Lifting heavy and lifting hard is a deadly combination towards harvesting mass for warfare against any bozo with bad intentions.

Lifting Heavy vs Lifting Hard [Part I of II]

In a previous post, I discussed the law of specificity and its impact on programming. The law of specificity is defined as “doing specific movements for specific goals”. Another way to phrase this is if you want to be fast, you have to train fast. You have to train with speed and other variations of speed in order to employ quickness to your performance. But one phrase that could have a debatable context would be “if I want to be heavy I need to train heavy”. Now, I am not using heavy in a negative sense that could imply fat or sloppy tendencies…I am saying the term “heavy” with the intent of harvesting mass for warfare against any bozo with bad intentions.

So if you’re goal is to gain size for growth and development…a topic we can bring up is “lifting heavy and lifting hard”. We all know what lifting heavy means…but doesn’t lifting hard mean the same thing?

Lifting heavy is just as it sounds, placing the most weight on the bar for the prescribed volume. If the set requires you to lift 6 reps, you want to put on the heaviest load you can handle for those 6 reps. That’s what makes the movement heavy, the amount of weight utilized within that given working set. But to add to this type of movement, we can also start prescribing movements to be not only heavy but also hard. To make a movement hard, that means to add a modification that would make the movement more rigorous that wouldn’t require having to put the most weight on the bar possible. A way to do this would be tempo’d movement, emphasis on the eccentric or concentric phase of the movement, adding a pause between muscular phases or even extending or decreasing the range of motion! To better understand these two styles, lets break down the weekly national holiday that every gym member knows of: Chest Day.

On bodybuilding.com, I found a post on gaining mass for your chest using the following routine:

Dumbbell Bench Press 4x8

Barbell Incline Bench Press 3x10

Leverage Decline Press 3x10

Incline Dumbbell Flyes 3x10,10,12

Butterfly 3x12

 As you can see, with this prescribed routine we are hitting higher volume -- nothing extreme though. The reps and sets are within a range to elicit exhaustion that would be ideal for impacting size and development. But if you have been lifting for a while, you can understand that this routine and prescribed volume almost seems “too vanilla” and something that has been done too many times before. This would be a fair program for any new slum off the street, but for many of us, we have been in the game for years now and need something new! So to increase the rigor and gain more benefit for size and development, let’s talk about implementing the idea of “heavy vs hard” to this routine.

 Lifting heavy means taking your first few movements and loading as much as you can handle within the rep range provided. Lets set the standard for 2-4 sets and 3-6 reps.

Dumbbell Bench Press 4x5

Incline Press 3x6

 Lifting hard means adding a modification to making the movement difficult but not having to put on an extreme load. This helps with increasing the rigor without putting so much strain on our musculature, joints, and CNS as well. Lets set the standard for 2-3 sets and 10-20 reps

Leverage Decline Press 3x10,12,20

Tempo Incline Dumbbell Flyes 3x10

Butterfly 2x15

 Lifting heavy and lifting hard both have their benefits, but that’s something we will get into with our next post. Look for more information discussing why we set the standards to certain sets, certain reps, and when and why we should use certain modifications such as tempo, paused lifts, and eccentric/concentric exaggeration.

 Are you someone who loves to lift and wants to continue to have their size and strength? Lift SMART! Don’t overdue your sessions, but also don’t take them too lightly. Remember, we should always cycle our training towards a “peak”. Your peak doesn’t have to be a 1RM deadlift, but you should also consider cycling towards a specific goal so you’re not aimlessly curling dumbbells and benching barbells. Be focused, train smart, and BANG THE IRON!