Whats best for hypertrophy?

[JohnyJuice]

More weght and low reps, or high reps and lower weight? Perhaps a mixture of both? Going to failure or not?
Lets here it.

 

[spatts]

You grow at home...eating, sleeping, resting. Get in the gym, rip it up, and go heal. Everytime you rip your muscle and let it heal, it heals larger. That's hypertrophy. Unless you like wasting hours in the gym, get in there and lift and get out.

 

[endpoint]

basic break down:
1-4 reps: high strength, low hypertrophy
4-7 reps: best comprimise between strength/hypertrophy
8-15 reps: best hypertrophy, minimal strength
15+ endurance

very basic......but you get the idea.

many factors are involved.

 

[Fatty4You]

You grow at home...eating, sleeping, resting. Get in the gym, rip it up, and go heal. Everytime you rip your muscle and let it heal, it heals larger. That's hypertrophy. Unless you like wasting hours in the gym, get in there and lift and get out.

I agree with SPatts that food / resting is VERY important. And as she says, you gotta rip up the muscle. BUT, she didn't say much about ripping it, which , leaves something to be desired.

I have been going heavy on the 5x5 workout for the last 3 or 4 weeks and i have noticed that my strength has been going up in this time. However, occationally i do cycles where i have higher reps, in which i also grow. This leads me to think that a combination of lower reps/heavier weights and higher reps/lower weight is the best.

What i like so much about my [limited] experience with the 5x5 routine is that it DOES combine the higher and the lower weight.

-Fatty

 

[spatts]

I suppose we should also define "high rep."

....and corn will attest to the fact that I think TUT theories are CRAP where size is conerned. I think the more variety, the better. That's why I like WSB and 5x5.

 

[Zyglamail]

basic break down:
1-4 reps: high strength, low hypertrophy
4-7 reps: best comprimise between strength/hypertrophy
8-15 reps: best hypertrophy, minimal strength
15+ endurance

very basic......but you get the idea.

many factors are involved.

Im inclined to disagree with the above since it only takes into account the stress imposed and not the fatigue imposed. Since hypertrophy requires tsress and fatigue and we can say that generally enough stress can be imposed by using 8-12 reps then its also safe to say that if that rep range and associated weight can impose enough stress to grow that more stress can also cause muscles to grow. With that in mind then muscle fatigue is just as important so if you want to cause optimal hypertrophy it can be done in pretty much any rep range that imposes enough stress which is generally 12 reps are less (varies by person and muscle group, but generally speaking). So, if we can get enough stress at any rep range upto approx 12 then its just a matter of making sure to impose enough fatigue as well for hypertrophy and that can be done by shortening rest between sets and generally speaking the lower the rep range the shorter the rest period between sets to impose desired fatigue to cause hypertrophy.

 

[Mindwraith]

Would (say for chest) beginning with the high weight/low reap sets, and then finishing off with some high rep sets such as pushups or low weight/high rep barbell/dumbell presses be a good way?

For biceps yesterday I started with high weight/low rep on both preacher and barbell curls, but then at the end I went and did a quick 12 reps with the barbell at a lower weight and closer grip. (just experimenting to see) If anybody has any experience trying that, I would think it would be a good finish to do some high reps at the end.

 

[Zyglamail]

Would (say for chest) beginning with the high weight/low reap sets, and then finishing off with some high rep sets such as pushups or low weight/high rep barbell/dumbell presses be a good way?

For biceps yesterday I started with high weight/low rep on both preacher and barbell curls, but then at the end I went and did a quick 12 reps with the barbell at a lower weight and closer grip. (just experimenting to see) If anybody has any experience trying that, I would think it would be a good finish to do some high reps at the end.

If your goal is strength (above and beyond strength associated to normal hypertophy) then start with high weight low rep with long rests. This allows muscles to recuperate slightly between sets so the CNS can be maximally stimulated. If you do this after higher rep more fatiguing work they will be too tired to acheive maximal CNS stimulation.

After doing a couple sets of high weight.low rep work you can immediatly switch to a more hypertrophic work by EITHER switching to a lower weight and kicking out more reps OR what I do is simply drop weight to about 80% of my 1 rep max and do sets of 5 reps with a 30 second rest between sets. For the first couple sets I can get more than 5 reps but stop at 5 anyway, usually by set 4 or 5 Im struggling to get 5 reps due to accumulated fatigue.

Some exercies however simply arent really suited to high weight low rep work like dumbell side laterals etc.

 

[Edu]

and the TUT.
to me, is different, 5 reps with 6 seconds each one, and 5 reps, with 2-3 sec. each one.

 

[endpoint]

Im inclined to disagree with the above since it only takes into account the stress imposed and not the fatigue imposed. Since hypertrophy requires tsress and fatigue and we can say that generally enough stress can be imposed by using 8-12 reps then its also safe to say that if that rep range and associated weight can impose enough stress to grow that more stress can also cause muscles to grow. With that in mind then muscle fatigue is just as important so if you want to cause optimal hypertrophy it can be done in pretty much any rep range that imposes enough stress which is generally 12 reps are less (varies by person and muscle group, but generally speaking). So, if we can get enough stress at any rep range upto approx 12 then its just a matter of making sure to impose enough fatigue as well for hypertrophy and that can be done by shortening rest between sets and generally speaking the lower the rep range the shorter the rest period between sets to impose desired fatigue to cause hypertrophy.

yep i agree.....thats why i said it was "basic" and "many factors are involved."

there is no time under tensions listed, there is no % of weight, and it doesnt take into account other exercises, or how many sets.
it is a basic list