heavy or high reps?

hi guys whats youre opinion on heavy reps or higher reps but still keeping it heavy?i think this last thing is the best,not only for size but for my joints,you have to remember that one day we will be old and this will go against us,

What are you wanting to achieve. If you are wanting to build, I wouldn't suggest more than 8-12 on reps. That won't build as well, but it will save your joints a little more.

I switch I have heavy day med days and light days so every time i do the same body part my poundage rotates

Not sure what you are askin berry, but, if you can do more than 8 reps a weight is no longer considered heavy right? I mean, it sounds like you are worried about joints and all. Well if you weight train properly, it will actually help your joints and muscles. Need I say the benefits of weight training? I mean, if you are lifting weights that are just too heavy, you will hurt yourself without proper form, again, dont' take heavy to the extreme. It's like Jason said, 8-10 is a good rule of thumb, for reps. I personally when building for mass, I usually consider that to many. On an average mass or bulkin up period, where I lift heavy weights, 6 is usually where I try to stay. If I can lift a weight over 6 times, it is time to put more on the bar. But again that is just me. Strength, comes with lifting heavier weights, so does mass. The only way for a muscle to grow is to lift heavier weights, I think.
But if you want to stay cut, then do more reps with less weight. It is hard to cut up and bulk up at the same time with good results. That is why most BB phase themselves. One cycle they bulk up, the next cycle they cut up. Can anyone else back me on this maybe?

I have done both over the years and still do alot of reps sometimes just because I'm in love with the pump that I get from it. However, there is really no eveidence that high reps will get you cut more. To get cut you simply need to work on your diet and do cardio. Heavy weights require fewer reps and it does build mass better. I ran across an article some years ago that talked about this in depth . Say that you are doing 5 sets at 10 reps each. When you FIRST start out on the first 3 reps( say at 225 just for example) You are pushing with about 95% to 80% of your strength. The next 3 reps you will only be using about 65% and so on until you get to the end of your set. The buttom line is that you are building up latic acid in your muscles which sucessfull set causeing fatique resulting in not being able to push with your maixum strength. NOW say that you are pushing the same amount of weight but instead of preforming 5 sets of 10 do 10 sets of 5. With each set you do not build up the latic acid and you will be able to actually lift MORE weight AND you are doing the same amount of work with better results. I doult that I can find that same article but I 'll give it a go to refresh my memory on the pros and cons of this subject and post it so it will be a little plainer. I do this often and it always eventuall brings my bench,squat ect up in weight. The down side is that it does take a little longer to finish the excerise.
Good Luck
Tobey

i guess this question is more difecult to answer than we could hope for,i believe that we have 2 diferent types of muscle cells ,somr responde 2 heavy stress and aome to muscle resistence,so its jus a matter of experimenting on bouth,in my case i find a better muscle pump and progres in higher reps,its jus my point of view,but then again i dond back up bulking up like a pig of season,and i know many people do this ,and i dont even want to think in the stress on the heart vains and so on will on heavy training job,think about it ,it not so much about size its youre shape that counts,ive blown away guys of 115kg and im around 92 kg for nearly 6 foot.im growing on a hi protein dieta big time ,all the best guys

Heavy and low = muscle overload, promotes mass building.

Light and high = muscle tone, promotes endurance.

I switch between light and heavy on a rotational basis. Right now I am going heavy with low rep's.