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Training

Heavy lifts vs time under tension vs muscular endurance: what actually builds what?

Walk into any gym and you’ll see three completely different approaches happening at once. Someone grinding out a heavy set of three. Someone doing slow, controlled reps. And someone knocking out rep twenty of something that looked light ten reps ago.

All three are training. All three work. But they’re not doing the same thing, and knowing the difference helps you stop guessing about your own workouts.

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References

  1. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Strength and Hypertrophy Adaptations Between Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res. 2017;31(12):3508-3523.doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000002200Meta-analysis of 21 studies, all sets taken to failure. Maximal strength gains came from heavy loads, but hypertrophy was similar across a wide spectrum of loads.