Do light workouts have benefit?

[reyes]

@mainten84 Movement is good. Move your body!

Strength endurance training is light-moderate weight, high rep. You can use these workouts to focus on and improve your form for your heavier workouts. Do lots of unilateral exercises, keep rest times relatively short, incorporate supersets and you’ll have a really great metabolic resistance sesh and should even get a nice lil pump if you’re properly hydrated and nourished!

 

[h0peful4change]

@mainten84 Some movement is always better than none. Plus there is the consideration of what your goals are; if you're simply trying to maintain a minimal level of fitness and activity, that's absolutely fine, too.

 

[mingoingo]

@mainten84 Yes, getting some lighter work in that isn't as taxing is better than nothing, and is generally considered "active rest". It sounds to me like these travel periods, where you're already fatigued and unmotivated, are a good time to make it a deload week. You're still going to the gym and doing something that isn't super taxing, and then focusing on recovery.

As long as you're doing progressive overload during the rest of your training block when you're not traveling, you're fine.

 

[cosmichealer]

@mainten84 I currently have an adductor tweak preventing me from squatting. My squat PR is 170kg and I am doing a couple of sets of 20 3-1-0 squats with just the bar instead as it’s the only thing that doesn’t hurt my leg.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Do what you can.

 

[hunter101]

@mainten84 Absolutely. Especially if it doesn't stand alone.

Depending on your schedule, you can push hard on days off and just do some easy work on more stressful days.

 

[lilo]

@mainten84 Yes. Recovery, discipline, consistency, mental toughness, getting the reps in, etc.

 

[man2022]

@mainten84 If going heavy is getting in the way of going light, then it’s better to go light.

 

[greengables]

@mainten84 100% light workouts are good for you. It helps maintain your strength and keeps your metabolism up.

 

[bert54]

@mainten84 Every workout has benefit. Lifting to failure just means you’ll get MORE benefit. But moving joints safely through various ranges of motion is not bad unless you’re hurt/overtrained.

 

[inuyushi]

@mainten84 You can build muscle doing calisthenics. There are many ways to make simple movements like pull-ups, push-ups and squats so much harder!

Another alternative is having a couple of resistance bands with special workouts planned for your travels.

 

[newdayinchrist]

@mainten84 When I travel, I always bring my trx in case they gym is bad or non-existent. But also:

 

[dreuter032003]

@mainten84 Are your goals more strength or hypertrophy based?

 

[mainten84]

@dreuter032003 Both. Be healthy, look good, age well

 

[patientlywaiting14]

@mainten84 Light workouts have the benefit of reminding you to book a hotel near a good gym- it’s not that hard to find a do or tell the person booking your hotel to do.

 

[cosimnot]

@mainten84

Well I travel a lot for work. I do a lot of workouts in small hotel gyms. Not saying you can’t get a killer workout with just some DBs, but I’m saying I don’t.

look into Bloodflow Restriction Training, e.g.

. The pack for the cuffs, etc. is small and will fit into your suitcase.

 

[prmath]

@mainten84 The benefit is continued momentum. Keeping the ball rolling is easier than getting it started!

 

[peachiee77]

@mainten84 At

 

[krichman47]

@mainten84 It's good to mix in some days I think.

 

[believer33245]

@mainten84 As long as you are raising your heart rate you are doing something good for your body

 

[dekaewaii]

@mainten84 I love this shit. Here's math.

So, growth is approximately equal anywhere between 5 reps left in the tank and failure. It's a little worse but still good up until about 10 reps away from failing. So, if you can bench 3x15 at 185 and no more, about a three-plate 1rm, you'd be getting approximately the same growth if you did 3x10 at 185, and would still be getting good growth if you only did 3x5 at 185. Alternatively, each extra rep is equivalent to about 2%-2.5% weight increase. So, that lower bound of 3x5 at 185 is equivalent to 3x15 at about 145. But here's the thing, you get equivalent hypertrophy whether you approach failure at 3 reps or 30 reps, and while it's a little worse, it's still productive up until you're doing sets of 50+. So, we can knock another 15-20% off the weight and say that 3x50 at 115 will give about the same results as 3x15 at 185. But we get the same results at 3x5, so we can drop another 20% or so, and say we would get almost the same results with 3x50 at 85-95. Dumbbells equate to barbells at about a 2/3rd ratio if you half rep and about a 1/2 ratio if you go full range and really sink in. So, if we take things to the extreme, the actual science says that bench pressing 3x50 with 20-25 lbs dumbbells would be approximately the same hypertrophy as 3x15 with 185. And some interesting research has shown that 1 set a week yields about 80% if the maximum achievable gains, so you might only have to do 1 set with those 20 pound dumbbells.

Pushups are equivalent to benching with 70% of your bodyweight, so that's 135 for a 200 pound guy. Light workouts are fine. Mike Mentzer was well informed for his time. We can learn a lot from the wave of HIIT guys; lift hard and recover harder. But that's about it, everything they say when it comes to specifics has been proven to be either bullshit or inefficient. Oh, story. The most popular clips of Arthur Jones cuts out just before he says, verbatim, that "if a man has a maximum squat of 405 pounds, he could do 100 reps with 385." No. No, he couldn't. They're very silly men. Lift hard, go to failure if you want to and are willing to take an extra day to recover. Most importantly though, if you can sleep more, please do. Not just for muscles. We're starting to see that like, sleep stops cancer cells. Sleep heals daily brain trauma. Super duper important if you can manage to sleep more.