Heavy Weight Training Mythology

The mythological story of the association of lifting maximal amount of weight and muscle mass gain during resistance training has been perpetuated for a very long time. Passed on from gym meatheads, athletes, to coaches, moms, dads, even children can identify and promote this after watching a Saturday morning Incredible Hulk cartoon. Big muscles are made by lifting big weights, right? Not necessarily. The beautiful aspect of science is that it is continually evolving and self-assessed; meaning during a certain period a researched idea of something as simple as eggs may be harmful to health via cholesterol, then found to be pro-health the next. The only way to truly know or stay current is to keep updated on the science; the same is true in regards to exercise science and resistance training. Before I go into detail about muscle growth or readily known as hypertrophy, it needs to be defined first. Hypertrophy is categorized into chronic (long-term) and acute (short-term) effects. Long-term effects would be where the muscle(s) that are trained accumulate contractile and non-contractile proteins or bigger muscle in response to resistance training. While conversely, short-term hypertrophy is an accumulation of fluid (edema) and glycogen stores. However, actual muscle protein gains is debatable [1, 2]. The resistance training of hypertrophic-goal oriented style below has been proposed by ACSM in a position stand paper via resistance training recommendations suggested for optimal muscle mass (hypertrophy) gain [3]: