Interesting thought.. - JP Fitness Forums

Frank.S · 07-23-2006, 11:11 AM

I have found that I seem to have more fast-twitch (type 2) style muscles. When I looked at my training log and compared it to others, my 'high rep' sets use less weight then other peoples who have similar maximal effort numbers. This is becoming quite weird to me, as I can barely hit 195 for 5-6 reps on the bench but, I have no problem getting up 50-60+lbs higher then that for a single-double. For my squat, if im doing 8 reps, im lucky to get 60% of 1RM for the set.

Since I like lifting heavy weights, I dont really mind this. But from a training viewpoint im unsure of where I should be going.

Should I keep the reps low and work on my strongpoints, or keep them a little higher and work on my weakpoints. Im going for stregnth and nothing else right now. Im guessing I should mix it up, but it feels almost pointless to me doing sets of 195 x 8 when I could be doing 270 x 2 or somthing similar.

Jason B · 07-23-2006, 12:25 PM

Depends on what type of strength you're after. If you're solely after maximal strength, keep the reps low, who cares about strength endurance? And as you increase your 1RM strength, obviously 60% of your 1RM increases, so it becomes harder to do reps with it. Ask a new lifter to do a set of 10 squats with 80% and he'll smoke it no problem, but ask the same thing of an elite powerlifter, if he get's it, it'll just about kill him. So I wouldn't sweat it if you're just after 1RM strength.

You do need to worry about reps on your assistance work though, this is where you build work capacity and muscle endurance. That powerlifter that couldn't do those ten squats, should be able to do GHR's and reverse hypers til the cows come home, while the new lifter probably won't be able to do them at all.

pjb923 · 07-23-2006, 12:53 PM

Like Jason said, don't worry about it if you goal is to increase your 1RM. From what I see in your log, you mostly work in low rep ranges.

If you want to mix things up you can try doing a program that changes up the set/rep scheme. All of the NROL hyperthrophy programs vary the set/rep scheme from workout to workout. Most of Waterbury's routines do this also. He jumps around between 3x5, 3x8, 2x15, etc. If you don't already have it, I can send you an excel sheet with all of his programs.

Lisa~ · 07-23-2006, 12:59 PM

What Jason said.

karky · 07-23-2006, 01:11 PM

and dont think of it has having crap low weight - high rep "strenght" but rather think of it as having awsome 1rm strenght

that way you will feel strong about it instead of feeling weak about it.

Frank.S · 07-23-2006, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason B

Depends on what type of strength you're after. If you're solely after maximal strength, keep the reps low, who cares about strength endurance? And as you increase your 1RM strength, obviously 60% of your 1RM increases, so it becomes harder to do reps with it. Ask a new lifter to do a set of 10 squats with 80% and he'll smoke it no problem, but ask the same thing of an elite powerlifter, if he get's it, it'll just about kill him. So I wouldn't sweat it if you're just after 1RM strength.

You do need to worry about reps on your assistance work though, this is where you build work capacity and muscle endurance. That powerlifter that couldn't do those ten squats, should be able to do GHR's and reverse hypers til the cows come home, while the new lifter probably won't be able to do them at all.

Ok I think i get what you are saying. Thing is, I am a pretty new lifter myself (comming up on 7 months lifting. And the first 3 were useless, looking back) and i could never do 80% of 1rm for more then about 2 reps.

Even on things like GHR's I have the tendency to only do low reps. Im still trying to figure out why more reps is better on these. I mean, when doing a deadlift for example your only activating you entire posterior chain one time. Ive more or less been doing higher rep workouts in the past little while just to control overtraining as im worried if I go out and work with the 1-3 rep range all week ill hit that point quick.

How risky is it to try training like this for a few weeks? And if i feel tired and gains stop, quit? Might be worth an experiment, maybe ill be fine.

Lisa~ · 07-23-2006, 01:22 PM

Ian King wrote a whole article on this subject: Train Right for Your Type

His conclusions might interest you.

Quote:

Lessons learned

Even though you may be predominantly slow-twitch (and, by definition, find it harder to grow muscle as a result), training can influence how your muscle fibers function, regardless of type. Strength training can teach your muscles to function more fast-twitch. Therefore, it's unwise to give a "slow-twitch" person a program that will selectively train their slow-twitch fibers.

Fast-twitch fibers are more responsive to growth from strength training, so this aspect shouldn't be ignored by prescribing predominantly high-rep routines. If a muscle, such as the soleus, is about 80% slow-twitch, then the gut reaction would be to train this muscle with high reps 80% of the time. However, this ignores the growth potential of the 20% fast-twitch muscles. Conclusion? It might be better to train the soleus in fast-twitch (low-rep) fashion more than 20% of the time.

Training "age" might be more important than fiber type. People with years of training under their belt might benefit from doing more training in the low-rep range, whereas those that have been training less than a year or two might benefit more from higher reps. Ultimately, if muscle growth is the main objective, exploiting each type of muscle fiber is probably optimal.

Frank.S · 07-23-2006, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karky

and dont think of it has having crap low weight - high rep "strenght" but rather think of it as having awsome 1rm strenght

that way you will feel strong about it instead of feeling weak about it.

haha good point.

If brining up my 1RM will bring up the amount of weight I can do for X reps.. then would brining up the amount of weight I can do for X reps effect my 1rm the same way? Of course it would. Maybe ill just stick to the program im on now (that does this) and see what happens.

Frank.S · 07-23-2006, 01:26 PM

Actually I stumbled upon that earlier lisa. But it seems much more focused on muscle growth. Thats secondary to me.

But he does make a good point about not just training what my muscles would prefer to do. As I said I think im going to just stick with the program im on until its done.

karky · 07-23-2006, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank.S

haha good point.

If brining up my 1RM will bring up the amount of weight I can do for X reps.. then would brining up the amount of weight I can do for X reps effect my 1rm the same way? Of course it would. Maybe ill just stick to the program im on now (that does this) and see what happens.

i guess to some degree, but i dont think it works exactly the same way. you should probobly ask some experts about that.