The light-heavy workout was basically an absurd idea in my own mind until I was forced to try it for a while. I used the light-heavy workout about 15 years ago, and the only reason I used it was because both shoulders were chronically sore from heavy benching. I had no choice but to use very light weights until my shoulders healed up.
The Ligh-Heavy Workout
At this point you are probably wondering what the light-heavy workout is. The vast majority of the workout is done with light weight consisting of 30% to 40% of your single rep max for upper body exercises and 20% to 30% of your max for leg exercises. It is a high frequency program so the prescribed percentages are used for 12 to 14 sets of 10 reps for each muscle group three days in a row. You then increase the weight by five to ten pounds per exercise and drop to 8 sets of 5 reps the next three days of the week in order to recover from the first three days of higher volume training. This pattern is repeated on a weekly basis.
The light portion of the workout was the only part of the workout that I did for the first four weeks until the soreness subsided in my shoulders. Once my shoulders were better, I kept using the light weights because it seemed to be working pretty good, however, I also added in a small amount of heavy lifting in every workout. The heavy part of the workout consists of a single rep consisting of 85% to 90% of my single rep max for each muscle group. I did the heavy single rep every time I worked out.
I Was Surprised at how well it Worked
To my surprise, the light-heavy workout was one of the best workouts for strength development that I ever tried. I don’t have a good explanation for why it worked, I just know that it did. I hesitate to write about this experience because it is so unconventional and goes against common methodology to the point of sounding foolish and crazy. I’ve never heard of anyone else who has advocated this type of workout. I’m guessing that part of the reason for this is because the idea is so uncommon that hardly anyone has tried this type of training.
Important Details
A few details that I must mention are that I generally only did three exercises per workout consisting of a pressing exercise, a pulling exercise, and a squat or a leg press exercise. I suggest changing the pressing and pulling exercises from time to time, and that you occasionally switch to different variations of squats or leg presses.
Another detail is that it took me about a month to work up to 12 to 14 sets per exercise. I started out with 8 sets per exercise, before working up to 12 to 14 sets.
The last detail that I think is important to mention is that I did my reps fast when using light weights, which means that I did my best to push, pull, and squat forcefully into the resistance even though I was using light weights.
Caution on High Frequency
Be careful about how you implement any high frequency program as you may start to burn out if you never take a break from it. I suggest that you take a break from high frequency every third or fourth week by working out only two or three times per week for a week. Another option is to take a week off after every six weeks of training.
The main point of this article is that if you happen to have a sore muscle group or body part, you may want to consider training with light weights for a while. Start with six to eight sets of 10 reps with 20% to 40% of your max until the soreness goes away. Then work your way up to 12 to 14 sets over the time period of a month and start adding in a single heavy rep for each exercise. If you do it on a high frequency basis, make sure you reduce the sets to 8 sets of 5 reps for three days after doing 12 to 14 sets of 10 reps for three days.
The light-heavy workout is basically what I refer to as a bottom-up loading program in which you use a lot of light lifting on a frequent basis, and you gradually increase the load or the number of reps for the light weights every six to twelve weeks. As you get better at high volume training with light weights, you will also get stronger at using the small amount of heavy weights that are included in this program. The closest thing to this strategy in terms of the books that I have written is discussed in the book The High Frequency Training Pyramid, which you can find on the home page of this website. My recommendation is that if your current training strategy is working well, keep doing it. However, if you happen to be at the point in your training where you need to try a different strategy, the light-heavy workout is an option that you can experiment with. Best of training to you, and may God’s blessing be upon you.