-: All right, let's look at reps
in the context of program design periodization.
We're gonna start with some very general stuff, here.
So this whole rep range, this is generally
the accepted rep range theory.
And we don't use this very often,
other than a general guideline of just principal matters.
But, these numbers correlating with the effect,
that needs to be very individualized,
so I'm just putting that blanket statement in front.
Like this is for contextual learning,
these are not rules, that this is always the case.
You've trained this many reps, it has this effect.
When we get into the program design course,
you're gonna see there's a lot of things that
goes into what is effecting the stimulus.
Like, simply what I eat, how well recovered I am,
what adaptation that I'm doing,
what my previous program was, it is going to
determine whether or not these rep ranges
in the context of rest and all the other variables
actually have these effects, this functional hypertrophy,
hypertrophy, whatever it may be.
So, generally accepted, one to three reps is what would
be considered like maximal strength training.
Or what we like to refer to as straight neurological
training, meaning the benefits of that training is
for the neurological adaptations that you're gonna get
to either recruit more fast choices,
or just simply more muscle fibers at once.
Reducing the strength deficit, whatever
you want to call it, there's a lot of different ways
to talk about neurological adaptations that happen.
But, that tends to be no tissue benefits in terms of,
we're not building new muscle from that,
we're not gaining any extra fluid, or glycogen,
or anything like that from that particular rep range.
So, functional hypertrophy, would be the gray area
between where it's still enough intensity,
heavy enough loads that we're going to get a lot
of strength adaptations, but, there is the potential
that we're also going to create enough of a hypertrophy
stimulus to grow some new tissue
to help regulate protein synthesis.
Whether that's through volume, or mechanical damage
or what not, its gonna depend on the type of programming.
Then we get into eight to 12, which is generally
accepted as the hypertrophy range.
And what this is, this is actually another gray area
in itself, because for some people,
this is going to be more myofibrillar growth,
for other people it's going to be more sarcoplasmic
growth, where they are just simply accumulating more fluid,
not necessarily more contractile tissue.
And then above that is going to be metabolic.
So now we're to the point where we're not really
building any new proteins, but we are stimulating
the metabolic adaptations of that cell.
So, it's mitochondria may improve.
It may take up more glucose, it might increase
cell volume, right?
So the illusion of the muscle getting bigger,
but really, it's just storing more stuff.
And as soon as you take away that stuff,
it would go, so a lot of body builders suffer
from spending too much time doing training
that's more metabolic and then they diet down,
and all that sugar and water leaves the muscle tissue,
and they realize they haven't gained
as much muscle as they thought they had.
Because they haven't done enough work actually
putting on contractile protein,
which is going to stay there, even when the diet comes.
So all of these things, they're affected by training aids.
Remember, training aids, is quality dependent,
not just how many errors you happen to have been working
out, has to of been good quality training,
good quality programming.
The adaptations, which obviously, are gonna
be a result of that training,
combined with your genetics and some other things.
The programming as well, obviously, in order
to achieve stimuli, you need certain programming.
So doing great reps, without good programs,
may not give you these adaptations over time,
especially the neurological, or the metabolic ones.
And whatever genetics and accumulated adaptations you have
that are gonna bias you to being further this way,
or further this way on the grand scale of rep ranges.
Because some people are just simply going to respond
differently to a rep range than others
because they're either wired to be more metabolically
efficient, or more logically efficient,
or they're better at using carbohydrates,
or whatever it may be, there's going to be things
that influence where on the spectrum.
Because functional hypertrophy may be here,
for somebody else, or may be closer to here for
somebody else, right.
Or you might have somebody that's like, "Oh, I get
"really good hypertrophy gains in four to six reps."
But, when I start doing like eight to ten,
it's actually metabolic for that particular person.
Because energy system wise, that's how they're
conditioned, that's how they're trained
and their genetics are built around that.
You have all of these things pushing them up
on the scale, towards lower reps on average.
Whereas, you have other people that are
on the opposite end of the spectrum.
So, when we look at reps in general,
you are gonna see that they do correlate to load.
And, I mean, it's a pretty simple concept, right?
Everybody that's gone to the gym once understands
that if you move the weight heavier,
you can do less reps, so that's pretty simple.
So, what you really need to understand with that,
is it's not like, "Okay, if I use lower reps,
"use heavier weights", okay, pretty simple.
The thing that we're trying to illustrate with that
is that lower reps are generally correlated,
like when people say, "Low reps", what they really
mean when they're trying to explain the concept,
is higher intensity.
So, it's that, okay lower reps are higher intensity.
Well lower reps are only higher intensity
if you use the correct load for that.
But, simply using six reps of the same weight
that I was doing 12, is not higher intensity.
So you need to just make sure that's in
context when we're talking about using lower reps.
It's not the reps being low that makes the difference,
it's the intensity being higher,
that actually is what is changing the effect.
So, keep that in context, and so,
vice versa, when we say higher reps,
we're gonna be seeing lower intensity work, okay?
So, if we look at higher intensity in general,
you will see that that should probably be placed
earlier in the workout.
Our nervous system is one of the things that is going
to become very limited in terms
of the performance perspective.
So, if our nervous system starts to fatigue,
we can no longer do higher intensity workouts.
Or just higher intensity exercises,
higher intensity reps, period.
So we wanna have that high intensity work
when we are the freshest, so our lowest rep
exercises tend to be at the beginning of the workout.
That's not 100% rule, like I said,
these are generalizations, so there are times when,
because of the exercise selection, maybe there
is an exception to that rule, that is a general concept
all things compared, equal, that's how it goes.
It does require better execution to do higher intensity.
So heavier loads require more tissue and more
neural energy every nanosecond, every rep.
So therefore, in order to have higher intensity
execution and neuromuscular efficiency and coordination,
all need to be etcher, or I will start compensating.
I will start using other muscles, other joints,
momentum, body english, whatever you
want to call it, cheating, okay?
To get that that.
And sometimes, there's a time and a place
for that stuff to come in, but, a lot of times,
that's not where we want to go.
So with a beginner, higher intensity,
likely, is not going to be where they start.
They're gonna start lower intensity,
and work to a higher intensity.
That doesn't always mean lower reps,
there are ways to use set and rep schemes,
where we can use incomplete rest,
or something like that, where we can beginning
lower intensity work, but essentially,
shortening the rest period to compensate
for the fact that we're not doing 20 rep sets.
So, lower intensity, just because I say a beginner
should do lower intensity, doesn't mean
they should all do sets of 25.
There are other ways to do it.
So I just don't wanna put that rule down.
Because that's kind of the rule that most people
put just like, "Oh, beginners should do
"low intensity work so that means high reps."
That's actually not true, some people,
if you put them on that, it will actually be
not that effective, in terms of getting them any
sort of result, and they will also be bored
out of their mind because very high rep training
tends to be boring, because you're doing
one exercise for a long monotonous period of time.
And the first half of it tends to be relatively easy.
If we look at higher intensity,
higher intensity fatigues the nervous system faster,
that's why it needs to be at the beginning.
So we're looking at just total volume of work,
and what we're trying to accomplish,
obviously, we need to look at how much high
intensity work do I have, and is the fatigue
in the nervous system going to impact my
over all goal for that work out.
So when we get into the program design portion
in course two, you're really gonna see how
when you pick exercises, and when you pick selection,
and when you pick rep schemes,
and you pick all this stuff, it's very important
that you set it up so you fatigue the system
that you want first.
You don't let anything else become the limiting factor,
because the second that happens,
you're not actually able to get to the goal
that you wanted in that workout.
Which, is ultimately going to lead to
the adaptations you were going for,
you're gonna be stopped short by something else.
Either because you're doing the wrong program
at the wrong time, or that program wasn't made
appropriately in some other system
got taxed too early in the workout.
It does take longer to recover from set to set,
so if you're doing higher intensity,
your rest intervals between sets will be longer.
If your goal is to maintain high intensity,
now, you can be training lower reps,
but not necessarily high intensity,
so you'll be doing lower reps with short rests.
Therefore, it would end up being lower intensity.
And then that wouldn't necessarily apply.
You could disobey that rule, but intensity would drop down.
In order to maintain the intensity high,
you're going to have longer rests intervals.
And the reason is, in order to do this, you need peak power.
Both, from an energy system standpoint,
and from the ability to recruit muscle fibers standpoint.
So the nervous system and the amount of ATP
that that cell has recovered, all need to be high
in order to produce the peak power needed
to do that high intensity work.
So that requires the longest rest intervals.