Lifting Light Weights Is Just as Good at Building Muscle as Heavy Weights

[PressesPeople]

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

But I REALLY want to believe that researchers aren't this stupid.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

It's crap. Filed for this year's review. Thanks.

[Brian Zahn]

I really can't believe people who are about to get their DOCTORATE can be so dumb

[Mark Rippetoe]

A PhD doesn't necessarily mean a person is smart. It means they've been in school a long time.

[Jonathan Vechet]

A PhD doesn't necessarily mean a person is smart. It means they've been in school a long time.

I'm stealing this.

[Subsistence]

Usually I would say that people with PhD's are generally very smart in their area of expertise, but can be comically inept outside of it. But presumably since this is their research paper this <i>is</i> their area of expertise.

[tertius]

A PhD doesn't necessarily mean a person is smart. It means they've been in school a long time.

It usually also means they are possessed of a certain dogged persistence.
And also that they are good at school, if not anything else.

[tertius]

Usually I would say that people with PhD's are generally very smart in their area of expertise, but can be comically inept outside of it. But presumably since this is their research paper this <i>is</i> their area of expertise.

I am doing my damnedest to avoid this. It helps to have a lot of interests, I find.

[Adam M]

The researcher is from Canada.

[Kyle Schuant]

Just looking at the media condensate, it appears that everything wrong with exercise science is revealed in this one study. An excellent find. Thanks.

It does. However, it shows even more what is wrong with the media's reporting of science.

From the article we get the title,

"Light Weights Are Just as Good for Building Muscle, Getting Stronger, Researchers Find"

and then text which contradicts the title,

"the group that used heavier weights for three sets developed a bit more strength."

It's fairly common for journalists to fuck up by not reading or understanding the paper they're reporting on, and thus publish conclusions contradicting that paper. It's less common for the title of the journalist's article to contradict its own text. I mean, that's truly sloppy.

Anyway, we can say that lifting lighter weights for more reps is just as good as lifting heavier weights for fewer reps... unless you want to get stronger. Without doing a study, I feel sure that we could say walking is just as good as running, unless you want to get fitter.

If you want to get better at lifting heavy things, you should practice lifting heavy things. Now, will someone give me a PhD?