Ashley Donohue does a set of bench presses at the COCC weight room. A new study says that lifting lighter weights has the same benefit as heavier weights.

The accepted strategy for building muscle in the gym is to lift heavy weights. But a recent study from McMaster University suggests individuals could gain a similar amount of new muscle by lifting much lighter weights. The secret, the researchers said, is to lift weights to exhaustion.

The study recruited 15 healthy males and tested to see how much weight they could lift. The researchers then measured how much new muscle protein was being created when they lifted heavy or light weights. When the test subjects lifted 90 percent of the maximum weight, they could pump out only 5 to 10 repetitions before reaching muscle exhaustion. When they lifted at 30 percent of the maximum weight, they completed 24 repetitions before their muscles gave out. But the synthesis of new muscle protein was similar for both weights.

“Rather than grunting and straining to lift heavy weights, you can grab something much lighter, but you have to lift it until you can’t lift it anymore,” said Stuart Phillips, an associate professor of kinesiology who conducted the research. “We’re convinced that growing muscle means stimulating your muscles to make new muscle proteins, a process in the body that over time accumulates into bigger muscles.”

— Markian Hawryluk, The Bulletin