Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock
During one of my fitness classes, a student shared that she used to attend regular personal training sessions at the gym. However, as the training intensity increased, so did her mental stress. Her coach was a big believer in “progressive overload” and constantly pushed her to lift heavier weights, insisting it was the only way to stimulate muscle growth.
Many people still believe that constantly adding weight is essential to building muscle. However, recent research suggests this mindset may need a rethink. A study published in The Journal of Physiology had participants train one side of their body with heavy loads and the other with lighter loads. The results were surprising: As long as they trained close to muscular failure, both heavy and light weights produced nearly identical muscle growth.
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