Click Here for Free Bodybuilding and Fitness Magazine Subscription
High reps for muscle hypertrophy
Posted by: Shawn
Many bodybuilders think the only way to gain muscle is to go hard and heavy but that is not true as most professional bodybuilders will tell you they will not gain muscle without doing lots of reps at some point in their training. Some of the world greatest bodybuilders never trained less than 8 reps in a set.
A study was done specifically on reps to discover the best rep count in a set to gain muscle. The study was for ten weeks where each volunteer did leg extensions with a different rep configuration. The first two groups where given a weight that was 80% of their 1RM and the third group used 30% of 1RM.
The first group only did one set of 10 to 12 reps three times a week. The second group did 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps three times a week and the last group used only 30% 1RM and did 30 to 40 reps three times a week. The results where conclusive as they used magnetic resonance imaging to see the results.
The study was only interested in muscle size and not strength and they discovered that the groups who trained 3 sets three times a week all increased muscle size whether they were training 30 to 40 reps using 30% 1RM or 10 reps using 80% of 1RM.
We know that we all have a specific genetic allocation of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers depending on our parents. This study has shown us that both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers are activated when training both high and low reps.
One should never take just one study as the gospel on muscle building, but there are many other studies that have been done on this subject of reps in a set. One study showed conclusively that training 60% of 1RM with a 3-1-3 tempo increased muscle size by 7% with a 33% increase in strength.
When training with weights to increase the size of a muscle both low reps and high reps need to be done on a regular basis. It will depend on your own specific somatotype which type of training you concentrate on, in the same study it was shown that training with 90% 1RM using a 1-0-1 tempo increased muscle size by 9% and strength by 41%.
Another study was done using a combination of these two training methods where the volunteers did 4 X 8-10 reps with 80% 1RM as well as 4 X 18-20 reps with only 15.5% 1RM. All the men in the study increased the size of their muscles by an average of 8% over 12 weeks.
The point is that when training heavy with 80% 1RM you are enabling myofibrillar hypertrophy, when you train with light weights 30% 1RM you will be enabling sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This has now proven to increase the myofibrillar protein synthesis for up to 48 hours after exercise which is more than you get from just doing 4 or 5 reps with 90% 1RM.
Depending on your genetics a combination of both heavy and light weight should be done when the objective is muscle size.
Click Here for a Chance to Win Free Bodybuilding Supplements
[Powerlifting Forum] [Bodybuilding Discussion Forum] [Bodybuilder Forum] [Teen Bodybuilding Forum]
[Muscle Growth Forum] [Weight Loss Forum] [Workout Forum] [Health and Fitness Forum]
