How much does "heavy" weigh?

I 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.

That was a really great post Bro! I know in my younger years, I would have never went through those steps in my head. In fact I can remember when I was just a 7th or 8th grader seeing these big varsity guys pulling and pushing some big weight, and saying I wonder how "heavy" that is. Got my first injury from weights doing weight I had no business doing at such a young age.

Now with many more years to my life added I feel as I have learned a lot of things with my mind and body. Which rollover to my behavior in the gym. I'll admit there are still days where I don't completely leave my ego at the door, and for those very few times I do ignore my log book and let my ego take over, I get hurt. Learning from guys with decades of dedicated training under their belt has showed me more then anything else that "smarter not harder" will pay off with years of tweak free or even injury free training with just as much results.

Different mind sets when it comes to moving weight has also opened my eyes. Is heavy training what I see guys doing when they load up the bar and do a 1/4-1/3 of the movement uncontrolled instead of a conteolled full ROM because of fear of getting burried, "dont like to bounce the weight" (I actually asked a guy why he didnt touch his chest), or maybe its just because they want to be seen with some weight on the bar? Then telling me they can do X amount of weight and they have the biggest, cockiest smile on their face, but yet from the first day I walked in the gym till now they still look the same, and still look like tards ha ha.

How much is "heavy"? Shucks I bet we all have seen that clip of Ronnie squatting 800lbs and dead lifting an outrages amont of weight, or even that reiduclous leg press clip with all those plates! Ha ha, that's heavy, heavy for him and the rest of the world. Still truly amazing to see such a thing happen. Heavy for me is something I can do 2-3 times with good form, while feeling what I'm trying to train work. For an example of my heavy, 2 weeks ago I did 315 on BB incline for 4 reps on my last set. I'm sitting about 225-230 right now. That was heavy! Ha ha!

Awesome read brother.

So many (most in fact) get hung up on what someone else is lifting and comparing it to what THEY can lift.Everyone is different and has different strength levels and even different strength levels in certain exercises or body parts.Meaning while somone may lift more than you in bench,you may crush them in the amount of push ups they can do.Or someone may kill you in squats while you may crush them in the leg press.But even more important than that is,it doesnt matter if you are not as strong as the person next to you in the gym,its only how much effort you put into each workout.You may not list as much as me or me you but that doesnt mean either one of us is in better shape or works out harder.

Focus on YOUR work outs amd YOUR weight and BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE.Dont worry about being the best that someone else can be.

yeah doesn't matter if your new or a vet you just gotta lift what's "heavy" to you. 135 lbs on bench might be "heavy" for a new guy to whereas a vet might have to go 300-400 plus to struggle the same as the new guy doing 135 lbs. if that makes any sense. i always tell people (F.I.S.T. said too) you gotta workout for you and not give a shit what anybody else is doing

Excellent thread!!! Thanks for the insight on what "heavy" mena sto each of us!!!!