Hey, I’m pretty new to the weightlifting scene, and I had a few questsions…
I am sort of overwhelmed by all the different thing things I’ve read so far on the topic of weightlifting, especially the topic of how many repetitions to perform for either mass or strength. From the information I’ve gathered, 8-12 reps is for mass, and 8 and under is more strength oriented. So am I to understand that I will get stronger faster if I perform sets of under 8 repetitions? would I put on any mass?
Chad Waterbury’s method for mass and strength is 10 sets of 3 reps…I thought you had to keep tension on the muscle for 40-70 seconds for maximum growth to occur?
Quite a few people say “doing under 6 reps won’t increase muscle size, but it will increase strength”. What if I just did 12 reps, and simply ate enough to maintain my weight? would i not gain as much strength?
Greetings! I’m a beginner, too, but I’ll try to answer some of your questions (please correct me if I’m off-base).
As is said on here a lot, if you’re training for strength, size is a side effect, and if you’re training for size, strength will be a side effect. You also need to eat more calories than you’re burning in order to really grow, although beginners generally are able to eat less and lose fat and build muscle.
If you have seen it yet, try Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. It’s a program created for beginners, and it will really help you get used to lifting. I’m on it, and I love it!
i timed how long it took me to perform a 12 rep bench press, and it actually came out under 40 seconds…40 to 70 seconds is suppose to be the hypertrophy phase, right?
As is said on here a lot, if you’re training for strength, size is a side effect, and if you’re training for size, strength will be a side effect. You also need to eat more calories than you’re burning in order to really grow, although beginners generally are able to eat less and lose fat and build muscle.
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I think there’s a lot of truth to that. Look at a guy like Dave Tate who trained for strength for years. The guy is huge. That said, just pick a goal and go for it.
It seems confusing because there is a good deal of overlap in training the different fitness components. Yes strength is low reps, hypertrophy is medium, endurance is higher reps. There is great deal of carryover between them. It’s best to work in several rep ranges over the long term. Rippetoe uses 5 reps because that works strength very well as well as builds muscle. It seems to be a mid point between the two.
I would say for strength use 1 to 8 reps, hypertrophy use 5 to 12 and endurance use 10-20. That’s very open to variation. There are programs designed for strength athletes that sometimes incorporate 40 rep sets. There are lots of options and it’s all in how the program is put together and the experience level of the trainee.
I agree with the poster that said that definition mostly comes from diet. I’m not a body builder. Some may use high reps for definition.
First off, I wouldn’t be worried about time under tension. It’s going to get too hard to make sure you’re under the weight for a certain amount of time. I would just drop that idea.
I remember CW writing an article where he talks about rep/set volume. rep/set volume would simply be the number of sets multiplied by the number of reps in those sets. So 10x3 would be 30. Part of the reason behind the 10x3 is that the sets of 3 allow someone to lift heavy, while the 10 sets makes it enough volume to allow for hypertrophy. If you’re looking for information from an accredited source, then I would recommend you look up his article.
As for the rep ranges, part of the difference between low reps and high reps is the type of muscle tone you develop. I hope I’m not confusing these but there’s myogenic and neurogenic tone. I believe myogenic tone is when your muscle cells keeps a constant amount of tension. So your muscle is at a constant state of contraction which makes you look better even though you’re not flexing. The higher in the rep ranges you go, the more neurogenic tone you’re supposed to develop. Basically people with neurogenic tone aren’t going to look as impressive without flexing.
If you’re simply eating just enough to maintain your weight, your gains are going to be slow. You would probably make gains for a little bit, but it will definitely stagnate.
What is your goal? You want to gain muscle size but maintain your weight? You’re not going to gain size if you aren’t getting enough to eat. You need to eat more than just to maintain if you wanna gain size.
sounds awesome…tommorow I’m going to mix it up a bit with sets of 5 reps and under.
Also, I was reading about isometrics today, and this guy named Peter Sisco touts in his books, how it is a better way to build mass and strength than isotonic moviements (weightlifting). His books seem to get mixed reviews…what do you guys think? I smell something fishy…
"…So in that case you need to take that lifter and build him up, and you’re not necessarily going to build anyone up doing dynamic work or max effort work. It still comes down to the three ways to induce muscle tension: the repetition method, the max effort method, and the dynamic method.
Where the miscommunication comes in is when the beginners place all their focus on the max effort and the dynamic methods. They don’t understand the application of the repetition method. From a powerlifter’s standpoint, a bigger muscle is going to be a stronger muscle. While that’s not always the case, it is part of the equation."
Now the way I interpret this (and I know this is from a power lifters pov but go with me on this b/c the man knows his shit) is that whether you are a power lifter or a bodybuilder you need size. Yes youll build size using low reps and high weight and that will make you stronger but wont build as much size as quickly.
I would stay in the 6-10 rep range for the big compound lifts and an 8-12 rep range for the smaller lifts with 45-60 sec rest between sets and the # of sets are up to you.
But I have tried doing the 10x3 using 85-90% of my 1rm for 6 or 7 weeks and it did really help my bench go up but I dont think it is very feasible for squat or deadlifts. This may just be me but by the time I got to sets 5-7 I was all but spent and had to drop the weight. But didnt do much for size.
(edit) Not to sure how well it came across but with ME squats/deads I wouldnt do more that 6 sets
[quote]Mcflurry wrote:
sounds awesome…tommorow I’m going to mix it up a bit with sets of 5 reps and under.
Also, I was reading about isometrics today, and this guy named Peter Sisco touts in his books, how it is a better way to build mass and strength than isotonic moviements (weightlifting). His books seem to get mixed reviews…what do you guys think? I smell something fishy…
thanks again guys;)[/quote]
Sure it might have worked for him but that dosent mean its for every one. But sounds like he is just tring to sell a book like most everyone else tring to make a buck.
But again if your going to go with low reps do 6-10 sets. I say 6 b/c it can be taxing at first but then the next week do 8 then 10. But if you think you can do 10 sets then do 10.
here is the links(its 2 part) to the Dave Tate interview. Graet grate read.