continue moving the lighter resistance and fatigue your muscle further until you can produce less force than the resistance weighs.

Below is a graphic representation of this.

So make sure you choose the resistance so that you can move it for approx. 60 - 120 seconds. If you can only move the resistance for approx. 60 seconds, there is the option to briefly set it down (max. 3 seconds), reduce the resistance and continue the exercise straight away.

Drain your muscle of strength and let it burn!

Have fun with it.

Source: Burd et al, 2010, Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men.