Muscle Building techniques Using High Reps
Posted in: Muscle Building Workouts
Over the years I’ve trained using all kinds of techniques in order to build muscle. I still do now; I like to keep things fresh, as it’s well established this is a key factor in continuing muscle growth.
One factor which I believe can influence growth is the number of reps a person can perform. Now, you’ve probably heard bodybuilders say: ‘Use heavy weight and do high reps’, which isn’t entirely useful when you think about it. What they should be saying is, use the heaviest weight you can, but, a weight which will allow you to perform high reps for all of the sets. Now, that’s the key. Now we’re getting somewhere.
So, why high reps and moderately heavy weight? Why not low reps and very heavy weight?
I believe it comes down to the idea that we have different types of muscle fibres in our body. Slow twitch and fast twitch. Slow twitch make up the bulk of our muscles, since they are the ones we use for our day to day activities… be it washing our face in the morning, making a cup of coffee, etc. Activities which we can do repeatedly without collapsing on the floor out of exhaustion.
Fast twitch, on the other hand are a different kettle of fish. They are muscle fibres which are especially recruited by our bodies for special tasks such as sprinting, jumping, throwing a punch or kicking a football. They are explosive activities – ones which you can’t do much of before you have to have a rest.
And I firmly believe – as do many others – that by using high reps with less weight, you are training less explosively, thus you are working the majority muscle fibres of the body – which are the slow twitch. And while you can build great muscle size by working the fast twitch also, it’ll generally be far less, unless you are a beginner.
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