You’ve heard this before, because it’s said out loud in many a gym: “If you want to get big, you’ve gotta lift heavy.”
On face value, it sounds legit. You look around the gym and see that the lifters who lift heavy are big. So, it’s easy to think more plates equal more gains. But here’s the truth…
You don’t need to lift like a powerlifter to look like a superhero.
The idea that only heavy weights build muscle is a persistent myth surrounding strength training. While going heavy has its place in the hypertrophy toolbox, it’s not the only tool—or even the most important one. Here, with the help of Andrew Coates, a personal trainer with over 25,000 hours on the gym floor, and Greg Nuckols, three-time world champion powerlifter and the head dude at Stronger By Science, we’ll break down where this myth originated, why it persists, and what triggers muscle growth.
Lifting Heavy Alone Won’t Maximize Muscle Growth
This myth originated in the weight rooms of the golden age of bodybuilding, when Arnold, Franco, and Lou Ferrigno were lifting heavy and resembling Greek gods. Fast forward a few decades, and powerlifting grew more popular, and the internet exploded with max deadlift videos and the “how much ya bench?” culture.
Then, somewhere along the way, lifting heavy became synonymous with building muscle.
“Status-seeking talking heads on social media engage in battles over tribal ideology related to muscle building,” Coates says. “This battle confuses many people. Why can’t the experts agree? Well, that’s not really all experts—just a mix of people with good branding and loud voices arguing against the PhD researchers in muscle building.”
Like many good myths, there is a sprinkle of truth to the matter, which muddles the water even further, explains Nuckols.
“One thing that can be frustrating is that two different concepts are often used interchangeably “effective reps” and “stimulating reps”, and there are also “hard” and “soft” versions of each,” he says. “However, essentially, the “hard” version of the concept is that a muscle fiber will not experience a muscle stimulus unless it’s exposed to maximal mechanical tension. The “soft” version essentially suggests that mechanical tension is important, and training closer to failure enhances hypertrophy outcomes.”
With these schools of thought, it is easy to become confused about lifting heavy (or lifting light) and building muscle. Let’s clear things up with what drives muscle growth. Hint: Lifting heavy is only part of the picture.
What Drives Muscle Growth
Muscle growth is also about how much tension you create and how hard your muscles work, regardless of the weight on the bar. With that in mind, here are the four main drivers of muscle growth:
Mechanical Tension This factor is the big one. Tension happens when your muscles contract against resistance, ideally through a full range of motion. You can generate it with heavy loads, but also with moderate loads when lifting with intent, control, and good technique.
Metabolic Stress
That burning, pump-filled feeling? It’s important. When you train with shorter rest periods, more repetitions, or techniques like dropsets, you generate metabolic stress—a potent trigger for muscle growth.
Muscle Damage
Muscle damage happens, especially when training eccentrically or performing new movements. But it’s not the goal. Too much damage can hinder growth. What matters is creating just enough disruption to force adaptation, not to leave you limping down the stairs after leg day.
Consistency
All this science stuff is great, but, according to Nuckols, there is one major factor that is entirely in your control.
“The most important factors are maintaining consistency, training with a high level of effort for most sets, selecting exercises that are likely to be limited by the target muscle(s), and that work the target muscle(s) through an extended range of motion. Additionally, training with sufficient volume, consuming enough calories and protein, and sleeping enough and recovering effectively are crucial.”
Top Hypertrophy Training Tips: How to Build More Muscle
If your goal is hypertrophy, focus on these factors for enhanced muscle growth:
Use a Variety of Loads
Alternate between heavy, moderate, and light weights across different rep ranges, explains Coates.” This means lifting at least 30% of your one rep max,” he says. “If a weight is too light, you can’t get close to failure despite repping it for 30 minutes; it’s pointless and a grand waste of your time.”
Train Close to Failure
Let’s be clear about what we mean by failure—it’s not the kind where you can’t do another rep and end up stuck under the bar. It’s a technical failure when you fail to do another rep with good form. Coates advises aiming for 1-2 reps before failure on your working sets.
Prioritize Tension and Control
Slow down your reps and feel the muscle working. That’s mechanical tension in action, and it’s a massive driver of hypertrophy.
Progression
Whether it’s more reps, more sets, more weight, or better form, progress is progress. Track your workouts and aim to do a little more each week.
How Lifting Heavy All the Time May Eventually Backfire
Lifting heavy always has its place, but if that’s your only gear, you’re heading straight for a training wall or worse, the ER. Here’s what can happen when you take “go heavy or go home” too literally.
Increased Injury Risk
There is a time and place for grinding out low-rep sets. However, doing it all the time increases joint stress, strains connective tissue, and leaves little room for error. One bad rep under fatigue, and you’re nursing a tweak, or worse, sidelined for weeks.
Decreased Movement Quality
When the weight is always near your max, your form usually breaks down first. You start ego-lifting, sacrificing control and range of motion to move the bar. Over time, this reinforces bad habits, weak points, and stalls progress.
Plateaus and Burnout
Going heavy all the time isn’t sustainable. Your nervous system will eventually say, “no, thank you,” your recovery tanks, and motivation will ultimately dip. And since you’re not varying load or volume, your muscles stop responding. You’re stuck chasing numbers instead of results.
Lifting Heavy Isn’t the Only Way to Build Muscle
Now, you should know better than to assume that lifting heavy isn’t the ONLY way to build muscle. But why does this myth still have legs? These two titans of the health and fitness industry share their opinions.
“It sounds reasonable and makes a great soundbite when you first hear it. On the other hand, reviewing the evidence against the concept is quite dry, technical, and tedious. Since most people have relatively short attention spans, I think it’s hard to present the case against it in a way that is both concise and persuasive,” explains Nuckols.
Because there’s some truth to this myth, lifters get stuck in a rut and believe it’s the only way to build muscle.
“It is true that a lower volume and fewer sets can produce good muscle-building results if you train with enough intensity,” Coates says. “However, this doesn’t mean it’s the best approach. It means you see diminishing returns as you increase volume. Generally, more volume leads to more progress, but the rate of improvement tends to slow down. Supporters of low-volume training often cite two well-known bodybuilders, overlooking the numerous lifters who have achieved excellent results with traditional, higher-volume programs.”
Coates adds that using elite bodybuilders to support any argument about building muscle is useless because they are different from you and me.
“Using any famous bodybuilder as an example to support your training beliefs is flawed,” he says. “Elite bodybuilders, by definition, have elite genetics, excel in their training and nutrition over many years, and have access to advanced performance-enhancing drugs.”
Now that you have read this article and you know better, put it into action and do better.
