Weight Gain Network what’s going on? Grant Lofthouse here from Melbourne, Australia
First off I got to thank Jeff Masterson for allowing me to share my number one muscle building tip with you today that has helped me pack on size.
This is not your typical ‘eat more calories’ and ‘progressive overload’ to your muscle building program kind of tip.
You’ve heard it all before and I’m sure you’re doing that right now.
I get it, you want the in-depth, ninja stuff.
So here it is…
Today were going to talk about rep ranges.
Now if you listen to the bodybuilding talk you would have heard to sides of the story when it comes to the perfect rep range to building muscle…
I bet you’ve heard this before… “You need to get strong first” – the theory behind this is that if you’re a beginner and you start out with high reps (above 10-12) the intensity of the weight will be too light to stimulate growth. Think about it… A set of 8 reps at 100 kilos will stimulate more growth that a set of 8 reps at 50 kilos.
On the other hand you’ve probably heard this… “You need to get a pump to build muscle” – the full blown, orgasmic pump can only really come from high reps.
Believe me when I say this that I’ve tried both. Nothing but high reps, but got really weak. And nothing but low reps and couldn’t grow.
So what do you do?
Both in the one workout or over the course of the week.
For example if you were to train both in the one workout you would start your workout with a strength phase first (in the 3-5 rep range) then for your next exercise go slightly higher (6-8 reps range) then higher again for the third exercise (9-12 reps) and finish off with you last exercise for some ultra-high, pump work (15+ reps). Here’s what it would look like in black and white…
- BB Bench Press – 3 x 5
- BB Incline Bench Press – 3 x 6-8
- Dips – 3 x 9-12
- DB Incline Fly’s – 3 x 15-20
On the other hand you can spread it out over the course of the week if you were doing an upper / lower split…
- Day 1 – Upper strength based
- Day 2- Lower strength based
- Day 3 – Upper volume (pump) based
- Day 4 – Lower volume (pump) based
So your day 1 – upper strength based where nothing is higher than 8 reps might look something like this…
- 1a) BB Bench Press – 3 x 5
- 1b) Pull Up – 4 x 5
- 2a) DB Shoulder Press – 3 x 6-8
- 2b) BB Bent Over Row – 4 x 6-8
And your day 3 – upper volume (pump) based…
- 1a) Dips – 3 x 9-12
- 1b) 1 Arm Row -4 x 9-12
- 2a) DB Incline Fly’s – 3 x 15-20
- 2b) Rear Dealt Fly’s – 4 x 15-20
- 3a) Lying Tricep Ext. – 2 x 8-12
- 3b) DB Curl – 2 x 8-12
Either layout would work quite well based on your training frequency and schedule.
The key is to train for both strength and the pump and get the best of both worlds.
So there you have it, that’s how you can train for both strength and the pump in the one workout or over the course of the week. Don’t neglect either because both are just as important as one another in your endeavor to building muscle and strength.
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