Light vs Heavy Weights: Here’s the Truth

Everyone’s been shit talking light-weight workouts lately (Pilates, barre, all the “feel the burn” stuff)… so I’m going to defend them for a minute.

Lifting heavy won’t fix what you can’t feel.

If you don’t have a clean brain-to-muscle connection, heavier weight usually just turns into compensation.

You’ll get through it, sure.
But your body will borrow from wherever it can—low back, neck, hip flexors, traps. 

And just a heads up: that’s not functional strength.

That’s just strengthening what’s already strong… and ignoring what actually creates stability and control.

Heavy lifting is valuable.
But it’s missing something.

If you want to feel strong and stay functional, the order matters:

1)Connect (brain → body)

Can you actually find the muscle?
You’ve heard me say “put your brain in your butt”—this is what I mean.
(So eloquent. Exactly how I pictured myself talking as an adult.)

If you can’t feel it, you can’t train it.

2)Activate

Can you turn it on on purpose?
And can you turn it off?
Equally important so your butt/neck/pelvic floor/forehead aren’t gripping all day.

3)Stabilize

Can you keep it working under pressure—while you move, breathe, and fatigue?

4)Load

Now add weight.

My real-life take

I’m not training for whatever people-who-are-selling-you-stuff on Instagram are bandwagoning this week.

 I’m training for a future-proof body that moves well when I’m old.

In my own workouts, I do use weight. Usually around 10–20 lb dumbbells (not heavy, but also not 2lbs). It gets me where I want to go faster. I don’t have time to hit fatigue in 164 reps like the good old days.

If you’ve built the connection + stability to go heavier and you want to? Aces. Do it!

Progressive overload is incredibly effective with proper muscle activation. 

But if you want to stay lighter? Guess what…

It still counts. As long as you’re hitting fatigue.

I know! That’s totally counter to everything everyone’s saying now. But Dr. Stuart Phillips and colleagues showed that lighter loads (~30–40% 1Rep Max) and heavier loads (~70–80% 1RM) led to similar gains in muscle growth over 10 weeks, as long as you’re actually working hard. (Translation: light weights can build muscle.)

That said, this is my main point:  If you’re not hitting fatigue, it’s time to level up.

(And if you're not leveling up in strength and endurance, you need to ask yourself why. Is it a foundations problem? Are you NOT pushing yourself out of your comfort zone? Are you not giving your body the chance to recover?)

Also:

For women especially, it’s smart to go lighter when your arms are:

far from your trunk
or overhead

Once you’ve connected/activated/stabilized, lighter overhead work builds:

neck stability
scapular control
real-life shoulder strength (for picking up kids or—equally heavy—kegs of beer, and: luggage, groceries, etc, plus: better posture… ie, living as an upright being)

Same advice for dudes, too: if you load overhead or with arms extended from your trunk without control, you’re probably just living in your upper traps.

In conclusion

Heavy is a tool. Control is the foundation.

Functional strength isn’t brute strength in the gym to prove you’re a badass (but also… you totally are).

It’s how well you can coordinate, stabilize, and adapt through real movement patterns—with the correct muscles doing the right jobs, aka working through integrated muscle PATTERNS (muscles work as a team, not in isolation). 

If you want the simple progression:
Connect → Activate → Stabilize → Load.

XO,