What builds the most muscle?

mayweather

New Member
High reps(9-15) or low reps heavier weight(5-8) I always get mixed answers and I hear alot of bro science but I am interested on mesos take on this.
 
Eating and frequency

Also, if youre not adding weight consistently month after month, youre not gonna grow much. Low weight, high reps is great for a pump and a focus on the muscle contraction, but it wont put on size. That doesnt mean start to curl 80lb dumbells. I find that the smaller muscles dont need a lot of weight. im content with curling 30s and 40s and my arms have grown 3 inches over the last 3 years(only been juicing for 30 weeks)
 
High reps(9-15) or low reps heavier weight(5-8) I always get mixed answers and I hear alot of bro science but I am interested on mesos take on this.

Which builds the most muscle?

Between your two choices it depends on where you are at training-wise.

If you are a newbie to training, like real new, then 9-15 may be better as you'll be doing more repetition, the more repetition you do at this stage the better your mind-muscle connection will become.

If you've been training for a while and understand how to overload, then 5 - 8 reps can really help you build more strength up. You can really gauge how strong you are in this rep range because you can hit real failure on your lifts. Every workout, you can know if you got that extra rep or not. 9 - 15 rep range, it's hard to know if you really failed, it can be a softer failure and harder to gauge successive workouts.

Once you've built up some real good base strength on 5-8 reps you can go back up to 9-15 reps and really pack on muscle.

I alternate between the two rep ranges myself (and sometimes go above 15 reps on certain exercises like leg presses) etc.
 
9-15 rep range is going to be more focused on hypertrophy while higher weight with low reps will be focused on strength gain. It just depends on what your goal is. To answer the question, 9-15 rep range will be best for building muscle size. For me personally, I have found doing my 2-3 main compound lifts first with two warmup sets and then working sets with approx 75% of my 1RM for 3 sets of 10. The warm up sets will normally be 12-15 reps with lighter weight. I've found this to really build a lot of muscle size while slowly but steadily increasing strength as well. When I find that I can successfully do the working sets for 12 reps for at least 2 of the sets, I will go up in weight.
 
You don’t need to “shock your muscles” or “keep your body guessing” or do silly muscle confusion workouts or anything equally dumb. It’s a myth. You also shouldn’t be jumping from one program to the next in search of some ultimate magical routine that’s going to work unrealistically well/fast. It doesn’t exist.
 
Low reps heavy weight or high rep lighter weight but to failure. You can't go wrong either way. Either way it'll be the progression that builds the muscle.

Now if strength is the goal, the lower reps heavy weight will be the way to go.

Progression isn't just adding weight tho. It can he adding reps or sets. Or shortening rests periods (increasing intensity). So your program can start off low rep, and progress to higher reps if you wanted. Not necessarily "muscle confusion", but it keeps it from getting dull.
 
Hypertrophy isn't exclusive to any intensity / RM. You can make any intensity / % of 1RM work for size gains as long as you adjust volume relative to that intensity. I was seeing excellent growth from using 80%,85%,and 90% all within the same training week in a wave like fashion on a bodybuilding routine.

This isn't really that complicated as long as you disregard what most of the fitness mainstream has to say.

Just do these things:

[1] Limited Lift Selection. Keep specificity high.
[2] High weekly volume.
[3] Keep frequency high for movements and muscle groups.
[4] Incorporate fatigue as a variable if you are past the beginner stage.
[5] Periodize training. I do feel that some techniques are better for hypertrophy then others but that's jmo.

Avoid the following:

[1] Training exclusively with very very high rep sets (25+). These are less efficient at recruiting and exhausting HTMU's, which are responsible for most of your size and power. If you are going even higher then that than there might be concern of fast twitch mu's being converted to slow twitch (fiber type conversion can occur and it can occur as a response to particular training style). This would slow progress down long term if your delicious fast twitch fibers are being converted, but this would require some pretty extreme use of high rep sets (25+).

[2] Changing shit just for the sake of it. Probably the biggest pitfall. Everybody wants to change shit before the magic even happens.

Avoid those two ^^.
 
Eating and frequency

Also, if youre not adding weight consistently month after month, youre not gonna grow much. Low weight, high reps is great for a pump and a focus on the muscle contraction, but it wont put on size. That doesnt mean start to curl 80lb dumbells. I find that the smaller muscles dont need a lot of weight. im content with curling 30s and 40s and my arms have grown 3 inches over the last 3 years(only been juicing for 30 weeks)
Terrible advice I completely disagree.
 
Low reps heavy weight or high rep lighter weight but to failure. You can't go wrong either way. Either way it'll be the progression that builds the muscle.

Now if strength is the goal, the lower reps heavy weight will be the way to go.

Progression isn't just adding weight tho. It can he adding reps or sets. Or shortening rests periods (increasing intensity). So your program can start off low rep, and progress to higher reps if you wanted. Not necessarily "muscle confusion", but it keeps it from getting dull.

I am lifting solely for aesthetics,I would like some strength but the main priority is growing the muscles.
 
With strength comes growing muscle's they go hand in hand.
I'm not talking power lifting or strongman strength but just generally getting stronger and bigger focus on your problem area's and train them harder to bring them um up.
You should always be able to control the wieght your lifting and feel it in the muscle your targeting for growth.
That's my 2cent's.
I'm sure Myth or any other physique competitor or enthusiast can give you some great points and advice.
 
Hypertrophy isn't exclusive to any intensity / RM. You can make any intensity / % of 1RM work for size gains as long as you adjust volume relative to that intensity. I was seeing excellent growth from using 80%,85%,and 90% all within the same training week in a wave like fashion on a bodybuilding routine.

This isn't really that complicated as long as you disregard what most of the fitness mainstream has to say.

Just do these things:

[1] Limited Lift Selection. Keep specificity high.
[2] High weekly volume.
[3] Keep frequency high for movements and muscle groups.
[4] Incorporate fatigue as a variable if you are past the beginner stage.
[5] Periodize training. I do feel that some techniques are better for hypertrophy then others but that's jmo.

Avoid the following:

[1] Training exclusively with very very high rep sets (25+). These are less efficient at recruiting and exhausting HTMU's, which are responsible for most of your size and power. If you are going even higher then that than there might be concern of fast twitch mu's being converted to slow twitch (fiber type conversion can occur and it can occur as a response to particular training style). This would slow progress down long term if your delicious fast twitch fibers are being converted, but this would require some pretty extreme use of high rep sets (25+).

[2] Changing shit just for the sake of it. Probably the biggest pitfall. Everybody wants to change shit before the magic even happens.

Avoid those two ^^.
Great advice!!
PS looking hugeee WC
 
I am lifting solely for aesthetics,I would like some strength but the main priority is growing the muscles.
You havent been clear as far as your goals. You are saying your priority is muscle. That means different things to different people. Are you thinking Dorian Yates or Frank Zane? There is a huge difference in the training aside from the fact that they had very differnt body types.

If you are endomorph, you are not going to be Frank Zane. If you are an ectomorph, you will never be a Dorian.
 

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