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There’s no shortage of theories about what constitutes the ideal weight training workout. From personal trainers to the ripped guy at the gym, everyone has an opinion on what combination of reps, sets and loads will pack on the most muscle.

But lifting weights isn’t always about looking buff in a T-shirt. Muscle delivers strength and power, two often overlooked functions of day-to-day life. Lifting children or grandchildren, carrying a heavy load of laundry up the stairs or bags of groceries from the car to the kitchen and dragging a garbage can to the curb all require strength. Power assists in athletic movements that demand speed, agility and quick acceleration like running the bases, skiing moguls and being first to the puck. It can also help you race to the bus, up a flight or two of stairs and hop over a snowbank.

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With age and lack of use, muscles not only weaken they get smaller. Experts estimate muscle loss at a rate of three to eight per cent a decade after age 30 and at an even higher percentage after 60. Such a gradual decline likely goes unnoticed those first couple of decades, which is one of the reasons weight training isn’t high on the list of priorities for most middle-age folks. But without a concerted effort to slow age-related muscle loss, the activities you love doing become harder over time as do the chores of everyday life.  

Like most forms of exercise there’s a generalized set of guidelines designed to build strength and power, including the amount of weight to lift, number of repetitions and sets per exercise and number of times you need to workout per week. But with so many variables, it’s no wonder the opinions about what combination of reps, sets and loads offer the best results seem endless. 

There are those who swear by lifting as heavy a load as possible if getting stronger is the goal, while others are convinced lighter loads and more reps is the best way to add muscle mass and size. Add discussions about how many times a week to hit the weights and whether or not to lift to failure (the point where fatigue limits the ability to repeat another repetition in good form) and it’s no wonder there’s so much confusion surrounding the ideal workout to maintain and/or improve muscle mass and power.

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It doesn’t help science has been slow to offer a robust body of evidence outlining the strength workout that yields the best results. Also missing is the minimum amount of resistance training needed to sustain muscle mass, an important benchmark for those trying to juggle competing workouts, a busy home or work life or other interests beyond working up a sweat.

With so many variables and combinations of variables, comparing all the possible weight training workouts in a systematic manner is a nearly impossible task. Undaunted, a team of kinesiologists led by Stuart Phillips from McMaster University reviewed thousands of studies that focused on three specific training modalities: heavier versus lighter loads, single versus multiple sets and training volume (the number of workouts per week).  

“The purpose of this systematic review and network meta-analysis was to determine how different resistance training prescriptions affect muscle strength, hypertrophy and physical function in healthy adults,” the researchers said. 

With 178 studies making the final cut (women made up 45 per cent of the subjects), the results suggest there is little difference in outcomes between the various weight training protocols.

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“Our analysis found multiple resistance training prescriptions comparable for healthy adults to increase muscle strength and mass,” the researchers said.   

Not surprisingly, workouts that prioritized lifting heavier weight resulted in greater strength gains and muscle size was optimized by performing more repetitions with lighter weight. But there’s little to suggest more complex or more physically demanding routines will offer superior results, especially for novice exercisers.  

As for the minimum prescription required to reap the benefits of weight training, targeting each muscle or group of muscles with at least two sets of the same exercise twice a week will result in gains in both strength and muscle size.

When it comes to lifting to failure, as per other recent studies, the evidence indicates it’s not necessary for novices who want to pack on muscle. For more experienced exercisers, however, reaching muscular fatigue by the end of the set will yield better results.  

The upside of all of this is that complicated strength training routines often featured on social media or recommended by some trainers don’t offer any more benefits than simply performing a couple sets of your favourite exercise per muscle group. And there’s no need to grunt and groan your way through a workout. Taking the muscle to near failure will build all the strength and power you need.

“Personal preferences, including disliking higher loads or time constraints, including an inability to train more than once weekly, can be observed while still benefitting from resistance training,” the researchers said.  

If a lack of time or inexperience are reasons why you avoid weight training, consider this study the opportunity to reboot your efforts. Keep your workouts simple and under 30 minutes, and don’t worry if you can’t lift more than a couple times a week. Consistency yields better results than showy workouts built more to impress than to build muscle.  

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