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Gymnastics tradition says that the repetition range determines whether you build strength, muscle or endurance.
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However, load, speed and “time under tension” are actually more important than the number of repetitions.
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Your body reacts better to news, so it is worth employing various styles of training.
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Lifting weights is, as endless research shows, an incredible way to get stronger, build muscle, burn fat, increase endurance, relieve stress and improve a variety of health markers.
But the term “lifting weights” covers all kinds of sins – there are many ways to do this.
The fitness tradition dictates that the range of repetitions you choose determines the outcome for your body: working in sets of three to seven repetitions is like building strength, eight to 12 is the stage for hypertrophy (muscle growth) and 12 or more is resistance training or “toning”.
Obviously, the range of repetitions you choose requires climbing your weights: you can lift heavier weights if you are doing less repetitions.
The representation intervals are not as clear as many people think
According to Adam Bishop, the UK’s strongest man, the repetition interval rule “just isn’t true”.
“If you’re training hard, it doesn’t matter,” he told Insider. “You’re going to have some kind of hypertrophic effect, whether you’re training high or low reps.”
In terms of volume, doing three sets of five squats at 80 pounds is the same as three sets of 10 squats at 40 pounds.
But do both have the same effect on the body?
Some people argue that it doesn’t matter which style of training you choose, as long as you are training until you almost fail to induce muscle adaptation.
“While repetition intervals are a useful guide, we have to keep in mind that training our bodies is a physiological process that depends on adapting to a specific stress,” Luke Worthington, personal trainer and human movement specialist, told Insider. “It is the quantity and quality of this stressor, and the subsequent recovery, that determine progress, rather than a specific number of repetitions.”
Reach of representation is not as important as people think
The load (the weight you are lifting), the speed and the “time under tension” are more important than the number of repetitions, Worthington said.
To increase strength, the weight you are lifting is the most important, and there is some logic in saying that three to six repetitions are correct, as long as the load is adequate.
To build muscle, it’s time under tension – how long you’ve been working – that matters most.
“Training for hypertrophy requires causing ‘metabolic damage’ to muscle cells and then replenishing them with an excess of amino acids [through protein] and calories to form new muscle tissue, “said Worthington.” Metabolic damage is more closely related to time under stress than to the number of repetitions.
Ideally, you work from 60 to 90 seconds per set, and the number of repetitions you perform in that time depends on your time. Worthington recommends 12 to 15 repetitions to reach the mark of time under stress.
Lifting heavier weights with fewer repetitions does not provide as much time under tension, so it is less ideal for muscle growth.
It is often said that 12 to 15 repetitions is the “toning” range, but “toning” does not exist – you cannot “tone” a muscle. Worthington said that doing 12 to 15 repetitions at a moderate weight is likely to provide the sweet spot for hypertrophy.
As for the “resistance” claim of higher repetition training, this is a somewhat inappropriate name.
“Resistance for runners or cyclists, etc., is built by running and cycling,” said Worthington. “A runner takes tens of thousands of steps in an event, so a training set weighing 15 repetitions will be relatively insignificant for him. To increase endurance, I would say focus on strength to give you the strength to increase your resistance at your real event. “
Your body reacts better to everything new
If you are an experienced weightlifter, you can look back with longing for your first days at the gym and dream of having those so-called newbie gains again. When you’re new to resistance training, your body responds well and you can make impressive progress in strength and muscle growth quickly.
“Do you remember when you went to the gym and got up, and then in the next session you could get up more? This is a neural adaptation, your body getting used to being able to use these motor units,” said Bishop.
Although this slows down, you can mimic the effect to some extent by changing your usual repetition range.
If your goal is strength, Bishop recommends training in the classic ranges of repetition of strength and hypertrophy.
“You should definitely do some training with higher repetitions periodically to make sure the muscle really gets bigger,” he said, adding that performing repetitions with a focus on stability and fitness is also important.
“With a few repetitions, you can really improve your shape a lot more if the load is correct. Therefore, I advocate a mixture of the two. This is the main point of what we call ‘training periodization’, which is to train different things at different times. to be able to focus on that end goal. People should train in many of the representation schemes. “
Read the original article on Insider