Love to sweat it out in the gym? Lifting heavy weights can boost your muscle strength

Lifting heavy weights can enhance your muscle strength as opposed to working out with light weights, suggests a new study.

Love lifting heavy weights in the gym? A new study says that lifting heavy weights may help you enhance your muscle strength more than light weight training as the nervous system facilitates improvements in strength during high-load training.

The study aimed to find out how the brain and motor neurons -- cells that send electrical signals to muscle -- adapt to high versus low-load weight training.

The findings showed that despite similar increases in muscle thickness, high-load training may be superior for enhancing muscle strength than low-load training.

The nervous system activates more of the motor neurons -- or excites them more frequently -- when subjected to high-load training.

This increased excitation could account for the greater strength gains despite comparable growth in muscle mass, the researchers said.

“If you’re trying to increase strength -- whether you’re a gym rat or an athlete -- training with high loads is going to result in greater strength adaptations,” said Nathaniel Jenkins, assistant professor at the Oklahoma State University.

Low-load training remains a viable option for those looking to simply build mass or avoid putting extreme stress on joints

The results showed a similar growth in muscle between the two groups but a larger strength increase -- roughly 10 pounds’ worth -- was found in the high-load group.

Although, low-load training remains a viable option for those looking to simply build mass or avoid putting extreme stress on joints, still, when it comes to building strength -- especially amid a busy schedule -- heavier is better, Jenkins maintained.

“High-load training is more efficient” and “it’s more time-efficient. We’re seeing greater strength adaptations. And now we’re seeing greater neural adaptations,” Jenkins added.

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