TweetI was asked in the gym by a young man how heavy he should train. I answered very honestly," I don't have a clue, how heavy can you train?".
He replied, "pretty heavy!" with so much excitement in his voice.

Then it hit me, how much does heavy weigh? If I can do 10 strict reps of one arm dumbbell curls with 80 pounds and you can do 10 strict reps of triceps extensions with 80 pounds, which is heavier? I am not trying to be confusing here, I am asking a question. How much does heavy weigh?

If we are talking about an 80 pound dumbbell in comparison to a 500 pound rock, the rock weighs 420 pounds more right? But that is not the point I am trying to make. I am stating in terms of this thing we do called "bodybuilding", what does heavy weigh?

Again, to my example of curls versus extensions, both weights used were the same but which is "heavy?". Is the weight so great that you completely stimulate the muscle or so great that you tear it? Heavy is such a relative term that we use, but what does it mean?

Heavy to me is the greatest amount of weight that "I" can safely use to stimulate the muscle being trained to absolute failure. But is the weight "heavy"? It is to me, but maybe not to you. Or maybe it is more then you can possibly lift in the same exercise. But it doesn't matter, because it is MY weight.

I rambled a bit to get you thinking, this is a thinking mans game not a game for meatheads as my wife loves to call me. Next time you are at the gym and that guy bigger then you is doing an exercise with a weight you can only imagine, look at yourself in the mirror and say to yourself "I don't care one bit". Because that day, you can't lift that amount of weight safely without risk of injury. But you can damn sure make it a goal to achieve. Write it down, make it a statement of fact but be realistic. If today you can bench press 225 pounds for 6 reps and that big guy is doing 405, do not write down that by my next session I will rep 405 on the bench press. That is not realistic. You could write this as I did in my journal when I was about a year into serious training,

"I can bench press 225 for 10 reps. I WILL add 2.5-5 pounds every session (short term goal) and in 2 years will bench 405 for 5 reps (long term goal. Notice I didn't say I might, or if I can? I said I WILL.) Made it in 15 months, not to bad.

So the next time you are training, ask yourself how much does "heavy" really weigh. Think if you have the right mindset, it's all relative to you and your ability.

Thanks for reading.