Need Muscle Mass

[royalwithcheese]

what do i do for this, more weight less reps..more reps less weight

[justin2305]

4-6reps=strengh 6-8reps=mass 10-15reps=definition, by the way wrong forum bro but good luck

[hosam4ever]

do as justin told u he is right

[scriptfactory]

4-6reps=strengh 6-8reps=mass 10-15reps=definition, by the way wrong forum bro but good luck

I would like to know where you got this information from. Because most people I know personally say this is wrong. You can't do a certain amount of reps to increase definition. I have heard that the number of reps also depends on your level of development and experience in the gym, which I truly believe. It kinda also explains how back in the old days BB's would drop muscle so quickly.

Generally, what I have read is:

Strength = 4 - 8 reps
Strength/Hypertrophy = 8 - 10 reps
Pure Hypertrophy = 10 - 15 reps

Anything above 20 reps builds your endurance and strength. Anyone heard about this?

I noticed that I HAVE gotten quite a bit larger when I alternate 8-10 reps and 10-15 reps training on different days so I tend to believe this.

Anways, all of the above could be absolute hogwash so take it like you want it.

[nickm748]

this is very interesting, I ushaly do 5-6 reps, im gunna bump it up to 8

[Mesomorphyl]

Mass? Eat... then rest, train again, eat, eat, then you really must eat some more.

[Logan13]

I would like to know where you got this information from. Because most people I know personally say this is wrong. You can't do a certain amount of reps to increase definition. I have heard that the number of reps also depends on your level of development and experience in the gym, which I truly believe. It kinda also explains how back in the old days BB's would drop muscle so quickly.

Generally, what I have read is:

Strength = 4 - 8 reps
Strength/Hypertrophy = 8 - 10 reps
Pure Hypertrophy = 10 - 15 reps

Anything above 20 reps builds your endurance and strength. Anyone heard about this?

I noticed that I HAVE gotten quite a bit larger when I alternate 8-10 reps and 10-15 reps training on different days so I tend to believe this.

Anways, all of the above could be absolute hogwash so take it like you want it.

Hey, whatever works for ya is the right way. I believe that we must bombard our bodies with different routines. (i.e. 5-8 reps AND 10-15 reps) When I concentrate on mass, I do mostly low rep w/high weight. It also depends on the body part, shrugs: I have to go really heavy to gain mass, delts: I do alot of low weight/high rep isolation exercises.
Whatever shocks the body enough to grow.......works. Your level of experience is a factor, it takes more to shock the muscles of a developed lifter than a novice. At the end of a chest workout, I shock the pecs further by pressing a 45# plate 300 times.

[bvanderwerff]

wow, logan... i love that chest shocker at the end of your work out (45 x 300) I think I might adopt it

[justin2305]

I would like to know where you got this information from. Because most people I know personally say this is wrong. You can't do a certain amount of reps to increase definition. I have heard that the number of reps also depends on your level of development and experience in the gym, which I truly believe. It kinda also explains how back in the old days BB's would drop muscle so quickly.

Generally, what I have read is:

Strength = 4 - 8 reps
Strength/Hypertrophy = 8 - 10 reps
Pure Hypertrophy = 10 - 15 reps

Anything above 20 reps builds your endurance and strength. Anyone heard about this?

I noticed that I HAVE gotten quite a bit larger when I alternate 8-10 reps and 10-15 reps training on different days so I tend to believe this.

Anways, all of the above could be absolute hogwash so take it like you want it.

do a search and ul see it up everywhere, not only on the board but anywhere and everyone of my friends at the gym that are personal trainers(which im bout to start) tell me the same...

[The Baron]

The precise number of reps is probably not nearly as important as the duration of the set, and certainly not as important as thoroughly stressing the muscle. Going jack-slap to failure, with determination and courage, will do more for you than counting reps and saying... "okay, that's enough for hypertrophy". I have seen some big guys who liked training almost powerlifter style. I have seen big guys who like to do 15 and 20 rep sets. Attitude and fortitude are what set those guys apart from the common man, and what linked them together in spite of different training styles.

The most common mistake I see is doing too many sets for a particular body part. Everyone I know who does just one or at most two sets of an exercise, and a max of 2 or 3 exercises for a muscle group, grows, and keeps growing, as long as they are eating and resting properly. You can spend $500/week at GNC and eat like a pig, and if you routinely try to hit your biceps with 15 sets twice a week, you won't do much for them beyond your beginner's gains. Nevertheless, you must get your rest and sufficient nutrition. All three elements are important, training, nutrition, and recovery, and two of them cannot make up for shortcomings in the third one.

One trick that you will see most big guys doing... they eat SOMETHING right before training, usually a small protein rich snack, and have a whey shake with some sugars immediately after training. The insulin spike from the sugar helps with the uptake of protein from the whole food and from the whey, and helps to put you in an anabolic state right when the muscle is crying out the loudest for nutrients. Some will call this old-school BS, but it does seem to help.

[bvanderwerff]

IF I'm working out a body part a day... I'm only supposed to do 6 sets a day, you're saying?

[Logan13]

wow, logan... i love that chest shocker at the end of your work out (45 x 300) I think I might adopt it

You should be able to push it up appr. 100x in the beginning. Then get someone to spot you when you add reps later on. Believe me, you will need a spotter after a good chest workout to finish the 45# x 300. Just no matter what, spot or no spot, don't put the plate down until you are done.

[The Baron]

IF I'm working out a body part a day... I'm only supposed to do 6 sets a day, you're saying?

SUPPOSED to? I wouldn't go that far. But it would be preferable to overtraining. Some guys simply got to do more sets. Well, just being reasonable about it is better than what one instinctively wants to do, which is to train, train, train. BUT... to illustrate, here is what I did this morning:

warmup, flys
1 set barbell BP
1 set dumbbell shoulder press
1 set flys
1 set laterals
1 set french press

That was it, for chest and triceps. Works for me. Could I get the same results with twice the volume? Yeah, maybe. Maybe probably. But could I get the same results with 5x the volume? Probably not. My philosophy is if you did the first set correctly, to the point of failure, why do it again? For me, multiple sets are for warmup purposes only. But I don't want this little discourse on my own training to mask the real issue, which is that extreme dedication, pushing the limit, going the distance and beyond, with a vicious intensity, is more important than the precise details of ones' training.

[ward065]

i've found that moderate sets for each exercise (3-6 working sets) , 4-5 exercises per bodypart combined with moderate reps to failure works best for me. i enoy doing moderate sets because when i develop a good pump, i feel like i want to keep going and i do- it works to get you bigger.

[Logan13]

SUPPOSED to? I wouldn't go that far. But it would be preferable to overtraining. Some guys simply got to do more sets. Well, just being reasonable about it is better than what one instinctively wants to do, which is to train, train, train. BUT... to illustrate, here is what I did this morning:

warmup, flys
1 set barbell BP
1 set dumbbell shoulder press
1 set flys
1 set laterals
1 set french press

That was it, for chest and triceps. Works for me. Could I get the same results with twice the volume? Yeah, maybe. Maybe probably. But could I get the same results with 5x the volume? Probably not. My philosophy is if you did the first set correctly, to the point of failure, why do it again? For me, multiple sets are for warmup purposes only. But I don't want this little discourse on my own training to mask the real issue, which is that extreme dedication, pushing the limit, going the distance and beyond, with a vicious intensity, is more important than the precise details of ones' training.

Baron,
By only doing 1 set/exercise, I assume that you must be using enough weight to achieve failure each set with good isolation? Interested in your technique.
-Logan13

[chris2wire]

A chest shocker is a horrible idea. ALl you will do is release and build up lactic acid and cause MAJOR protein breakdown. It will hurt gains immensely.

[The Baron]

Baron,
By only doing 1 set/exercise, I assume that you must be using enough weight to achieve failure each set with good isolation? Interested in your technique.
-Logan13

That's my goal. If I don't think I nailed it, I do another set. Of course, it isn't always about the weight... I concentrate on the targeted muscle and think about how best to hit it hard. For instance, when I do flys, I never go up above about 45 degrees. With the arms vertical, you have a rest point, a point of skeletal support of the weight. With the arms near vertical, the mechanical advantage is still there. So in that case, I sacrifice ROM in favor of more steady stress on the muscle and no rests between reps. THis also of course means I use less weight. With the sort of form I usually see in the gym, I could use 20 more pounds per dumbbell, but I would probably be training less effectively even going to failure. A lot of socalled crap exercises like flys, kickbacks, etc, are crap because they are nearly always done wrong, because the goal in mind is usually to lift the most weight, and not to grow. Anyway, failure is necessary, IMHO, especially with low volume, but there are other factors that I use to decide if a set was effective or not. Isolation is not always mandatory for me... I do compound lifts, and then I usually do an isolation movement for that part. For instance, the chest routine I gave... BB Bench Press early on. Shoulder press early on. Only after those movements will I do the corresponding isolation exercises, flys and laterals, respectively, and then a triceps isolation movement.

[Logan13]

A chest shocker is a horrible idea. ALl you will do is release and build up lactic acid and cause MAJOR protein breakdown. It will hurt gains immensely.

You obviously have not seen my chest.