HELP!!! I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANYBODY'S HELP!!!!!

Import · June 12, 2001, 2:40am

Ian King has mentioned that beginners benefit from higher reps (8-12). I am going to try to prove why I may benefit from low reps (4-8) despite the fact that I am a beginner. First of all, King has also mentioned that the way your muscle fibers act (regardless of what fiber type they are) has a lot to do with your training history, more specifically, your training history during your formative years. Well, I am only 17 and I am a beginner but because I am in my formative years it would be of benefit for me to perform low reps. The reason being of course to make my fibers act more fast-twitch. Also when I perform main lifts at 80% of my max for that lift, I can only do 2 reps. This has nothing to do with age because I know a 14 year old beginner with absolutely zero training history who can perform 20 reps at 80% of his one-rep max, a 16 year old beginner with some training history who can perform 11 reps at 80% of his one-rep max, and a 17 year old intermediate with years of training history who can perform 7 reps at 80% of his one-rep max. I myself have trained on and off for the last two years. But anyways, this is another reason why I should be concerned doing high reps, because for me to do high reps I have to use LOW intensity, maybe far less than 50% of my one-rep max. So again, it would be of benefit for me to work out in the 4-8 rep range regardless of the fact that I am a beginner. In addition, Dr. Hatfield wrote that anybody who performs less than 11 reps at 80% max at a lift is predominantly fast-twitch for that lift (the main logic here is that fast-twitch muscle have a low oxidative capacity and thus lacks endurance). Well, I performed exactly two reps at 80% of my max for squats, bench, rows, and curls! Dr. Hatfield went on to write that for someone who performs low reps at 80% of his or her one-rep, it would be most beneficial to perform 4-8 reps.

So, despite the fact that Ian King has said that beginners benefit from higher reps, I have made a case proving that this doesn’t apply to me. Actually, I’m not sure (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this post) so please let me know if you think I’m right or wrong. I myself don’t know if I’m right, so this is why I would appreciate anybody to let me know what you think. Thank you for your time!

Import · June 12, 2001, 11:58am

yeah you’re right…you probably will benefit from lower rep ranges. Remember when Ian King says that beginners will benefit from higher reps he is talking about reps relative to that individual…so in 2 or 3 years if you keep training the rep range you respond to will probably be even less than it is now.

Import · June 12, 2001, 1:24pm

Whenever reading something someone else says, remember to not take it for the absolute truth. I agree with Ian for the higher reps for MOST beginners because you also need to make sure you build a proper foundation for future lifting. This means, practice, practice, practice. Using strength training and low reps, you could use mutliple sets i.e. 4-5 sets of 4-6 reps to teach the skills for proper technique. I think that Ian said it his way is because also the human body needs time to adapt to any new condition or training and maybe a beginner’s nervous system is not ready to handle EFFICIENTLY, a higher degree of stress from heavy lifting. I’m just making my own guess here. It does sound like you are predominantly fast twitch for your fiber make-up, but understand that every muscle in you body to some degree or another conatins all types of muscle fibers. This means you have fast twitch, fast-slow, and slow twitch make-up. If you have trouble with higher reps, it might be the effiency of your muscles and nervous system, or maybe you like to lift heavy and hven’t spent much time trying to improve your muscular endurance. There have been studies done that I heard you can change some of your fiber make-up based on training protocols. So in effect, if you had little endurance, just try and increase the number of reps you are using for a given weight as long as it is not maximal in effort. I bet since you are young, you could probably run for a pretty long distance if you needed to, but you are more EFFICIENT at lifting heavy or sprinting. Maybe this will shed some light on this topic.