Comments on: Reps And Sets

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:47:45 +0000

@Jerry. Go to failure on both arms. The stronger arm won’t be getting enough stimulation to grow if you stop when the weaker arm gives out.

By: jerry

jerry — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 01:32:36 +0000

Hey Mark. I have been following your program for a few months now and have seen remarkable results. I am much more cut than I used to be. I do have one question, however, when it comes to dumbbell exercises. One arm is usually stronger than the other so when you max out with your weaker arm should you stop lifting with the stronger arm as well or continue until maxing out with that arm. I have been stopping both arms when the weaker gives out but I feel like I am cheating the stronger arm.

By: stickupkid

stickupkid — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 21:45:14 +0000

Thanks for link and advice Mark 🙂

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:51:12 +0000

There are many ways to go about “periodizing” your workouts in this way. Within workouts, or every other workout, or switching rep ranges every 3 weeks for example. I’m not going to say I’m rigidly against such strategies, but I recommend 10-week training cycles per rep range because of the ability to optimize the neural adaptations of a single rep range. This would lead to faster and higher weight progressions within the given rep range. For more on this read my article on muscle confusion
https://musclehack.com/muscle-confusion/

By: stickupkid

stickupkid — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:17:39 +0000

Mark would it be any better to use a Hypertrophy – 8-12 Rep Range and
Strength 6-8 Rep Range in a single workout example
Leg Day
Squats 6-8 reps
Leg press 8-10 reps
Leg extensions 10-12

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:29:17 +0000

@Danny. Very rarely and they are not necessary for stimulating growth. Negatives are an example of using more than 100% of 1 rep max (although that sounds impossible it isn’t). As such it is a “supermaximum load”. I incorporated supermaximum loads into the Arms Blast Experiment routine. Apart from rare occasions like that, I don’t use them much.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:24:52 +0000

@John. Not 100% sure what you mean but the lower the rep range, the more weight you can use. You can use my rep range calculator to estimate what weight to use at different rep ranges https://musclehack.com/tht-rep-range-calculator/

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:22:57 +0000

@John. Well endurance would be much higher reps and also more aerobic work too. That type of work recruits slow twitch fibers. Running, swimming, and so forth.
All the rep ranges above (from 6 up to 12) are all growth-promoting. They all predominantly recruit fast twitch muscle fibers.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:01:35 +0000

Mark, I’ve been on your THT & TSPA programs the last couple years and have never been stronger…my question here is concerning negatives, do you use them? I’ve heard there another great way of breaking down the muslce fibers and furthering the growth process.

By: John

John — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:42:46 +0000

Could you give examples of each phase using weight amount examples

Cheers

By: John A Davis

John A Davis — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:51:11 +0000

I heard an explanation that really helps understand this. I can’t remember which twitch does what, but there are fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers.

Endurance (high reps) uses one of the twitches.
Strength (low reps; big weight) uses the other twitch
and
Hypertrophy (training for size) uses both

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:41:57 +0000

@Crissandy. And I’m thankful for your comment, bud 🙂

By: Crissandy

Crissandy — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 13:33:44 +0000

Mark, you don’t know how thankful I am to you for your great information. I see so much passion in what you are doing in this site yet you offer them for free, hope you don’t change, YOUR site is the only site that made me fully gasp the knowledge for bodybuilding…Thank you soo much man…