To Build Muscles, Less Weight Can Be More Effective
Wed, October 27, 2010 at 02:00AM I don’t suppose many of my blog readers are into body-building, but who knows? Most seniors are unlikely to be willing to increase their weights load, just to get bulk up. Fortunately, researchers at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, have shown that a similar degree of muscle building can be obtained by using lighter weights. The study they conducted is reported in the online journal PLoS One.
The idea behind the study was that growing muscle requires stimulating the muscle to make new muscle proteins, which, over time, accumulates into bigger muscles. And the stimulus required is muscular fatigue, which may be achieved in different ways, not necessarily by increasing the weights lifted.
The study employed 15 men of average age 21 and a BMI of 24. The exercise used was 4 sets of extension of one leg, at different loads. The weights used were a percentage of the maximum that the individual subject could lift: 90% or 30%. Biopsies were taken of the muscle at rest and 4 and 24 hours after exercise, to determine the rate of protein synthesis.
The men exercised until fatigue using one or other weight load. At 90% of maximum load, they could lift for 5 to 10 times before fatigue stopped them. With the 30% load, they could lift for 24 times or more before they were fatigued. The biochemical analyses of biopsy materials showed that low-load high-volume (i.e. more repetitions) exercise was more effective in inducing acute muscle cell build-up than high-load low-volume exercise. In other words, to bulk up, you only need to use a 30%-of-maximum weight load and repeat lifting until fatigue. This should be a lot easier for older folk than striving to increase the weights lifted. Now you, too, can look buff at the beach!
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