If you lift less weight for a muscle group one day of the week, does that make the workout pointless in terms of muscle hypertrophy? For example: on Monday, I lifted 1000kg for quads and on Thursday I lifted 700kg for quads. Does this mean my workout on Thursday will not contribute to my quad gains because I lifted less than Monday?

Jefit Member 3 months ago

2 people like this

11 comments

lastnygentleman

: It shouldn't hurt your progress. As long as you are still applying some type of progressive overload a lighter day is not an issue. Varying weight and rep schemes helps progress. Also, lifting heavy every single session will beat you into the ground, having some lighter days allows you to work out more often.

3 months ago

p.bxtrm

: No. Calculate volume over the week. If you lift 1701kg next week your're progressing.

3 months ago

Grim_Reefer

: Judge the workouts separately, especially if you're doing different exercises. Also, total volume is not everything. Eventually you have to increase the weight (intensity), and you will likely get less total volume at first. This is still progress. I also consider it progress to lift a little less volume but with better form/controlled tempo.

2 months ago

Rami.AlHaddad

: Are these two quad sessions the same in exercise selection, sets, reps, etc.? If yes, typically, you should see progress session to session. Still, it wouldn't hurt your progress if the total weight went down (up to one third the volume, all other factors equal); it just means that the 2nd session is maintenance/recovery.

3 months ago

tom_porter

: also depends on muscle/body part. some respond better to high rep other to low rep. generally staying in weight range of >80% of 1RM and 2-3 rep to failure and 15-30 sets per microcycle (week) will make gains.

3 months ago

dhollenbeck12

: I agree with p.bxtrm. Look at weekly volume rather than daily. Even small increases are progress

2 months ago

UnterNull89

: It does’t hurt to just lower in weight 3 days after… even just lifting for the blood circulation, stimulating the muscles is good… you can’t increase every training in weight, maintaining some excercises is more important than just looking at the weight liften imo

2 months ago

Kogre

: If your overall intensity is lower, raise the volume (more reps and sets) or alternatively consider it a recovery workout which you will still benefit from.

3 months ago

mkollo

: No, it adds up pretty much. If you use different weights (lighter on the light day), I would say you might even gain more due to different stress on fast vs slow muscle fibers.

2 months ago

katyapl

: Thank you to everyone who replied! I feel a lot better knowing that I can still make progress when incorporating a lighter weight session into my workout schedule :)

2 months ago