Light Weights, High Reps…and a long absence!

It has been a LONG, LONG time FIT friends. Apologies for our absence. But we have good excuses…FitTrition trainers have been busy!!

Here are a few exciting updates for you:

Maggie Donnelly has joined the team! A professional actress in the DC Area, Maggie’s introduction to the fitness stage was by accident. Her 10+ years of ballet experience led her to help out a barre teacher who needed a last-minute sub. This quick decision turned out to be a total game changer as Maggie was instantly hooked on the rewarding experience of getting a group of strangers to laugh, scream and work on changing their bodies together. She has since added Pilates, Yoga and BOSU to the mix. She is an awesome addition to the FitTrition team and we are lucky to have her! Schedule a session with her TODAY. You won’t regret it…
And…if you are a current client, you may have already met her, because she is taking over for FITintheCITY while she is on maternity leave!

As you can see, the FitTrition “team” is growing!

But we are back and committed to providing you all with the best in nutrition and exercise news, great healthy recipes, and tips for success when it comes to you and your health and wellness!

There was a recent article in The New York Times that seemed like a perfect place to re-start the blog: validation of what we have been telling you about how to exercise all these years. Light weights, high reps!

According to the article entitled “Lifting Lighter Weights Can Be Just as Effective as Heavy Ones” By Gretchen Reynolds, “Upending conventions about how best to strength train, a new study finds that people who lift relatively light weights can build just as much strength and muscle size as those who grunt through sessions using much heftier weights — if they plan their workouts correctly.” Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who has long studied muscles and exercise, started researching the effects of using lighter weights. He and his team of researchers found that as long as you were lifting to fatigue, the results were similar to a traditional strength program of lifting the heaviest thing possible very few times.

The study took 49 men and divided them into two groups. “One group was assigned to follow the standard regimen, in which weights were set at between 75 and 90 percent of the man’s one-repetition maximum and the volunteer lifted until he could not lift again, usually after about 10 repetitions. The other volunteers began the lighter routine. Their weights were set at between 30 and 50 percent of each man’s one-repetition maximum, and he lifted them as many as 25 times, until the muscles were exhausted. All of the volunteers performed three sets of their various lifts four times per week for 12 weeks. Then they returned to the lab to have muscle strength, size and health reassessed and their hormone levels re-measured. The results were unequivocal. There were no significant differences between the two groups. All of the men had gained muscle strength and size, and these gains were almost identical, whether they had lifted heavy or light weights.”

This is great news of non-gym rats who find the idea of lifting heavy weights daunting and potentially dangerous (both of which can be true…). So pick up those 5 lbs. weights and lift away. Just make sure you are lifting to fatigue!

Check out this FIT-approved video that utilizes just this technique. (And watch for FITintheCITY to put this video to the test SOON!)