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Have you ever started a new training phase, seen your weights go down, and immediately wondered if you were getting weaker?
You're not alone.
In this episode, Lindsay breaks down one of the most misunderstood concepts in hypertrophy training: why a decrease in weight does not necessarily mean a decrease in progress.
You'll learn why mechanical tension is considered one of the primary drivers of muscle growth, why progressive overload is often misunderstood, and how changing exercise execution can actually increase the challenge placed on the target muscle even when the weight decreases.
Lindsay also explains the difference between external load and internal load, the role of stored elastic energy, and why pauses in lengthened positions can create a powerful muscle building stimulus.
In This Episode:
✔ What mechanical tension actually is
✔ Why humans crave proof that their training is working
✔ The biggest misunderstanding about progressive overload
✔ The difference between external load and internal load
✔ What stored elastic energy is and how it helps us move
✔ Why weights often decrease when pauses are added
✔ Why less weight can sometimes mean more work for the target muscle
✔ The role of force production and force control in training
✔ What you should measure instead of only focusing on the weight stack
Key Takeaways
- Muscles don't care how much weight is on the machine. They respond to tension.
- Progressive overload is more than simply adding weight.
- External load and internal load are not the same thing.
- Removing assistance from momentum and stored elastic energy can increase the demands placed on the target muscle.
- A lower weight does not automatically mean a lower muscle building stimulus.
Connect With Lindsay
Instagram: @liftinglindsay
Join the BeStrong Community for science based training, nutrition education, coaching, live calls, and a supportive community of women who want to get stronger, build muscle, and improve their health.
Learn more at liftinglindsay.com
Ready To Train With Us?
If this episode resonated with you and you're ready to experience this style of training for yourself, it's not too late to join us inside the BeStrong app.
Our newest hypertrophy phase has already begun, but you're absolutely not behind.
This training block focuses on:
✔ Lengthened position training
✔ Strategic pauses and isometrics
✔ Improving muscle tension
✔ Building strength and muscle with intentional execution
✔ Learning how to make the target muscle do more of the work
You'll get access to the complete training program, exercise video demonstrations, nutrition guidance, live coaching calls, and a community of women committed to getting stronger together.
Join us HERE
Creators and Guests
What is LiftingLindsay's More Than Fitness?
Dive into the joy of fitness with Lindsay and other guests exploring how it goes well and beyond the gym floor, the number on the scale, the size of your waist or the calories you're counting.
Speaker: Welcome, welcome to
the Lifting Lindsay podcast.
This week started my new training
block, and it was awesome.
I mean, I guess I've only done two days
of it, and I'm the one who wrote it,
so of course that's what I'm gonna say.
No, but it was so good.
But I did get a few messages and
questions from some of the women in my
program, and honestly, I, I did kind
of expect it because every time I write
a new training phase, I usually get
some y- some awesome questions in the
community and it leads to some really
good discussions where women learn what
really makes a difference in training.
And oftentimes it's, it's not actually
what we think or what we've been told.
in this new training phase, I have
been including some isometrics, so
some pauses in lengthened positions.
And whenever I do this, sometimes women
will come to me and be like, "Lindsay,
my weights went down." And underneath
that question is usually another question
that kind of isn't being said out loud.
It, it's a question of either,
"Did I do something wrong?
Am I getting weaker?" Or maybe, "If
the weights went down, doesn't that
mean that this workout wasn't as
effective?" 'Cause progressive overload,
it, it only means one thing, right?
More weight.
The weight goes up, the plates
go up, the number goes up.
And if that isn't happening,
then somehow we're failing or
somehow the program isn't good.
So if you spent months and months
working up to, like, let's say like a
500-pound leg press, and then suddenly
your coach tells you to add a pause
at the bottom where it is the most
difficult, now you're using 400 pounds.
It does, it can feel
like I moved backwards.
I'm so weak.
But what if you've been
measuring the wrong thing?
What if you've been focusing
on a bit of the wrong thing?
What if the goal isn't moving
the most weight as possible?
What if the goal is making the target
muscle do the most work possible?
Think about that one, right?
'Cause those actually are not always
the same thing, and understanding that
distinction might completely change
how you view training, and honestly
could possibly even change what you
get out of your training and progress
and what you're actually seeing.
So before we talk about why your weights
might go down with something like this,
let's first talk about what we're actually
trying to accomplish in the first place.
So if your goal is to build
muscle, then what are we chasing?
So the answer appears to
be mechanical tension.
Now what in the world does that mean?
Sounds like a big, big term.
Mechanical tension simply refers to
the force experienced by muscle fibers
when they're actively producing force.
So we don't want to just do work.
We want to do meaningful work, okay?
That's what we're trying to accomplish.
We're, we're trying to create
tension on the muscle fibers.
Now, there's other things that happen
during training, so there's muscle damage,
there's soreness, there's the burn,
there's the pump, and all of these things
can occur during productive training.
But when researchers look across
successful hypertrophy programs,
mechanical tension appears to be
the primary driver of muscle growth.
The muscle has to be challenged.
The muscle has to produce force, right?
The muscle has to experience tension.
That's what signals telling your
body, "Hey, we need to adapt. We
need to get stronger. We need more
muscle." So here's where I think
things get really interesting, because
understanding that science isn't
actually where most people struggle.
The struggle is in the
psychological aspect, right?
We as humans, we want certainty.
We want proof.
We want evidence that all of the
effort we're putting in today is
going to lead to results tomorrow.
And honestly, who can blame us?
Building muscle is hard,
and it takes forever, right?
So you're showing up in the gym, you're
prioritizing protein, you're trying to
get enough sleep, you're recovering,
you're putting in the effort day after
day, week after week, month after month,
year after year, 'cause that's, that's
really what builds muscle is over time.
So it can be frustrating because it
happens so slowly You don't build
five pounds of muscle this week and
immediately get confirmation, see
everything you were doing works.
You don't wake up every morning and
see large, massive, obvious changes.
Most of the time, muscle growth
happens so slowly that you can't even
see it happening at first, right?
So naturally, we start
looking for evidence.
We start looking for something that
tells us, "Yes, what you're doing right
here, right in this moment, this is
working." We want to feel something
right now telling us, "See this feeling?
This means it will work." And,
and this is also where progressive
overload enters the conversation,
because we've all heard that, right?
Progressive overload builds muscle.
And yes, that's true.
It's progressively increasing tension
on the muscle over time that creates the
adaptation and then the muscle, right?
It signals the adaptation, I should
say, which creates the muscle.
But somewhere along the way, people
start translating that into progressive
overload equals more weight And then
they take it even a step further.
If more weight equals progress,
then less weight equals failure.
And that's where things start to go
wrong, because suddenly every workout gets
judged by one thing and one thing only.
Did the weight go up?
If yes, success.
If no, failure.
But that's not actually what
we're trying to measure and, and
this is the hard thing, right?
It's this internal thing that's happening,
and it's hard because we can't measure
it internally in the moment, so we
have to go by these outside external
measurements, which is the weight.
So I do understand where
this all derives from, right?
Did the weight go up?
No?
Ugh, I, I didn't progress this week.
Well, anybody who's been weightlifting
for a long time knows that that's not
true, that what we're really trying to do
is we're constantly just, I, I think of
about throwing darts and getting as close
to the bullseye as possible over time.
That's what we're trying to do.
And sometimes we see increases when
the body has adapted and it becomes
stronger, it allows for more.
And sometimes it's okay to just stay
with the weight as long as it's intense
and getting us close to failure, and it
should only bump up once the body has
adapted and becomes stronger, and it's
kind of a signal of that, that growth
and strength, that look what happens.
We've adapted.
We're moving on.
So it's a really exciting moment, but it
doesn't happen every single week, right?
So the real question is, did we increase
the demands placed on the target muscle?
Or even getting, like, uh, and that
can be, like, the, the same weight, but
maybe we were able to manage it better.
That in and of itself can be a
progression, s- a slight sign, or adding
another rep. See what I'm able to do.
It's not always the, the scale
going up, but it, it's so…
or the weights going up, but it's so
easy for us to see that and be like,
"Oh, I'm getting that external validation
that what I'm doing is right." But this
is one of the most important concepts
I believe that lifters can understand.
So like I said, most people spending
all their time tracking external load.
I do.
I do.
I track all of my lifts.
So external load is that weight
on the machine, the dumbbell in
your hands, the plate on the bar.
It's easy to see.
It's easy to measure.
It's easy to compare.
But muscles don't respond
directly to external load.
Muscles respond to internal load.
Internal load is the tension experienced
by the muscle fibers themselves.
And this is where things get really
interesting if you're a total nerd
like me because two people can use
the exact same weight and receive
very different hypertrophy responses.
We could actually just say this one
person performed, you know, the exact
same weight but in two different manners
and got totally different stimuli.
So one person can shorten the
range of motion, use a ton of
momentum, rush through difficult
positions, bounce out of the bottom.
Like let's, let's give you
a visualization of this one.
So somebody steps up to a leg press.
They put on, you know 500 pounds.
And I don't know why I'm using 500 pounds,
it seems like a lot, but 500 pounds.
They put it on, and but what happens
is the leg press, the range of motion
at 500 pounds, they, they only do,
like, half of the range of motion, and
they use momentum and they bounce out.
Have you ever seen somebody
bounce out of the bottom of a
leg press or out of a squat?
They go down really fast and kind
of use the momentum to kind of
bounce and then come back up.
We're gonna talk about that a
little bit more later, okay?
So i- they're either, you know, shortening
the range of motion, or they're just using
a ton of momentum and bouncing, and they
rush through those difficult positions.
Then the other person walks up, or even
the same person walks up to the leg press.
They maintain tension.
They take a good three-count
down to the bottom, pause for
a one count in a challenging
position, and then push back up.
Same weight, different tension.
The second person or, uh, second
way of doing it, the leg press, they
will actually experience more tension
on the muscle fibers themselves.
Somebody bouncing out of the bottom,
um, they are going to be using a lot of
stored elastic energy, so they're not
going to be using a ton of, like, force
being produced on the glutes compared
to the person slowing down and pausing.
So let's talk about that.
What is stored elastic energy?
So I want you to think
about a rubber band.
When you stretch it, energy
actually gets stored.
When you release it, some of
that energy gets returned.
Your body works similarly.
Your tendons, your connective tissue,
your fascia, even your muscles themselves,
they all have elastic properties.
When you rapidly descend into a squat
or a leg press or Bulgarian split squat
or even jump, those tissues stretch.
As they stretch, energy gets stored.
If you immediately reverse directions,
it's kind of like that bounce,
some of that energy gets returned
and actually helps you move.
So that's called the stretch-shortening
cycle, and it's actually one of the
reasons humans move so efficiently.
It's why athletes can jump high,
sprint fast, or even change
directions more explosively.
It's one of the reasons our bodies are
capable of such powerful movements.
So let's be very clear about this.
In and of itself, stored elastic energy
is not bad And it's really only cheating
if you look at the goal of the individual.
If the goal is to become really good at
sports, really good at bouncing, changing
directions, jumping, all of those things,
Stored elastic energy is really helpful in
all of these It can be a poor use if the
goal is something like hypertrophy, right?
Then it can be cheating.
You're cheating yourself, though.
That's what you're doing.
So if you are trying to maximize
muscle growth, that's actually
not the way we want to do it.
We don't wanna be bouncing
out of these positions.
Also, keep in mind that bounce under
heavy loads, it does increase, um,
the likelihood of, uh, some injury.
So we have to be cautious with that.
So for those of us who are trying to use
maximal loads to build muscle, bouncing
with those maximal loads is, uh, a, a
poor idea if you want to stay injury-free.
That was a weird way to say that.
Anyways, let's get back to the leg press.
When you descend rapidly, like I said,
and immediately reverse directions, some
of the force helping move the weight is
coming from that stored elastic energy.
The muscles are still working, but
they're getting a lot of assistance.
Now, imagine if I tell you to take a
three-count down, so more controlled
descent, and pause near the bottom.
Don't relax, because it is possible to
let it come all the way down and relax.
Don't relax.
But pause where there's still
tension and difficulty in the glutes
in that bottom position, okay?
Maintain the tension.
Just hold it.
What happens?
The stored elastic energy dissipates.
It goes away.
The bounce disappears.
The assistance from
passive tissue disappears.
Now the glutes and quads have to generate
much more of the force themselves, and
suddenly that 500-pound leg press is no
longer manageable when you are controlling
every inch of that rep and pausing at the
bottom, especially in my current program,
we're pausing for a five count just on
the first rep, and then we push through.
But, but that elastic
energy completely gone.
that surrounding tissue no longer helping.
Momentum no longer helping.
This is just pure force being
generated on those glutes.
So which one is getting a
higher hypertrophy stimulus?
The one that's controlled,
the one where you pause.
But yet the weight has to go down, right?
Go down to maybe 400, maybe 350 pounds.
But that's where people panic
because they think, "Oh, I got
weaker." You didn't get weaker.
You just removed, uh, the assistance
that you had been using this whole time.
Okay?
So the external load did
go down, but guess what?
The internal load went up.
The weight desc- decreased, yes,
but the muscular demand increased.
And that is exactly what we're
trying to accomplish, right?
Remember the goal.
The goal isn't moving as much weight
as possible, even though sometimes
I do get caught up in that goal
and I think it is so much fun.
But really it is, how can I create
meaningful mechanical tension within the
target muscle that I'm trying to work?
Okay?
I do want to come back really fast to
the injury thing, because I do think
that this is really, really important.
I, I don't want anybody thinking that
momentum in and of itself is bad or
fast movement is dangerous, okay?
That's not the lesson.
Athletes perform explosive
movements every single day.
The issue isn't speed.
The issue is force management.
So the faster you're moving when you
reach the bottom of a movement, the more
force has to be absorbed and redirected.
So if tissues are prepared
for it, that's great.
That's fine.
But one of the benefits of pauses is
that they teach us to own difficult
positions, to create force without
relying on momentum, to build strength
and control where we are often weakest.
So think about that.
I don't just want you to
know how to accelerate.
I want you to know how to
put the brakes on, too.
And the best lifters can
produce force at any point.
They control it.
But both matter, right?
So what should you measure then?
If you're like, "Well, I'm
supposed to be doing progressive
overload, now it's like gone down."
this is where it's really important that
we need to compare apples to apples.
Every new training program
you are comparing to the
beginning of the program, right?
So if right now we're including pauses
and before then you weren't including
pauses, well, technically it is a
different lift because we've added
a different element to it, and so
it should be treated as a new lift.
So you're not going to be comparing
to previous, uh, no pauses.
You're only gonna be
comparing to the pause.
So over the next eight, 12 weeks, me and
my clients or me and my app users, we're
going to be comparing how we have moved
weights or reps or control From week one.
That's what we're doing, and we want
to see within the program
itself us progressing.
That's what's really, really important.
Okay?
So I want you to ask yourself: Am
I maintaining better technique?
Am I controlling difficult positions?
Am I creating more tension
in the target muscle?
Am I getting stronger
with these positions?
Am I performing more quality
reps? And then am I improving
my execution over time?
Those are all forms of progress that we
completely forget, and oftentimes they
tell us more about the quality of the
stimulus than the number on the machine
or the weights that we've loaded, right?
So if you remember nothing
else from today's episode,
remember these five things.
Number one, mechanical tension appears to
be the primary driver of muscle growth.
So no, I'm sorry, it's
not, uh, you feeling sore.
It's not you, uh, feeling the burn.
It's not how much you sweat.
It's mechanical tension.
Number two, external load and internal
load are actually not the same thing, and
a lot of times when we push to increase
external load too quickly, it comes at
the expense of form, and a lot of times
form and execution have more to do with
what's happening on that internal load
in the muscle fibers themselves, right?
'Cause that's where we want to create
the muscle, uh, the mechanical tension.
Number three, stored elastic energy can
help us move more weight by assisting
the movement Uh, it's not inherently
a bad thing, but it can be if the
goal is maximizing muscle growth.
Think about it as it's
your little helper, right?
Now, if you are an athlete and we want
to teach certain powerful movements and
how to use elastic energy really well,
then we can use that really well through
weightlifting programs in execution
and how we execute certain exercises.
But once again, when the goal is
maximizing muscle, then what we want
to do is we want to find ways to allow
elastic energy to dissipate, okay?
Number four, when we remove some of
that assistance, the weight often goes
down while the muscular demand goes up.
So sometimes, guys, when we change
the execution, we can actually see the
weights go down, but what's happening
inside at that muscle tissue is a much
more powerful and potent, uh, signal
for growth, which is pretty awesome,
and, including, a bone density.
Number five, progressive overload.
Remember this, guys, this is so important.
Progressive overload is
not simply adding weight.
Progressive overload is
increasing the demands placed
on the muscle fibers over time.
So if your weight drops because we
changed how you're performing an
exercise, don't automatically assume
you're losing progress, you did something
wrong, or the programming just sucks.
Sometimes the weight goes down because
the muscle is finally doing more work,
and that is exactly what we want.
Muscles respond to the
tension being placed.
That's what's going to be the main signal
and the main driver of hypertrophy.
You guys are awesome.
I love all of you.
You guys have a wonderful week.