Looking to get stronger? Here's how to train with light weights and still build muscle

The prevailing wisdom is that if you intend to add muscle mass and get stronger, you need to overload the muscles, challenging them with heavyweights.

Let's look at what happens to your body during a workout and what the best approach is to build lean muscles.

What happens to your body during a typical weight training workout?

In general, for your workouts, you would use at least 60% of the maximum weight you can lift for each exercise. For example, if you can bench press 200 pounds, you would use at least 120 pounds (60% of max) in your workout, performing multiple sets of eight to 10 repetitions (reps) each. Each set is pushed to failure, meaning you perform as many reps as possible, pushing to the point of exhaustion where you cannot perform another rep.

When you exercise in this way, you are essentially assaulting your muscles, and possibly creating some degree of muscle damage that must be repaired. During the repair process, the intention is that the body will overcompensate, making the muscle bigger and stronger. This is because the body hates the stress of training and seeks to improve so that when you assault it again, it will experience less stress. That’s why when you train, you must regularly increase the resistance to continue to progress.

You may like: Malnutrition in the elderly is common but often ignored. Here's a simple way to fight it

After you assault the muscle, rebuilding starts immediately by “feeding” the muscle with resources (oxygen and nutrients). The feeding process is somewhat complicated, but in a nutshell here’s how it works.

When you contract a muscle vigorously with at least 60% of max resistance, the muscle bulges, and presses against the artery that feeds the muscle. This occludes (shuts off) blood flow into the muscle. Even though blood flow is occluded and no oxygen can be delivered, the muscle keeps contracting. The metabolic rate increases greatly in the working muscle, and it “screams” for oxygen. But none is delivered, so it takes steps to try to promote increased blood flow.

Nitric oxide is released from the interior of the artery, causing dilation. Small vessels branching off the major artery open wide, plus the gatekeepers that allow blood to flow into capillaries (the smallest vessels) also open wide. In other words, all vessels that feed the muscle are wide open, but no blood is getting through during strong contractions.

At the point of muscle failure, the contractions stop, and the artery is no longer occluded. Blood can now charge through the wide-open channels, gorging the muscle, “pumping it up.” The technical term is “reactive hyperemia” — a delayed and substantially increased blood flow into the exercised muscle.

What are blood flow restriction bands and how can I use them?

The above description is what occurs in a typical weight training workout. The key is using heavyweights of at least 60% of max to assault the muscle and occlude arterial blood flow. In contrast, using lighter weights has always been viewed as a means to merely “tone” muscle, sustaining size and strength, but not increasing it. Using blood flow restriction bands challenges this interpretation and makes the case that light weights and much higher reps can be effective in building size and strength but in a different way.

You may like: Why athletes 'seduced' by performance-enhancing drugs are ruining sports for everyone else

Blood flow restriction bands wrap around the muscle but are not tight like a tourniquet. Instead, the bands are adjusted to modesty compress the upper arms or legs by approximately 70%. The modest pressure occludes veins that drain the muscle, but does not occlude the artery that feeds it. This allows arterial blood to enter the muscle while contracting with light weights, and then traps it in the working muscle causing blood to accumulate.

In other words, the bands also “pump up” the muscle, but in a different more dramatic way.

An essential difference between the traditional approach versus blood flow restriction bands is that “assaulting” the muscle is a key element for the success of the traditional heavier approach, whereas “feeding” the muscle to excess is key for the bands.

Blood flow restriction bands cause a buildup of a variety of metabolic byproducts in the muscle that cause significant swelling. This alters the internal environment of the muscle, stimulating changes within muscle cells that influence the genes and promote protein synthesis, resulting in increased size and strength.

But you don’t want to take this too far. It’s best to release the band pressure after working a muscle, or not keeping the bands on for more than about 15-20 minutes at a time before loosening.

Who can benefit from blood flow restriction band training?

Anyone, regardless of training status, can benefit from using blood flow restriction bands.

You may like: High blood pressure can be a 'silent killer.' So why do so many people avoid medication?

These bands with much lighter weights can be used to rehab from a current injury and can be used effectively by older folks. The key for older folks is to understand that with age, the joints tend to dry out and become more fragile, and although the muscles can handle heavier loads, the joints cannot. Blood flow restriction training spares the joints while challenging the muscles. (NOTE: If you are older and choose to use these bands, first check with your doctor that you are cleared for vigorous training. In particular, make sure there are no blood pressure problems.)

Regardless of age, blood flow restriction bands provide a good option for periodic “deload” training. This means less demanding training to give the body a break and promote full recovery, but still imposing a good stimulus to the muscles to sustain progress. Recovery from a band-based workout also is much faster. In addition, training with these bands can be used by people with degenerative diseases like arthritis. Arthritis in joints causes severe pain, especially when lifting heavier weights, which rules out traditional weight training, but may allow lightweight, high rep blood flow restriction training.

Where can I buy blood flow restriction bands?

Blood flow restriction bands offer a good alternative to traditional resistance training. They are inexpensive and you can purchase bands at any sporting goods store, or online. The bands are easy to use and are calibrated numerically (the length is numbered) so that you can gauge a modest compression of approximately 70%.

Velcro makes the bands easy to put on and take off, an important point because you don’t want to leave them in place too long.

Reach Bryant Stamford, a professor of kinesiology and integrative physiology at Hanover College, at stamford@hanover.edu.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: What happens to your body during a typical weight training workout?