The case for lifting heavy and dealing with weight fluctuations

When you do a search on anything pertaining to exercise and nutrition, there’s a whole mess of nonsense that pops up it’s almost impossible to unpack and discern which is relevant and which is questionable.

Since I’ve been involved in this fitness thingamajig, I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve banged my head against a wall over the horrendous things being spewed. While it’s universally acknowledged there is no best approach, there’s certainly a dumb way.

You’ve seen your friends go through it. You’ve seen it happen to a few of your colleagues. If you want to avoid cyclical periods of losing weight and gaining it all back, seek consultation from someone who’s legitimately qualified.

Q: What’s the purpose of lifting max loads? I really don’t get why you have to lift that much. Your risk of injury goes up.

A: That’s a valid argument. Unless you’re a competitive lifter, there’s actually very little benefit for you to be lifting max loads or doing one-rep lifts. It’s mostly vanity work, in my opinion. On the flip side, I will say that when done periodically, training atop or as close to your threshold is a good confidence booster. If you have no desire to lift heavy, you can rest easy knowing you can still make gains so long as you safely train to momentary muscle failure on certain exercises. After all, lifting weights isn’t suppose to tickle.

Q: So I stepped on the scale today and my weight went up a bit. Honestly, I’m freaking out. What’s going on?

A: First of all, it’s not a setback. Now I understand the temptation to do something different to get things moving again. However, to flip the script when the scale goes up unexpectedly is ill-advised. We operate under the assumption that progress should occur linearly. In reality, day-to-day fluctuations are normal, so it’s critically important to be objective and look at it for what it really is, information. Poor sleep, water, salt, and carbohydrate intake are all factors that can influence fluctuations in your weight. But it is not indicative of gaining fat. It’s worth repeating that that only becomes a fact if you’ve been eating at a surplus over a period of time. Two things that are also overlooked are stress and hormonal fluctuations.