Sieg watching my dad and brother both run small business I know it's a feast or famine high stress way to earn a living. From every city, county, and state agency with their hand out wanting a cut to employees robbing you blind and constantly fucking you. Then you have the federal govt on top of that wanting their cut too.
Was watching some videos and found a very interesting one discussing the differences of Heavy vs Light weights. The thing I found to be really interesting about this video is that the lighter weight focused on the Concentric (contracting) of the muscle, while the heavier weights was more focused on getting the weight up then fighting to slowly lower the weight on the eccentric point.
So considering I remember a post about light vs heavy weights.....I figured I would find it and kick the hornets nest one more time 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRLtu4OCya8
After watching this does it change your opinion any??? He also has lots of other videos with really good information and breakdowns of muscles and how to work them properly. So if you have extra time at work etc I would highly advise checking some out. Besides the more we know the better we train!
quality of the muscle like graininess or density? do you think this can be effected by lifting heavier weights? I recently heard one guy say he believes it give the muscle a diff look (better more aesthetic look).
I am firm believer from personal experience that lighter loads are very effective for muscle development, power and symmetry.... Time Under Tension.... your muscle has no idea if your lifting 10lbs or 100lbs. Heavy weights have their place for sure but they are not the only answer. I rarely bench more than 225lbs anymore and 25lb dumbbells are very common in my arm routine.
Once you have a foundation of muscle and if you are not trying to build pure strength then lighter loads under longer tension are a great option.
Ever seen a carpenter or tin smith with small forearms. Yet they aren't lifting heavy are they? Their growth comes from continual progressive overload and time.
SEMPER FI
nothing but my socks on )) that's how I get down, don't like my feet getting cold lol
i do believe your muscles know what your lifting emg testing proved it I was reading this t nation article as he progressed to heavier and heavier weights those deep muscle fibers were tapped into, and funny add on I am a carpenter by trade concrete, and my
forarms i never train and have become very impressive and I never work them out they have been built by man shit
Thanks for proving my point DT while disagreeing with me. Have to love the man shit! )))
Was that article referencing fast twitch and slow twitch fibers by any chance? I may have read it.
I know as tension time is increased more fibers are recruited and protein synthesis is increased without the use of heavy loads. I will find the research article when I have time.
SEMPER FI
Found it and it is long winded and pretty complex -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3285070/
Three take offs -
1. Exercise was performed at 30% 1RPM
2. "However, our current data show that low intensity resistance exercise can stimulate mitochondrial protein synthesis rates during 0–6 h recovery in trained participants when muscle time under tension is increased during the exercise session"
3. Their EMG tests show significant muscle fiber recruitment. Approx. 90+% upon set completion when tension time increase was utilized vs. the control group that did not utilize time under tension increase sets.
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Maybe we can get someone that can translate the context of this study in laymen terms. I am not smart enough to condense it into a well written explanation. Any crib note writers out there?
SEMPER FI
So true Dolf... We are living in a world where employees are Holding the boss hostage and customers do the same as well. Some of the smartest, hard working people are the blue collar business man. The stress is immense and can literally change your brain chemistry. The insurance is overwhelming to the point that you have to lie. It seems like someone is always mad at you...
I told my employees before I gave it up for good, I'm out fighting the good fight. Doing what I can do for us, Not just me. I felt like I was out fighting for a team and coming back to the yard and being shot in the back by friendly fire.. It got to the point that the $ didn't outweigh problems....
I'm going to go out on a limb here for a moment and make an attempt, though perfunctory, to synthesize the two positions. Position 1 is heavy weight builds muscle. Position 2 lighter weight builds muscle. (Over simplification of both positions is intentional).
I wil posit here that using heavy weight while maintaining control of the weight in both the concentric and eccentric phases will likely produce more muscle gains than doing the same with an amount of weight less challenging for the lifter. So, if a lifter can perform a given lift for 8-10 reps with good form and control the weight on the eccentric phase for 2 counts, may result in better gains than using (a) lighter weight for the same reps or heavier weight using momentum and no control on the eccentric phase.
I admit that this may be bo overly simplist and a blatant platitude. But it's an hypothesis that I adhere to as it seems to be working for me at any rate.
I think you got really close to nailing it Blaster for a simplified version of what is happening. Nice put up. +2
See.... both opinions CAN coexist in the same space and time.
BTW- I am using the heavy version of the science to build my legs on strength day. Not as heavy as most of you studs but heavy for me. Trying to catch The Big Nasty's leg press record.... aiming really high.
SEMPER FI
Plz do share the link DT, would like to read that. I am all about learning more to further my knowledge on lifting, diet, etc.
They did a study of 8 guys broken into 2 groups and did 30% of their rep max leg extensions, 1 did slow reps with 6 seconds up and 6 seconds down to complete 1 rep. Other group did 1 second up and 1 second down to complete 1 rep. They found that the slow ones doing more time under tension recruited much more muscle fibers in their workout, up to 90%+, compared to the faster 1 second ones which according to the graph show up to a lil over 50% muscle fiber usage per set. The big thing they found was at the end between 6 and 24 hours after workout that the protein synthesis on the slower group was much higher as explained here:
We hypothesized that a longer time under muscle tension leading to fatigue, and thus ‘full’ muscle fibre recruitment, will result in greater increases in rates of muscle protein synthesis (i.e. myofibrillar, mitochondrial and sarcoplasmic), intramuscular signalling protein phosphorylation, and PGC-1α mRNA responses compared to a low-intensity external work-matched control condition.
Now the only thing this shows is that making a muscles time under tension longer and to failure results in more muscle fiber being used (better hypertrophy) and increases the protein synthesis and signal for protein synthesis. The problem is both studies were done with the weight being 30% of the 1 rep max, so in conclusion all this study compares is long or short time under tension and reps to faliure and is NOT a comparison to heavy vs light weights. Sorry to disappoint brotha
I watch a lot of YouTube videos from various IFBB pros. So I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I noticed a lot of them do believe that those who train with a more hardcore approach - not necessarily heavier weight - develop that kind of grainy density. But if you talk to a contest prep coach they will tell you graininess is the result of being very dry and having glycogen stores perfectly filled before overspilling. Ive been following an NPC competitor throughout his amateur career and he trains VERY heavy and hardcore and says that he believes very strongly his training style is what creates the dry and grainy look he gets on stage.
Look at the guys who have feathered outer quads and then look how they train. Kai. Branch. Dorian. Then you have guys who have deeply separated quads instead - Phil. Jay. Big Ramy. And look how they train.
inside the muscle by t nation it's pretty cool not
just a man doing an experiment and it
was
pretty
amazing to see as the weight increased the peak contractions and different muscle groups like
mid lower and upper pec recruitment read it
and tel me
what you think it's pretty cool
I have found that when two or more ideas seem to conflict, there's usually a way synthesize the ideas. The concepts of course must have a coextensive intension (intension with an "s" more or less is reference, meaning; it's not a misspelling )
Since truth is singular, two concepts can be supportive of that truth. Thus synthesis as a means to absolve seeming contradictions. Anyhow...
Remind me what BN's leg press PR is; I only recall that it was fucking heavy! He's a strong dude no doubt about it!
that all of us should be doing and when I say heavy I am
saying controlled heavy if
you cant pause 315 on your chest and it up then its
too heavy for you that's just an example if your form looks like crap of is breaking down than its
too heavy controlled heavy is the key and I also like to throw in an overload set for certain muscles that don't get a lot of oppo for heavy weight like side delts 1 arm I let my self get just a little momentum and use some very solid weight. Anyways there is a lot of ways to build muscle but I believe the foundation should be laid with heavy weight and once that house is sitting on a solid base. But I don't pigeon hole myself
there. Are body parts that respond better to what I call pump and squeeze work anyways enough typing looking at my grammatical errors is causing me
to gag lmao