Myths & Facts - Heavy to build, light to tone

Pretty much everyone has heard the phrase “use heavy weight to build muscle and light weight to tone muscle.”

We must first address the use of the word “tone.” Tone simply means the ability to see the muscles. The only way you become tone is to reduce body fat enough so you can actually see the muscle underneath. If you do not have a decent muscular structure under your fat, you will never be toned.

Lifting heavy makes you bulky…false! Eating too much food

makes you bulky. The people that complain that lifting heavy has made them bulky do not realize the impact their food has on their body. Now, let's clarify what heavy actually means. Lifting heavy simply means using the most weight possible for the given rep range you are trying to hit. It doesn’t matter if your goal is to bulk, drop fat, tone, whatever, lifting heavy is a

huge component.

Why lift heavy if all you want to do is drop body fat? First of all, dropping body fat isn’t all you want to do. You think that’s all you need in order to feel better and look better. Yes, dropping body fat might be a huge part of that but lifting heavy will help preserve and possibly even build lean muscle tissue while in a calorie deficit. This will keep your metabolism high and contributes to the “feeling good” part mentioned above. If part of your mission is to look better, lifting heavy and gaining some muscle is the key!

Like I stated previously, lifting heavy simply means using the maximum amount of weight needed to achieve the reps prescribed in your program.

Example: If you are trying to do dumbbell bench press for 4 sets of 8 reps and you are using 20 pound dumbbells, and you are gitting failure or coming within 1 rep of failure, that is heavy! Great job! But if you stop at 8 reps and could ave done 4 or more, you should up the weight or adjust the rep range.

If you ever have a question about lifting heavy ask here!

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