We’ve all seen videos online with steroid-enhanced athletes lifting enormous amounts of weight. But, as high school students, we (hopefully) aren’t taking steroids. So when we try to imitate bodybuilders by lifting heavy weights, especially without proper guidance, it can be more detrimental than conducive to our physical success. Many athletes lack proper guidance but still seek to improve. When deciding whether to lift heavy weights for low repetitions or light weights for high repetitions, it is important to examine your experience level.

Experience level refers to familiarity with the specific exercise as well as overall experience. Only when you understand the fundamentals of an exercise can you increase the weight. Andre Woodert, a teacher and experienced lifter in charge of weight training, said, “Inexperienced lifters should go lighter to start with, for sure.” This is to prevent injury, which can be both temporary and, in the worst case, permanent. Overall experience is gained when you’ve been working out for a while, building those smaller muscles that help stabilize the weights and prevent injury. “When you’re deadlifting but the little muscles in your back can’t keep your back straight, then that might be a problem,” Woodert added.

Regardless of experience level, doing both high-weight/low reps and low-weight/high reps is important. Even as weight increases with progress, Woodert maintained, “Even my heavy guys will still lift lighter weights to get their bodies better positioned for certain exercises.”

Jake Pessin ‘25, the president of our school’s weightlifting club, said, “When I think of high weight and low reps, I think of powerlifting. When I hear about low weight and high reps, I think of endurance, like what the cross-country team is doing.” However, cross-country coaches also incorporate heavy lifting. Head Coach Brian Bennett, who has coached 28 All-Americans and eight athletes under 4:20 in the 1600m, aims to improve stride distance through lifting heavy weights. “More power and more force without generating more lean body mass from the lift. With running, the less time we are on the ground, the faster we are. Also, if we can extend our stride length even an inch with each stride, think of how that adds up over 1600 meters or 5000 meters,” Bennett said. “In the marathon, there are roughly 20,000 strides. If you can add an extra three inches per stride, you could be a full mile ahead of your former self simply from adding the hexbar deadlift to your training.”

At the end of the day, examine what’s important to you for your fitness goals. Make sure to ask your coaches before trying new exercises, as it’s essential to get a mix of both approaches and do it properly. Focus on staying safe, doing things the right way, and don’t ego lift!