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How Heavy is TOO Heavy to Build Muscle?

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Rating: 4.5; Vote: 2

If you want to build muscle you have to ask yourself how heavy is too heavy when it comes to lifting weights. A lot of people will lift heavy weights in order to build muscle but not pay attention to how they are doing it. I would argue that lifting lighter weights will go a lot further towards adding mass if you are going to lift the heavy weights improperly. That said, there is a need to first ask yourself what your training goal is. What are you training for? If your goal is to increase strength at any expense then you may think that completing the lift at all is hitting your goal. I would argue that at the expense of good form, this is not true. At the root of all true strength is stability. This is especially so if you want to build muscle and remain injury free for years to come. If you continue to attempt to add weight to the bar and progressively overload but do so upon a body that is not stabile you will ultimately suffer an injury in almost every case. Instead, look to add weight to the bar as able provided you can maintain the safety through stability by not building around a cracked foundation. Now, when it comes to hypertrophy or building muscle, there is one easy test that you can do right now on any lift to determine if the weight that you are using is too heavy for you. This is caused the pause test. At any point in time during the lift you are performing you should be able to stop the weight and hold it. I don t care if this stopping point is at the beginning, middle or end of the rep. The reason why is because of muscle physiology and biomechanics we know to be true. Muscles are stronger isometrically than they are concentrically. In other words, the force generating capacity of a muscle is stronger when all it has to do is hold the weight in one place rather than shorten and move the weight in space. With this knowledge however, we know that if we truly have the strength to lift a weight on an exercise that we should always have at least the same capacity to stop its motion. Take an exercise like the front dumbbell raise. This works the front delts. That said, if you use only momentum to swing the weight up then you will be hard pressed to be able to stop it at some point during the rep as well, especially as we get towards the top of the movement. Instead, if you had chosen a weight that is lighter, and could be lifted under your muscle control then you would have had the ability to do so. The lightening of the weight will not detract from your muscle gains but actually boost them. How? By giving your delts a better chance to incur the load and be responsible for overcoming the resistance - serving as the spark for their overload and ultimate hypertrophy. Now, is there ever a reason to use a heavier than usual weight and cheat it up through the concentric part of the lift? Definitely. This allows you to train with an eccentric overload focus. Things like cheat curls, or cheat laterals are muscle building exercises that allow you to use some momentum to swing the weight up in order to put the dumbbell or barbell in a position to be forced to lower slowly and overtax the eccentric muscle capabilities of a muscle in order to make it grow bigger. If you look at an exercise like the lat pulldown, it gives you the chance to do either. Load it up and lean back as you swing the weight down in order to focus on the eccentric as I am suggesting here and attempt to stop it at different points in the range of motion in order to find your heaviest and most appropriate weight. So, set the pin in the stack and perform a rep and see if you can stop the pulldown bar from moving at various points in the lift. Be sure to remember to do it at the very end of the rep as well since this will often be the hardest part to do this in. If you can control the weight, don t assume you have found the right weight. You ve only ensured that you haven t found the wrong one! Now, raise the weight a bit and try again. Your goal should be to find the heaviest weight you can that still allows you to control it and stop its motion at any point in the lift. When you ve found the weight you are unable to control, simply drop back a notch on the stack and that is the weight to train with. When you are looking to build muscle and get ripped you need to apply muscle building science to your workouts. If you are looking for a complete step by step workout program that includes day by day meal plans, be sure to head to athleanx. com via the link below. Use the program selector tool to find the program that matches your goals the best.
Date: 2022-06-30

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Comments and reviews: 10

Prateek
Hi Jeff, I have two questions. First is on the perfect back workout recommended by you. It has been a part of my training ever since you put the entire series out. In my recent experience, while doing the weighted pull up I might have cricked my neck. I suspect there is weakness as it felt sore the day before while doing barbell shoulder press (from your perfect shoulder workout) series. So the question, how to avoid stress on the neck while performing heavy lifts? Some tip to strengthen neck muscles would definitely be a life saver. My second question is on including exercises from the perfect workout series for 9to5 professionals. Earlier I used to have time to go through one or two muscles group per day but now as the work load has increased overall I would prefer to have a compressed format of the perfect series. I am not a fan of push pull leg and do enjoy the work and idea behind the perfect workout. Plus I made a lot of gains doing it. So looking forward to your videos addressing these topics. Thanks a lot and wish you a belated happy birthday!
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Pranav
Hey Jeff. My question would be: How do I deal with the 'this is the right way to do' advices when you have a reason for what you are doing. For example, today when I was doing barbell overhead presses on my feet one guy came to me and said that I should be doing them on a chair or it will affect my spine(I am seriously considering to use a belt next time. And then there is a friend of mine who makes me do the 'dumbbell fly'. And I would eventually do what they ask me to do since I have only 3 months of lifting experience and because I don't want to piss off people.
As a person who has so much experience in the gym. Any advice?
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sport
Hi, Jeff, I used to be a collegiate athlete and would regularly lift and condition but I got into a terrible car accident. I have residual nerve damage on my right arm and hand and significantly less strength in my right arm compared to my left arm which led to muscle atrophy in my right arm. I bought a dumbell set and a band set and my left arm is visible bigger and stronger than my right arm so I can't left the same weight with my right arm as I can with my left arm. Do you have any recommendations or videos you suggest I watch for muscle hypertrophy I could use to address this issue? Great content. Keep up the great work.
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roadstar499
First start your workout using very light weight to lock in your brain and muscle connection is the best. once you are locked in and have your form and speed the way you want then add a little weight at a time. last set should have a weight that you should be able to do the amount you want. some guys target higher reps 12-15 while others 6-10 range or what ever. the key is stick to your form and train to a good amount of intensity. some guys push harder than others, but some guys also recover better. learn your body focus on proper training diet and rest and you will make gains.
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Josh
Hey Jeff love your videos! Here's my question, how do I know if the difference in size of my left vs right pec muscles is due to genetics or something that I've been training wrong forever? And how would I fix it? My left pic is significantly bigger than my right one. Related, I also notice that whenever I wear shirts with just small straps over the shoulders, the shirt hangs noticeably more to my left side, almost always exposing my right nipple while leaving the left one more than covered. It's embarrassing to ask but, gotta find out somehow! Thanks!
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Ensw52
Hi Jeff, I've been training consistently for 8 months now (3 times a week, about 2 hours per session) and I've stayed at 155-160lbs for the entire duration. I've personally seen physical growth in my arms and legs when I look at myself in the mirror, but I would honestly prefer more bulkiness to my build rather than looking fitter. I eat about 2000 calories worth of food everyday, even on rest days. Am I not training or resting enough? Or am I just being too impatient with my gains and I just need to wait this out for a couple more years?
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Muhammad
My question: I am having a shoulder pain in left shoulder while doing a barbell seated behind head press for shoulders. I know you probably do not advise exercises which put shoulder and other joints in an awkward position, but I've been doing it since few months, this pain hs just started recently like a week ago. I can't go beyond 6-7 reps max and it starts hurting n gets uncomfortable, so I've stopped doing this exercise.
Any suggestions? Alternate exercises? Other than your favourite face pull of course. lol
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Tommy
I wonder how little is the minimum training one should do for health.
To keep it simple, I got very little mental energy and very little time.
I know. Training gives energy. Every bit of training is better than none. I can schedule better. But im tired. Tired to the bone.
So what does the science say?
I dont need to look great or have huge gains. I just want to stave of the worst from ageing.
If you need more info, Im just over 40, male, and eat. decent. So my weight is okay (BMI 24 or so.
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Mathew
I can't do bench presses for my chest. When I do my back spasms or my shoulders spasm. What am I doing wrong and how do I improve? I've tried with both dumbbells, just a bar, or weights, and it always happens. I have to use alternative exercises to build my chest.
Edit: even just sitting on a bench in the press position causes incredible amounts of discomfort for me. I can't do tricep pull like that, or any exercise really.
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Daniel
Very useful advice! These kinds of tips have opened my mind towards a much more efficient and enjoyable training experience! Thank you, Jeff.
Could you talk about the correlation between strength and hypertrophy? I mean, how strong do you have to be in order to see hypertrophy gains? Or, working on hypertrophy, don't you become also stronger? Aren't both components (hypertrophy and strength) to some degree always present?
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