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hazardtoday at 12:06 AM4 repliesview on HN

tldr appears to be that if you work to fatigue it doesn't matter if you fatigue out with high weights vs low weights


Replies

vlodtoday at 12:39 AM

I agree with this, but for those newbies be careful at what you define as "failure".

I've f.up my MCL by not listening to my body and I have the stability of a typical 85 year old while I try and 'heal'. It takes longer as you get older (you're probably not 20 year old) and stupid stuff can really take you out.

andoandotoday at 2:44 AM

There is certainly a difference in a slow twitch vs fast twitch muscle adaptation though

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8139349/

chrisharetoday at 12:12 AM

When training for muscle size atleast, but not strength. Presumably there are increased injury risks overall when lifting heavy (based on a brief search).

teechatoday at 1:35 AM

fairly new to lifting myself (2+ years taking it seriously) but this thing seems to jive with what I've read across different areas

bodybuilders can build muscle size with high reps and lower weight or lower reps and high weight as long as they do it close to failure with only a few reps in reserve (rir)

powerlifters, or those focusing on strength, usually go for high weight and lower reps because they might be training for a competition that focuses on 1 rep max and/or the body can really only handle so many reps when pushing it at 80-90% of 1 rep max

neither is inherently better but a matter of what goals you have in mind, plus, hypertrophy contributes to overall strength, too