Playing with my rep range

[guards]

First off I would like to say hello to everyone over on this board.



Secondly, here's my question:


For the last 4 years I have been using the standard 8-10 rep range for most of my excersises (excluding legs). I have recently began toying with the idea of raising my rep range to 12 at failure. That means I will do ALL my excersise's for 12 reps at failure.

EG.

My arm split looks like this:

Bi's
seat alt curls 4x12
hammer curls 3x12
preacher concentration curls 3x12

Tri's
2 handed overheads 4x12
DB fallbacks 3x12
pulldowns 3x12


AND my chest looks like this:

Incline DB 4x12
Flatbench DB 3x12
Flatbench flies 3x12
Weighted dips 3x12




What do you guys think? Should i go back to the 8-10 rep range or continue with the 12 reps? ALSO, I am cutting at the moment and the ole' wives tail of raising your reps keeps sticking in the back of my head for some reason...anyone have any experience with these things???


Some input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bignate73]

mess with the reps,
the tempo
the rest

4 years at 8-10 and i'd bet you keep the pace about the same and the rest about the same too.

tons of ways to add variety. supersets, slow tempo, fast tempo. drop sets, (im probably not telling you anything new) pyramiding, super low reps. all of those and more keep you from plateauing.

definitely give some variety to your workouts by changing things up.

 

[the nature boy]

not only should you be doing 12 reps, you should also try doig 4 to 6 reps every now and then. it's good to mix it up. plus it's a good psychological boost to move more weight for 4 reps.

 

[gymtime]

While I believe in the benefits of changing up your routine every now and then, I think that any weight you can do over 10 reps is too light. If I were you, I'd up your weights and do a 10-8-6 split.

 

[bpdaddy]

rep count

I like the idea or mixing up your rep counts, but why in the hell would you wanna do 12 reps of anything on a cut phase? Anyone who tells you have to do high reps is full of SHIT!

Why? Glad you asked...

Well think of it like this, cutting (low carbs), carbs feed muscle...hmmm I am cutting so I am not getting a lot of carbs an thus if I strain the muscle to much I can't recover it, cuz I am trying to cut. Stay around 6-8, I do 7 and cut ther aerobics too! Ket word ATP, learn it live it love it!

You don't have the fuel for it! You want more info on why hit me up...more than happy to help you get it right.