Far be it from me to correct anyone’s methods IN the gym. That’s just plain rude and disrespectful. However, doing so over the internet while preserving someone’s anonymity seems to be an okay thing to do. Maybe that’s an ethical grey area, but I’m okay walking there.

I was at the gym this evening, working next to a guy that was about my age, and really, really skinny. He was doing super, super-high repetitions and meticulously logging every set, rep and weight.

He struck up a friendly conversation with me, and the topic quickly veered into what his goals were in the gym. He said he was trying to get bigger and stronger. I smiled and nodded and quickly got back to my workout. I felt really bad for the guy, but I’m not going to interrupt my workout and ruin his day at the same time, so I let it go.

Super-Size Super-High Me

This whole super-high rep training phenomenon is way too prevalent among people wanting to get bigger. I’m not talking about rep ranges of 12-15. A lot of people consider those to be high reps, and so do I. I certainly believe that kind of lifting has its place in certain routines, depending on the goal. But there doesn’t seem to be much benefit in training with super-high reps if you’re going for size.

So, what evidence do we have for this? I like science, and science likes me. I turn to the trusty old PubMed site. This is a fantastic, free resource where you can learn about virtually any kind of health-related study ever done. It’s really great. I surf there in my free time just for fun. I guess that makes me a nerd, but I find lots of interesting stuff. But I digress.

Let’s look at that study. They took a bunch of untrained dudes, and split them into groups doing low reps (3-5, 4 sets, 3 minutes rest), intermediate reps (9-11, 3 sets, 2 minutes rest) and high reps (20-28 reps, 2 sets, 1 minute rest). So, what happened?

The low rep and intermediate rep groups got bigger. The high rep group did not. The low rep group was the strongest, the intermediates second, and bringing up the rear was the high rep group.

Lower the Reps for a Better Body

Well, makes sense to me. Those that trained with the heaviest weights got the strongest. They grew just as much as the intermediate group. So, what advantages were there for the high rep group?

They were the best at lifting lighter weights the longest. Wow, what a shocker that is. Again, this fits with what we know to be true about resistance training: Your body will only excel at what you train it for. So, it makes no sense to train with really light weights a bunch of times if your goal is to get stronger. That seems more like common sense to me than any real revelation about exercise. Now, I will note that these results were in untrained guys. Results may vary for those that are experienced lifters. I say “may” only because there are other studies that look at what happens when these training regimens are applied to experienced lifters. I will detail this in my next posting.

A Common Sense Approach

The bottom line is this: If you want to get bigger muscles, lift heavy weights. If you want to get stronger, lift heavy weights. It’s that simple. I don’t even think the rep and set scheme matter all that much, to be honest. The simple truth is that if you’re lifting a heavy weight, there’s going to be a limit to how many times you can lift it. If you’re lifting it a bunch of times, you KNOW, deep down, that it’s not really that heavy. The key is to constantly challenge yourself and challenge your body. Pressing 135 lbs is only going to make you strong enough to press 135 lbs. If you want to get bigger and stronger, make it harder. There’s no need to go on elaborate 1-day per week Super Muscle Confusion Hyper Exhaustion Deltoid Day type of training regimen.

And remember: having tired and sore muscles isn’t necessarily a guarantee of an effective workout. All it means is that you did something your muscles aren’t used to. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re growing or getting stronger. I’m sure that the high rep group had tired and sore muscles after their 28th rep of their second set, but look at what that did for getting bigger and stronger: Nothing. Use common sense! Make it hard, heavy and challenging.

-Drew

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