What's up guys,
I'm going to go out on a limb. First off, I have a degree in Kinesiology & Health Science, I'm a certified fitness trainer through ACE, ISSA and Can Fit Pro and hold a Certificate in Advanced Nutrition....
But today, I spoke with one of my professor's who happened to be in my gym. He was yapping to me about how he's changed his thoughts about low reps and muscle growth.
At first he believed that low reps did nothing but build strength (3 reps and under) and originally believed that you'd have to go in the higher rep range to build muscle (8-15).
But he now tells me that he believes the opposite.
He used the example of Olympic Sprinters and Speed Skaters. If you look at their legs, they're absolutely massive. He then continued on about how 1 rep max exercises not completely within the poundage you can handle (You would use the 80-90% of your 1RM) with form and speed incorporates more of your CNS and smaller muscle groups.
Anyways, he continued to make a sound argument. He also pointed out that going with low reps controls Cortisol release so regardless of what you do or how frequently you attend the gym, you drastically reduce your chances of overtraining and slipping into any sort of Catabolic state. Thus preserving and stimulating muscle growth.
He's currently running an independent study with my University to test some of his theories.
He came up with more examples, but the Sprinter and Speed skater are what stuck out the most. They rarely will ever go into the higher rep ranges and they're legs are unbelievably developed, especially if you look at their proportion.
What are your opinons and thoughts?