But how heavy is heavy, and how do you know if your workout qualifies?
Theres no specific number of pounds that will constitute heavy for everyone.
Training heavy is not theonlyway to build muscle, but its an effective one.
Here are the questions you should ask yourself when trying to figure out whether you’re training heavy enough.
How many reps are you doing?
Training for strength usually has you doing 1-5repsin each set.
Training for hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is often in the 8-12 range.
Once youre doing much more than that15, 20, 50 repsyoure training your muscularendurancemore than strength.
How hard does the set feel?
Lets say youre doing squats in sets of eight.
But you’re free to also get close to failure withoutquitegoing there.
That still counts as heavy training.
Heavy lifting is when youre doing the appropriate rep rangewith a weight that is challenging within that range.
Are you increasing the weight over time?
The only way to keep the lift challenging as you get stronger is to keep increasing the weight.
OK, now youre lifting heavy.
How long are you resting between sets?
More likely youre doing a strength/cardio hybrid such as circuit training.
Theyre usually notreallyHIIT, butthats a rant for another time.
If you arent resting, that means you arent approaching each set of lifts with fresh, rested muscles.
Reducing rest times makes the workouts feel harder, but it also means youll be working with less weight.
That means these exercises are usually too light fit the definition of working heavy.
They might still help you build strength or muscle size, but not nearly as efficiently.
If you take a few minutes rest between exercises, then youre lifting heavy.
With anappropriate rest time, youll be able to properly lift heavy.
