Why Training Lighter Makes You Stronger

When the general population thinks about strength training, the same image will likely come to mind: An athlete with a ridiculously heavy weight on their back, red-faced, grunting and grinding out a very slow difficult rep (or two). However, that image represents a very small percentage of the actual training that causes strength gain.

The majority of the work a strength athlete does will be submaximal, and can range from anywhere between 60-90% of their 1RM.

In fact, lifting maximal weights at very low reps consistently will actually start to have a detrimental effect on your progress.

So, how do we get strong by not lifting heavy weights?

Improvements in technique

Working at a lower percentage allows the athlete to focus on their form and technique while under load. For example, if the training requires 3 sets of 5 reps at 75%, the athlete will be able to perform the reps comfortably with 2-3 repetitions left in the tank. This in turn allows the focus to be put on making small corrections in technique, whilst also getting in enough work to cause the required physiological adaptations.

So, if the athlete is focusing on preventing their hips shooting up on a deadlift or improving their bar path during the bench press. This isn’t something they are going to be able to focus on when lifting >90% of their 1RM. Usually the most common thought during max testing is ‘oh this feels really heavy’ and any thoughts on technique improvements fly out the window.

By allocating a large amount of training time to submaximal loads, this allows multiple weeks of technique improvement, consisting of hundreds of reps, each with the potential to practice lifting technique. If you were a golfer and you were trying to improve your putting game, you’d need to be doing more than 1 or 2 shots a day to practice on it. Moving a barbell works in the same way. When we eventually do get to the heavy weights, that motor pattern is engrained and the athlete will be able to hit the heavy weight with the new technique without consciously thinking about it. 

Building Muscle

When attempting to get strong, increasing your muscle mass is paramount. One of the main determining factors of muscular strength is (not surprisingly) muscular size (1). Overall, a bigger muscle will have the potential to produce more force than a smaller one. Therefore, strength training should include periods of time where building muscle is one of the primary goals.

When training for hypertrophy, increasing training volume (sets x reps x load) is key (2).  When working with heavy weights, it is difficult to have high amounts of training volume as the number of reps and sets you can complete is reduced.

For example, if your 1RM is 100kg then you may be able to complete 3 sets of 3 reps at 95kg. This gives us an overall training volume of 855kg. However, the program required 4 sets of 10 at 60kg, my training volume is 2400kg. Therefore, working with submaximal weights allows more training volume and therefore more potential for muscle growth.

Increasing Work Capacity

Training blocks that include higher training volume help to increase your overall work capacity. Work capacity can be described as the amount of volume an athlete can recover from over a given period of time.

Therefore, as an athlete completes more sets and reps during a training block, this then causes a potentiation effect on subsequent training blocks. I.e. increasing the amount of volume an athlete can complete at submaximal loads then allows them to complete more volume at higher loads. By doing this we can increase the potential for strength gain when we approach the higher loads as we can do more work than we would have previously. An easy way to think of this is that we are increasing the size of the fuel tank in a car. Likewise, increasing muscle mass can be thought of as increasing eh size of the engine. By doing both these things we increase the performance of the car (lift more weight for more sets and reps).

Take Home Messages

When programming for strength training the main purpose of training blocks is to increase the effectiveness of the subsequent block of training, so that we increase our maximal strength upon re-testing. Training with submaximal weights allows improvements in 3 key areas:

1. Lifting Technique

2. Muscle Mass

3. Work Capacity

By improving these factors we increase the effectiveness of the training at higher loads and help move us closer to the overall goal of increasing maximal strength.

Tom Smith

Strength Coach

Raw Strength Gym

PS - If you’d like to join STRONG (our Powerlifting program at RSG) here’s what you get:

• 4 Powerlifting Sessions per week with your Coach so you develop your technique safely and see rapid strength gains

• Customised training plan written specifically for you with your body type, weak points and goals in mind - we also give you a body scan and advise on nutrition

• Accountability and support whilst training as part of a small private team with other novice powerlifters

We aim to help you eat better, feel motivated and LOVE powerlifting with a great sense of belonging with our Barbell Club.

Go ahead and enroll now:  http://www.rawstrength.uk/strong-powerlifting-course

Or email us and we'll send you some more info.

References

1. Schoenfeld, B.J., Ogborn, D. and Krieger, J.W., 2017. Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of sports sciences, 35(11), pp.1073-1082.

2. Erskine, R.M., Jones, D.A., Maganaris, C.N. and Degens, H., 2009. In vivo specific tension of the human quadriceps femoris muscle. European journal of applied physiology, 106(6), p.827.