[POLL] Resistance Training - Low volume/high weight or high volume/low weight?

#1

What is your resistance training philosophy? (explain why below)

  • Low volume/high weight
  • High volume/low weight

0 voters

For the longest time I was working out at home using some adjustable dumbbells, a pullup bar, a bench and dip bars. Very basic workouts that allowed me to build a respectable physique without having to pay for or travel to the gym.

Why did I change?

Recently my dumbbells were damaged and I had to pick between buying new ones or using that money to get a gym membership. I decided to join the gym.

At home alone with dumbbells low volume/high weight isn’t possible without risking serious injury.

I am subscribed to a lot of exercise and fitness Youtube channels and as of late they are preaching that low volume/high weight is superior; and having given it a go I am inclined to agree.

Get the same workout or more done in half the time

With low volume/high weight in 30 minutes I’m able to achieve a better workout than I could in 1+ hours at high volume/low weight. I’ve quickly gone through barriers of weight I can lift faster than I could imagine, and my workouts are not dreaded marathons anymore!

I don’t bring my phone to the gym. It’s quite annoying when you’re waiting to use a machine or a spot and someone is scrolling on the internet while taking up the space. I also think that using a shorter break between sets is ideal for most types of exercise.

I do 2-3 sets; typically the first one is a bit lighter than what I consider to be heavy just to gauge how I’m feeling at the time to avoid injury, 2nd set I jump the weight up as much as possible and then third set I do as many reps as possible at that weight or a bit heavier to finish it off. Typically aiming for 5-10 reps, but I’m not concerned if it is closer to 5 as this simply means I’ve chosen a very heavy weight for my strength.

For the moment I’m avoiding doing squats, deadlifts and bench press and sticking to machines and isolating muscles using mostly machines. It’s really allowing me to build up muscles I was missing doing basic lifts with dumbbells at home. I just finished a leg workout and my legs are shaking but I was only in the gym for 25-30 minutes.

#2

Missing a third option : alternating between both. You’ll find that there might be a point when you stop progressing on your low-rep heavy lifts. One effective way for me to get over this is to lower the weight, but increase the number of repetitions. So instead of squatting for 5 sets of 200x5, I do 5 sets of 150x7, which is effectively more work in terms of training volume.

I mostly do compound lifts with barbells or dumbbells, but keep track of training volume for all all my sessions. This allows me to not lie to myself about how much work I can put into a session, and provides me with a single metric I can use to track progress whether I train unilaterally, with barbells, body weight, or dumbbells, etc.

This all depends on your goals and training status. Experienced bodybuilders, for example, would benefit more from high reps, in part because more volume is needed to drive more growth.

Anyway, the name of the game is progressive overload. You can use whatever method to achieve progression, you don’t have to limit yourself to one progression metric.

#3

One can typically address this issue by giving yourself enough time to recover.