Jeremy Ethier challenged his body in a unique way for two months.
One of the age-old questions in the gym is — should you train heavy with less reps or light with more reps?
Fitness trainer Jeremy Ethier went out on a mission to answer this question and did so by splitting up his training. For two months, Ethier trained one side of his body light and the other side heavy to see how results panned out.
“For the next 60 days, I’ll be training half my body with light weights and the other half with heavy weights.”
Ethier flipped a coin to decide which side would train heavy. His left side, which is non-dominant, took on the heavy weights while his right side went lighter. During the early stages of this 60-day period, Ethier got a deeper burn on the lighter side while the heavy reps led to quicker fatigue and less soreness.
Ethier was joined by Dennis, a beginner in weight training with 18.4% body fat. He mirrored Ethier’s morning routine and tracked his results as well. Despite the movements being a challenge, Ethier believed that both could put on a few pounds of muscle during this period.
What Were the Final Results?
After one month, Jeremy Ethier noticed some differences in training. The heavy side gained strength but felt more soreness, including pain in his knees. On the other side, it required more effort which led to fatigue.
“With heavy weights, big fibres are activated right from the very first rep. But with light weights, they sit on the sidelines until the smaller ones fatigue.”
At the end of the full 60 days, Ethier’s heavy-rep side was built incredibly strong for a low amount of reps, which is no surprise given that this was the style of training. The lighter side, also unsurprisingly, showed great endurance.
While each side got stronger, Ethier shared that the low-rep side grew in almost all muscles.
“My lighter weight side grew just very slightly more in almost every single muscle. My chest actually had the biggest difference, with the light side experiencing double the growth.”
Here are the final results from the 60-day period:
- Chest: Heavy +3.91%, Light +7.82%
- Quads: Heavy +1.89%, Light +2.36%
- Glutes: Heavy +0.20%, Light +1.18%
- Calves: Heavy +3.62%, Light +5.67%
At the end of the experiment, Jeremy Ethier came to one conclusion regarding which style of training is more beneficial.
“How much weight you use matters far less than how much effort you put in and the form that you’re using.”
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