Q: Do you think the fatigue of doing a high-rep set first [as in the Old Man, Young Muscle workout] is a good or bad thing for faster muscle growth? I’ve heard different conclusions.
A: For those unfamiliar with the Slow-Twitch Exhaustion method used in the OMYM workout, you do a 20-rep set to failure first to prime the muscle for higher fast-twitch recruitment on the second set…
And the second set is 10 reps with the same weight but using faster reps, 1.5 seconds each, to involve an inordinate number of fast-twitch growth fibers from the very first rep.
That’s the result of an improvement in fast-twitch recruitment due to slow-twitch exhaustion from the first set coupled with faster reps on the second.
So essentially, you’re using the first high-rep set as a condensed warmup. Research shows that a warm muscle contracts more efficiently than a cold one—the muscle fires more optimally…
In that sense, the fatigue from the first set is a good thing. It causes a fiber-activation domino effect that gets you to growth-fiber Promised Land faster and more efficiently than doing set after set of recovery-ravaging, muscle-damaging reps.
Also, according to respected hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D.:
Training across a wide spectrum of repetition ranges is recommended to maximize all possible avenues for the complete development of the whole muscle.
So there are a lot of positive hypertrophy effects of doing one intense high-rep set right up front.
Could you achieve the same thing with multiple sets of eight with longer rests before doing your challenging “work” sets? Possibly, but it will take longer, do more damage, and drain more of your recovery. Plus, you’ll get fatigue accumulation just the same.
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