OH I also wanted to say I know gaining muscle is not easy. So I know I will not become she-man overnight. I laugh at women in my gym who won’t lift because they don’t want to get “big”.
I found alot of stuff on Cosgrove. Looks very interesting
Ok, I stole this from another thread:
I’ll try to explain these terms as basically as I can. First off, think of a bodybuilder vs. a powerlifter. A powerlifter is training for strength, not size. He utilizes low reps and heavy weights. A bodybuilder trains for size and not strength. He utilizes high reps and lighter weights. The reason for this is in the difference between sarcoplasmic and sarcomere hypertrophy.
Stressing your muscles with lifting causes the accumulation of sodium and calcium in your muscle cell. This triggers an increased protein synthesis and fiber hypertrophy. Basically the muscle “grows bigger in an effort to deal with this ionic disruption. This type of training also leads to a storage of glycogen and fluid within the muscle.”
When a person trains with high reps, this causes a greater than normal storage of glycogen. “The extra glycogen and fluid build-up is termed non-functional hypertrophy because it causes growth of the non-contractile tissue, or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Sarcomeres are the actual contractile elements of the muscle cells, or protein structures, whereas sarcoplasm is the fluid in and around the cell”
If a bodybuilder takes 2 weeks off of training, it is quite possible that he can essentially piss away some of the muscle size as the fluid and glycogen decrease. A powerlifter is much less likely to lose size or strength because he has been building contractile muscle tissue, not just making the existing cells bigger.
So basically:
High reps = sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy = increase in non-contractile portion of the muscle
High reps = temporarily bigger, but not stronger muscles
Low reps = sarcomere hypertrophy
Sarcomere hypertrophy = an increase in the size of contractile muscle tissue
Low reps = stronger muscles and more, longer lasting, muscle tissue
Now what does all this mean to you? It means that lower reps will build you more and stronger muscle tissue. What burns more calories? Muscle tissue. How do we build muscle tissue? Lower reps.
If you stick with the 15-20 reps, you almost aren’t even touching either of those types of hypertrophy. You are basically creating more endurance, or an ability to work longer. You aren’t building muscle tissue. Tissue can only be broken down and rebuilt to a certain point. Think about it, if your husband were right, everyone would be busting their asses with 100 reps per set. But that is not how muscle tissue works.
So if you keep training at that rep scheme, you will continue to plateau. Your body has adapted and become efficient. It will not continue to lose weight with such high reps unless you drastically lower calories… and we all know how bad that would be for your health! So change things up and start building some more muscle tissue with low reps. 
Alright, I give, dam, now that is an explaination!
Less reps starting tomorrow it is. 8-12 is ok? (you know I will do 12) But I usually go alittle heavier on my last set which always drops my reps.
Thank you for your time in the above. Looking forward to the change. All my new changes are just making me more and more happy. Less cardio, less reps, more calories…Hope it works! But of course not less effort
[quote]pink7465 wrote:
But of course not less effort :)[/quote]
and there lies the secret…
best of luck!
db
thanx diana b
8-12 is just fine. Try to improve by upping the weight each time you can do 12 reps easily. And by easily I mean that you can get that 12th, but 13 would be shitty. When you hit 12, add weight and drop your reps down. Then start working hard to get your reps back up with that additional weight. Make sense? Keeps me progressing as I keep trying to get that extra rep out at the end.
I had to have a spot on set three on a couple of things in order to get to 12 but it was nice to up the weights. Now does the same apply to legs? I thought I read you should keep the reps up more with legs? Have legs tomorrow just wondering.
Love my new workout! Less reps, More calories and less Cardio what more could someone ask for? And I lost 4 lbs this week. See what happens next week.
Thanx
I’m glad you are happy and seeing some changes.
I tend to train my legs with lower reps than my upper body. But that is because I am looking for more strength than size. I know some women tend to pack on the muscle quicker in their lower bodies than their upper bodies… unfortunately for me I don’t tend to pack it on quickly anywhere, I only make slow gains with tons of hard work and consistency.
Anyway, why not stick with the same rep scheme that you are using with your upper body… just to keep things simple.
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