Workout Advice

April 26, 2008 12:45 PM

Can you get big muscularly by lifting lower weight with high reps? I have been working out on and off in my life as a way to gain weight. I'm a guy with a fast metabolism, very lean and muscular. In college I was able to put on some decent weight and bulk by eating lots and also lifting very heavy weights for low reps. Usually about 4-8 reps max. This is the conventional wisdom amongst weightlifters. However, I met a guy recently who was reallly bulked up and told me he managed to get that way by actually doing the reverse. He said he would do lower weight and aim for 3 sets of 30 reps and thats what got him that way. He was also very lean when he started. This is completley against what is taught by so many. Does anyone have any feedback on this? Can this work?
posted by postergeist to Health & Fitness (14 answers total)

The conventional wisdom is correct. If you are capable of lifting a weight for 30 reps, it is not nearly heavy enough for you to be adding bulk. You'd be doing more of a cardio workout than anything. Higher reps, lower weight is good for getting cut and adding definition, but lower reps, heavier weight is better for mass (at least that's been my experience having tried out both workout methods)
posted by The Gooch at 12:54 PM on April 26, 2008

It's called hypertrophy training and is not necessarily against what is taught by most that know what they are doing. The biggest I ever looked was when I did a hypertrophy routine for a couple months, 4 days a week (cut, too, as you'll burn lots of calories doing all those reps). The problem was when I stopped training with that intensity, it all pretty much disappeared, and for having put as much effort into my lifts as I did, my 1 rep max didn't go up noticeably on many lifts either.

Not knowing anything about your routine now and where your lifts are, I will just hazard a guess at what you need to do: eat more. Also, compound lifts are important: ass to grass squats, deadlifts, bench press, barbell rows, and all their accessories. Google "Rippetoe's Starting Strength" to figure out where you are and if that routine would be beneficial. If you have been lifting a lot lately and are starting to see a plateau, you might want to google "Starr's 5x5" for an intermediate routine. But more than that, I'd guess that you just need to eat more, and not necessarily just protein.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 1:02 PM on April 26, 2008

I'm not going to touch the issue of what the optimum technique to increase muscle mass is, but it is clearly possible to build muscle doing more than 4-8 repetitions. As a cyclist, I can assure you that you can increase muscle mass by doing tens of thousands of repetitions per day. The belief that you can't increase muscle mass if you can do an exercise more than 15, 30, or however many times is wrong.
posted by ssg at 1:13 PM on April 26, 2008

I'm a woman and natural mesomorph, so this may be irrelevant. But I worked out for about 6 months using a high-rep, lower weight approach and got almost nowhere--a little stronger, but not visibly bigger. A few years later I tried again, this time using heavier weights and low reps. Much better. So for me, the high-rep approach didn't work well.
posted by PatoPata at 3:18 PM on April 26, 2008

The number one key to bulking up is eating enough food. I suspect you need to eat more food if you are having a hard time putting on muscle mass. I cannot imagine that lifting less for lots of reps is going to make you bulk up, unless it coincides with you actually eating enough calories. Many people swear by HST for bulking, you might consider giving that a go.
posted by ch1x0r at 3:21 PM on April 26, 2008

There's going to be quite a bit of 'anecdotal' thoughts in this thread.

Of course, we could look to science. Muscular hypertrophy occurs when the muscles become fatigued during the anaerobic phase, and given rest, respond by increasing muscular mass. The body has detected an overload, and grows as a result of sensing that it needs to be better outfitted for it's environment.

(here are the given limits of sex, internal body chemistry, adequate and proper nutrition...and I cannot stress, enough rest. Women, generally, for example, don't carry the same testosterone as men; and therefore can't add as much muscle as fast. Genetics are heavy influences; which is why each of us can't be olympians. But everyone can be further along their fitness level than where they are.

But it's pretty damn simple. If you fatigue your muscular groups in less than 180 seconds (during the anaerobic stage), the body will respond. Greater than 3 minutes, begins to utilize the aerobic system.

it's strictly the time under load. Let's also assume that a minimum of 60 seconds are necessary (for safety, for some level of minimum stress.) So it's dependent on how your do these repetitions. For example, quick explosive repetitions (which are less/effective safe due to momentum) can easily total 30 (six second reps) under this time period. Multiple sets don't necessarily produce additive benefits (which flys in the face of 'common' knowledge. Multiple incursions of this fatigue don't seem to produce more than the initial stimulus.) Just as equally, you could perform super slow work (20 second reps) and do as few as 3-9 repetitions.
posted by filmgeek at 3:47 PM on April 26, 2008

Westside for Skinny bastards sounds exactly like what you need.
posted by aeighty at 5:59 PM on April 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Heh. Sounds like German Voume Training. Plug that into your favorite search engine and you'll see plenty of hits.

Anyway, I suspect that the absolute best approach is variety. The body is adaptive, and the more you change things up, the harder it works. If what you're doing isn't working, do something else.
posted by Kwantsar at 6:29 PM on April 26, 2008

the answer to your question depends on biology, drugs, body type and age.
the answer to your question is no, there is no way i can get big by lifting low weight with high reps. i am too old, my body type and biology wouldnt react in that way, and i dont want to take enhancing drugs.
posted by edtut at 7:08 PM on April 26, 2008

I believe the optimum way to exercise with weights is:

* Load up with enough weight so that you can only do 8-15 reps before your muscles are exhausted.
* Rest for 60 seconds
* Do as many reps as you can at the same weight before you're again exhausted.

* Rest for 60 seconds
* Take enough weight off so you can do 6-8 reps again.

* Repeat the last two steps until you run out of weights.

This is obviously easiest with a weights machine where changing the weight is as easy as moving a pin, or at a well-stocked gym.

And when I say exhausted, I mean exhausted as in completely unable to do another rep.

I got this mostly from The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding : The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised, my local gym and my own general observations.
posted by krisjohn at 11:04 PM on April 26, 2008

I was actually able to build some muscle pretty quickly by picking up my weights, doing a rep, say, hammer curls for as many as I could. Each night I'd add two or three reps until I was doing rather a lot of them, then I'd up the weight a little. I was surprised how effective this was, and it took very little time.
posted by tomble at 2:06 AM on April 27, 2008

Response by poster: As I expected, I think it sounds like heavy weights is still the optimal approach for what i'm trying to do. The part that requires the most discipline I find is not even necessarily the weightlifting but the eating. My metabolism is like a raging furnace.. if any of you have ever tried to eat 4-5000 calories a day without using shakes or eating shitty fast food you'll know what I mean.. its a real time consuming affair that requires constant planning.
posted by postergeist at 8:47 AM on April 27, 2008

I have been lifting weights for 10 years or so and my experience is that 3 sets of 8-12 reps each gives me the best mix of new muscle mass and definition. 3 sets of 12-15 reps tends to get be a bit more cut, but at the expense of adding mass. 3 tough sets of 6-8 reps gives me great strength gains, but at the expense or definition.
posted by charlesv at 12:41 PM on April 27, 2008

Of all the big guys I know, and I know many of them being in the military, none of them got big by doing 30-rep sets.

The biggest, strongest guys I know got big by eating big, doing low rep compound exercises, and varying their assistive movements.

I was a skinny kid. I ate big and lifted big and it worked for me. You say it worked for you too. This makes the most sense for us ectomorphs.

If you've only lifted weights "on and off" to try and gain weight, you're skinny with fast metabolism, and you've gained weight by eating big and lifting big in the past.. what's your motivation here for fixing what ain't broke?
posted by crunch buttsteak at 10:01 PM on April 28, 2008