My friend and colleague Doug “Mr. Universe” Brignole recently said something that had me rewinding to years ago when I reported on a study that verified his point…
Doug said that he keeps all of his sets in the higher-rep zone—usually 30, 20, 15, 10—because he’s more of a thin ectomorph type and could never grow with lower-rep sets. Once he kept his reps high, he began growing like a weed…
I’m more ectomorphic than Doug, and I’ve found the same thing. Here’s me in the beginning after about six months of lower-rep training vs. now at age 62…
In the study I’m talking about, researchers took 100 randomly selected subjects and trained them using various set-and-rep protocols.
Those with a so-called ACE-2 variant, or endurance gene (skinny folks), responded best to training using 12 to 15 reps, or extended tension times. When those subjects used heavier weight that limited reps to around eight, they showed smaller gains.
On the other hand, the subjects who were more anaerobic, with something called an ACE-DD variant, showed similar gains from both types of loads. These are the lucky mesomorphs, the more athletic folks who gain muscle and strength more easily. [Colakoglu, M., et al. (2005). Eur J App Physiol. 95(1):20-26.]
The bottom line is that everyone can benefit from both types of training to a degree if max muscle mass is the goal. But emphasizing the range that’s best for your dominant fiber type is optimal.
You can see in my workouts outlined in Old Man Young Muscle that almost all of my sets are in the double-digit range, with the first around 20 reps.
Very few are under 10 reps. The short 20-to-30-second rests between sets enhance that ectomorphic-mass stimulation via Density Training.
Note that the study above said meso types can do pretty much anything and grow. In the study, they “showed similar gains from BOTH types of loads”—that is, high reps and low reps.
If you’re like me and not in the lucky-bastard camp, keep most of your sets on the up and up.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
Recommended
Are You Able to Protect Your Family?!
Mike Westerdal is a renowned personal trainer and national best-selling physical preparedness author, but he’s also a father and a husband… who would do anything to protect his family.
He used to get pushed around when younger and spent years building up his body and becoming stronger, getting mentally and physically tough the hard way. As he got bigger, he learned to handle himself, and working in security, he learned first-hand how violence really plays out.
Some of the other guys online who show off their self-defense videos and books need to get a grip. The level of skill needed to pull off their basic moves is CRAZY for most ordinary people.
- If a defense system requires more than a few hours to master, it’s not a program.
- The only techniques you will ever use are the simple ones.
- They need to work for an ordinary person without prior training, technique, or ability.
- So even if you think you don’t have time to learn how to defend yourself…
- You don’t need to spend years training to be a martial artist.