Fadi
...
Less load with higher reps over more load with lower reps would wins every time for me, if the aim is muscle hypertrophy. Granted we have slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, and we've always been told that this is best trained like this, whilst the other is best trained like that. What I'm saying (based on observation and science), is that each one of us has within him the power to bend the rules when it comes to the white/fast twitch muscle fibers, if and when we decide to take the set all the way to momentary muscle failure. For by doing so, the fast twitch muscle fibers (which by the way respond to heavy loads for maximum recruitment and stimulation), are forced to join the party in order to assist the other now exhausted slow twitch muscle fibers. That in a nutshell, is why I favour a lighter load / higher reps, over a heavier load with less reps.
Having expressed the above, let me identify (at least for me) what is a low rep and what is a high rep. A set of 10 reps is a heavy low rep set, where a set of 20-30 is a lighter and higher reps one. I do both, yet spend a higher percentage of my overall training performing the 20-30 reps sets. This to me (especially now at 51), represents more work (and feel) of and for the muscle fibers involved, and less stress for and on the overall connective tissues.
In the above two paragraphs, I've made mention of muscle recruitment; muscle stimulation, and the bending of the rules. Please note that muscle recruitment, or rather maximum muscle recruitment is not the same as muscle stimulation. As a former Olympic weightlifter, my whole training was geared on becoming highly proficient in my ability to maximally recruit muscle fibers in one violent and sudden movement. Even though I'm now speaking bodybuilding, my mentioning of muscle recruitment here is of a different nature compared with an explosive sport such as Olympic weightlifting. Here (in bodybuilding), the maximum muscle fiber recruitment I'm referring to, is of a gradual nature instead of one that relies on instant and explosive recruitment. The latter is one that needs years of constant adaptation of the nervous system, hence weightlifting is always associated with the nervous system, where bodybuilding is more of a musculature system based sport.
Having expressed the above, let me identify (at least for me) what is a low rep and what is a high rep. A set of 10 reps is a heavy low rep set, where a set of 20-30 is a lighter and higher reps one. I do both, yet spend a higher percentage of my overall training performing the 20-30 reps sets. This to me (especially now at 51), represents more work (and feel) of and for the muscle fibers involved, and less stress for and on the overall connective tissues.
In the above two paragraphs, I've made mention of muscle recruitment; muscle stimulation, and the bending of the rules. Please note that muscle recruitment, or rather maximum muscle recruitment is not the same as muscle stimulation. As a former Olympic weightlifter, my whole training was geared on becoming highly proficient in my ability to maximally recruit muscle fibers in one violent and sudden movement. Even though I'm now speaking bodybuilding, my mentioning of muscle recruitment here is of a different nature compared with an explosive sport such as Olympic weightlifting. Here (in bodybuilding), the maximum muscle fiber recruitment I'm referring to, is of a gradual nature instead of one that relies on instant and explosive recruitment. The latter is one that needs years of constant adaptation of the nervous system, hence weightlifting is always associated with the nervous system, where bodybuilding is more of a musculature system based sport.
Last edited: