If you ask a million bodybuilders/weight trainers, or read thousands of “muscle building” articles, or pick up almost every book written for natural trainers on the fastest way to gain weight fast (quality weights, of course) ), 99% of them will tell you that fewer repetitions during sets, 10 reps or less, will build more muscle than any weight training program that requires you to use higher reps.
This philosophy has been around for decades, and it has led to the undeniable truth that low reps are not the best way to build muscle without the use of anabolic steroids. If it were, why don’t we see millions more “muscle heads” walking around in everyday life? There are hundreds of millions of people who are very dedicated to their workouts, yet most really have nothing to show for it. Sure, they might be getting stronger, but they’re not getting bigger in size… and there’s a big difference between the two.
Contrary to what most people think and say, the two are not the same.
Case in point: In a study titled “Muscular Adaptations to a Combination of High- and Low-Intensity Resistance Exercises,” according to The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Japanese scientists separated trainers into two different weightlifting groups:
1) A strength training group
2) A mixed-training group
They both followed your typical workout routine:
* 5 sets per exercise / 3-5 reps per set / 3 minutes rest between sets
The mixed group has changed. Once they did, they went ahead and did 1 set of 25-30 reps in 30 seconds immediately after the last set. The results were interesting to say the least.
As mentioned, not only did the mixed group continue to build muscle, while the strength training group experienced a slight loss in muscle mass. In addition, the mixed training group achieved approximately 5% more 1-rep max strength than the other group.
Now, it’s not that you should believe all of your weight training philosophy on one study. But it adds to all the real-world evidence that clearly demonstrates that if you’re into pure muscle building or weight gain…not necessarily pure power or strength, the amount of reps you need to perform per set matters. Will have to increase. High reps provide a ton of muscle-building factors that low reps don’t, such as more time under tension, lactic acid build-up, more blood pumping, etc.
Keep all of this in mind the next time you’re only concerned with how much you’re lifting rather than how often.
