How High & Low Rep Sets Affect Muscle Growth

In this QUAH Sal, Adam, & Justin answer the question “Can you elaborate on the differing results between low and high rep sets?”

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“How High & Low Rep Sets Affect Muscle Growth“
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PODCAST:

[andrewhezekiahdaniel]

It's basically mechanical tension (low reps) Vs muscle damage (high reps) in terms of building muscle.

[Guitarmfig]

Cannot say this enough, what an excellent podcast these guys put on, much appreciated

[uckfeouye]

Problem I see with average people lifting heavy, they just move the weight without focus on squeezing the muscles they're working. If you're going to work heavy weight you need to move it with intent. I suggest to people to move the weight slowly for a couple reps to get the mind muscle connection to the muscle then pump out a few faster explosive pushes.

[cmarch]

Wendler 5/3/1 for the four core lifts: bench, ohp, squat, dead lift. Then high rep auxiliary with each workout. It works.

[danl]

I switch it every week 1st week
Heavy training (heavy weight low reps)

2nd week light weight high reps

[JMast]

Do your compound movement such as deadlift, bench etc then do a coupe accessory lifts in the 12-15 range. 3-4 days a week. That’s it

[kurts]

Depends on the body part and person. My legs respond well to heavy volume. My upper body responds well to lower volume

[brianel]

This is why I love the push pull legs 6 day split. Low reps for the first 3 days, high reps for the last 3 days. Take a rest day then start again.

[chaosevolution]

If you keep your workouts short and sweet, a good way to get a mix is 15 reps light weight for set 1. 8 reps medium weight set 2. Set 3, 4, 5: 3-5 reps heavy weight.

i did that with barbell rows at 30kg|40kg|50kg high, medium, low rep and it just saves so much time and effort.

You can do this with any given exercise.

I prefer low reps as it's less exhausting and I don't get out of breath too much. Defo more anaerobic than high rep.

[redmakerr]

It was the same for me for biceps. I started to do low weight high reps and would get a pump and rounder bigger muscle, but then when i started to do heavier weight and low reps, the size went down but my biceps were like super hard and dense and felt like a machine.

[tumbleweedconnection]

Seems like whenever this debate comes up, people forget about an old training method that incorporates both training. For example, 3 sets of an exercise adding weight and reducing reps with each set. Pyramids were much more popular in the 80s and 90s but seem to be mentioned much less these days it's basically the best of both worlds. You can incorporate both high and low reps on every exercise if you structure it properly. Even guys like Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates who were huge proponents of high intensity training, did basically a pyramid style but they considered all but the last 1-2 sets of an exercise as warmup sets. But they used weights on those sets that were heavy enough to certainly qualify as true work sets. Not sure why this method is a bit forgotten today. 3 sets of an exercise (after warmups) with a rep scheme of say 12, 8, 4 is a great way to reap the benefits of different rep ranges within any given workout.

[ordinaryvideos]

Personally I do 1 or 2 heavy exercises at the beginning of my workout for said muscle group then I do a few lighter weight exercises for 15 20 reps

[jongib]

Idk if there's benefit to it, but when I do arm wrestling training I typically do one week all blood flow with 25-100 reps depending how light I go. The following week will be more of a body building routine, the week after that a powerlifting rep range routine, next concentric only lifts, and then a week off. For the concentric only lifts I typically either do it in the style of "grease the groove" with one rep every time I pass it. Or a powerlifting rep range routine.

[guilhermegarcia]

You can do that even in the same day. 2 sets of very heavy 6 reps then 2 or 3 sets of high reps till failure. Damn its badass.

[RamirezVB]

I do 5x5 for big compound lifts like squat, deadlift, bb rows, bench press, and OH press. And then I do 3 x 8-12 for leg press/extensions, hammer and cable rows, smaller muscles like shoulder lateral raises, front raises, rear delts, triceps, biceps, and calves. Hope that is a good mix

[Andrew-mzrw]

What are your thoughts on mixing in heavy, low reps one day and then lighter, high reps on your next lift day?

[itsme]

3 days low reps 3 days high reps, switch compound and isolation exercises every 3 days and you will get what you want 👍

[brainumb]

I hate this debate, in my opinion it’s body part and exercise dependent, 20 rep side Latrell raises are very effective, 6 rep Latrell raises are shit, but bench in the 6-7 rep range you will grow, push 20-30 reps on a bench you will feel like you just ran 100 meters

[CitizenoftheWorld]

My first two exercises are compound movements where I do low reps (4-6). The four exercises following are less compound or more isolation where I do high reps (6-8). Best of both worlds

[garyvale]

Question: if I can flat bench 50lb dumbbells' at a max of 15x per for maximum growth, what's the best number of sets to do and should I add weight to each progressive set to reach 5 reps max? ...thanks