Ali Salami

Dr. Jankens

ENG 1020/Sec 030

31 December 2015

High Reps vs. Low reps

The evolution of man has brought on many great innovations/ideas. One being the idea

of building a body in the image you see fit. But, along Wwith this idea came a controversial

argument on what repetition (rep) range would be best to promote muscle growth and overall

fitness, a highgh rep range or a low rep range? A high rep range would be using a weight that

allows an individual to do 15+ repetitions continuously (Berg, paragraph 4) and low rep ranges

would beis using a weight where you are only able to perform 1 to 5 repetitions (Berg,

paragraph 7). With that being said, three key details should be looked at when determining

which rep range is best for promoting muscle growth and overall fitness: 1) Being able to work

both the fast twitch muscle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers, 2) variety of method training

to shock the muscle and 3) being able to build a muscular, lean body type. Accordingly, doing

both rep ranges seem to be ideal in accomplishing all these criteria at a proficient level. The

three key details which should be looked at when determining which rep range is best for

promoting muscle growth and overall fitness: Being able to work both the fast twitch muscle

fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers, containing a variety of method training to shock the

muscle and finally, being able to build a muscular, lean body type. However, many strength

trainers may state low rep ranges alone build a muscular physique. What these strength

trainers fail to consider is with the addition of a high rep range, there is greater variety for

shocking your nervous system and having a muscular physique does not necessarily mean you

are at a healthy body fat percentage.

The average person who is looking to learn the basics of weight training may not know

what fast twitch or slow twitch muscle fibers are and their function. In that case, lets start at

the general hierarchy of what makes up these muscle fibers, their function to the overall

human body and how high reps/low reps tie in with the mechanisms used to move each muscle

fiber. Now based on the article Biology Basics: The Basics of Muscles by Rene Fester Kratz, each

muscle fiber is made up of myofibrils which have the job of contraction and /relaxation as

depicted in the first and second picture below.

.

This contraction happens by the act of two filamentous cytoskeletal proteins called actin

filaments (thin filaments) which consist of two strands of actin wrapped around each other, the

myosin filaments which contain groups of myosin and ends called myosin heads that point in

opposite directions as the myofibril contracts/relaxes and has the actin filaments move closer

towards each other with the contraction and move away with the relaxation stage (Kratz). As

you can see in the second photo, the filaments are organized into repeating units called

sarcomeres with the dark lines (z lines) separating each sarcomere while only the thin filaments

(actin filaments) attach to the z lines and the thick filaments (myosin filaments) do not come in

contact with the z lines (kratz). Furthermore, an article titled Human Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type

Classifications by Wayne Scott, Jennifer Stevens and Stuart A Binder-Macleod, PT, PhD shows

the classification of skeletal muscle: two major classifications being the type 1 (slow twitch)

muscle fibers and type 2 (fast twitch) muscle fibers (Scott; Stevens; Binder-Macleod). Diving

deeper However, the article states “Advances in the histochemical staining technique used to

evaluate myosin ATPase have led to 7 recognized human muscle fiber types (Fig. 2). Originally,

fibers were identified as type I, IIA, or IIB” ((Scott; Stevens; Binder-Macleod)Scott). We will only

focus on the original fibers discovered. Type IIA and IIB are types of fast twitch muscle fibers

which appear white due to thea lack of myoglobin/capillary and have certain points at which

each one will be recruited to contract. Type IIA would be used when the load is increasing but

not at a maximum load capacity. However, when the load is at a maximum Type IIB is recruited

but uses more energy (ATP) during each contraction. Type I is used when the intensity is low

and, appears red due to high myoglobin/capillary levels which allow the muscle fiber to

repeatedly contract multiple times when compared to the type muscle fibers (Scott; Stevens;

Binder-Macleod). Now these fibers contract voluntarily and can be damaged when extensively

used.

So we know how and what causes these fibers to operate, you may ask yourself “How

do high reps and low reps tie in with these muscle fibers”? According to an article titled Bullet

points for strength training and weight management by Ken Mannie, “Some data suggest

higher reps for slow-twitch muscle groups and lower reps for fast-twitch muscle groups”

(Mannie). This is not just one coincidence; Michael Berg published an article titled Your Ideal

Rep Range which states “Sets that stretch past 15 reps, though, have one major drawback: The

amount of weight you can handle isn't heavy enough to recruit fast-twitch type-2 muscle fibers.

So what, you ask? Simply put, type-2 fibers are where the potential for growth resides, and they

respond only to heavy weights at least 75 percent of your one-rep max” (Berg). This article is

stating that that low reps/heavy weight use more type II muscle fibers and implies high reps

with low reps activates type I muscle fibers (Berg)..

Based on the articles, high rep ranges with contractions seem to activate Type I, slow

twitch muscle fibers and increase metabolic stress/endurance. While low rep ranges recruit

type II, fast twitch muscle fibers due to an increase in load which increases load stress on the

targeted muscle (Berg; Binder-Macleod; Kratz; Mannie; Scott; Stevens). This is why both rep

ranges should be done in order to work both muscle fiber groups well while just low reps/high

weight may target only slow twitch muscle fibers and high reps/low weight work only fast

twitch muscle fibers (Berg; Binder-Macleod; Kratz; Mannie; Scott; Stevens). This has been

proven to be trueThis is true basewithid on an article done by Bryan Haycock titled, Feel the

burn: low reps vs high reps where haycock publishes findings done by researchers at the

university of Tsukuba in Japan .who The researches took two groups and for the first 6 weeks

had both of them do nine total sets from 3 grouped sets of 3 (Haycock). In between each

grouped set, there were thirty second rest period followed by 3 minutes of recovery and. aAfter

the six weeks one group switched to the traditional style of training using 90% of their one rep

max with three-minute rest periods between sets (Haycock). However, while the other group

did the same style training and performed a quasi-drop set after their last set, this group was

named the “combi” group (Haycock). The findings supported the idea of performing both rep

ranges since both groups grew in size and strength within the first six weeks and only the combi

group continued to grow four more weeks while the other group stopped growth (Haycock).

The conclusion the researchers made were a combination of load stress (low reps) and

metabolic stress (high reps) was optimal for promoting muscle growth and overall health

(Haycock).

The second criteria that needs to be accomplished proficiently is the idea of having

great variety in order to “shock your muscles”. The shocking of the muscle is based on the

principle of homeostasis, as stated in the article Shock Your Body Out of THE COMFORT ZONE

PART 1! By Adam Knowlden: “Your body is naturally resistant to change. It prefers to be in a

constant state with no change to its environment. It simply does not want big, freaky muscles.

You have to force this complex machine to accept them. The principle is that simple. Without

the right weapons you will never even come close to pushing your body to reach its potential”

(Knowlden). If the body wishes to stay the same, how would keeping the same training routine

week in and week out optimize muscle gains/fitness? It doesn’t... Using logic based on

homeostasis, we can come up with the idea the body adapts to anything, to prepare itself for

the same attack next time it occurs (Knowlden). So for that one attack on the body where the

body wasn’t prepared, the body will repair that one muscle group bigger that way it will handle

the same exact intensity better the next time it happens, hence “growth” (Knowlden). We want

growth and we should keep shocking the body when needed to keep growth continuous. Based

on Knowlden and Haycocks ideas of Homeostasis and the two types of rep ranges; Developing

overall muscle growth and strength Which in turnrequires why need a great variety of training

methods/ranges to increase the amount of training methods and having two different rep

ranges to choose from would increase the number of methods to shock the muscles when

compared to just one of the ranges alone and increases overall muscle gains and fitness over a

certain period of time (Knowlden; Haycock).

The third requirement we must look at is being able to build a muscular body and keep a

lean or athletic/acceptable body fat percentage. For the people that do not know what body fat

percentage may stand for, it is a measure of a person’s fitness level by determining the

percentage of the body fat total weight over the total weight of the individual (Bell). For

example, lets say an individual weighed 200 lbs and of the 200 lbs, 40 lbs were from fat. That

individual’s body fat percentage would be 40 ∕ 200= 0.20*100= 20%, this being the individual’s

body fat percentageso 20% of the individual’s body weight is pure fat. Moving forward, many

people may wonder where athletic-good body fat percentages would lie on the percent

spectrum. Jessica Bell answers this in her article Do I Need a Certain Body Fat Percentage to

Build Lean Muscle Mass? She states “For optimal health, it's recommended that women

maintain levels around 18 to 30 percent, while men should stay in the 10 to 25 percent range”

(Bell). Now, let us go back to the questions how do high reps and low reps accomplish this goal?

Referring back to the study done by the University of Tsukuba in japan, their conclusion was “A

combination of both load stress and metabolic stress optimizes gains” (Haycock). Just to

reiterate, load stress is also known as “low reps” and metabolic stress is known as “high

reps”reps” (Haycock). With that being said, both rep ranges are required for muscle growth.

However, in order to maintain or gain a body fat percentage within the healthy range of your

respected gender, you must increase or maintain your metabolism and this means to increase

or maintain the same “metabolic stress” (Haycock). Not only is there one reason to combine

both rep ranges, there are two… Without the performance of both rep ranges, you will not

reach your full muscle potential (for that time being) and help to keep body fat percentage

healthy.

On the other end of the spectrum, strength trainers claim you have enough training

methods with low reps to put add on quality muscle. They are correct with the idea of low rep

training being able to shock the nervous system and build a muscular physique due to the

activation and contraction of fast twitch muscle fibers. This is true within an article High-

Intensity Strength Training in Nonagenarians Effects on Skeletal Muscle by Maria A. Fiatarone,

MD; Elizabeth C. Marks, MS; Nancy D. Ryan, DT; Carol N. Meredith, PhD; Lewis A. Lipsitz, MD;

William J. Evans, PhD (nicknamed Team 1 for practical reasons). The team conducted a study

with the weak and elderly with a goal to characterize their muscle through strength training

(Fiatarone; Marks; Ryan; Meredith; Lipsitz). Over 8 weeks ten elder citizens (90 years old 1

year) will incorporate high intensity resistance training into their daily regimen (Fiatarone;

Marks; Ryan; Meredith; Lipsitz). At the end of the 8 weeks, 9 of the 10 individuals completed

the regimen and here are the results: “Strength gains averaged 174% ±31% (mean ± SEM) …

Midthigh muscle area increased 9.0%± 4.5% (Fiatarone; Marks; Ryan; Meredith; Lipsitz). Mean

tandem gait speed improved 48% after training” (Fiatarone; Marks; Ryan; Meredith; Lipsitz).

(Team 1). With that, the team concluded that high resistance training leads to significant gains

in muscle strength, size and overall function within targeted muscle groups of the elderly

(Fiatarone; Marks; Ryan; Meredith; Lipsitz). What they fail to consider is having a muscular body

does not necessarily mean you are at healthy body fat percentage. An example of this are

powerlifters/strongmen. Based on the picture below, this powerlifter is quite muscular and is

well over 25% body fat based on the content of Jessica Bell’s article (Bell). This is where high

reps would come in to help the powerlifter lower his body fat percent and gain endurance. That

gain of endurance is most likely going to increase energy conservation between each set and

help the powerlifter reach their goal of gaining strength in a faster and healthy manner

(Haycock). Also, having a greater variety of training methods is always better than having less

variety. A perfect example is made by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger titled Calf input:

training the lower legs has puzzled many over the years. Here's Arnold's two cents. As Arnold

states “I alternately employed high, low and moderate reps throughout the '60s and '70s. For

example, I might do five sets of 10 reps per exercise one day, then do 20 reps per set the

following workout, then maybe 12-15 reps the next. And then some days I'd load up the stack

really heavy and perform just 3-4 reps per set. On occasion, I'd train with a guy like Tom Platz

and we'd do sets of 30, 40 or 50 reps. So you see, the goal when training calves is to be as

unpredictable as possible. You must continually try new training protocols. I confidently predict

that it will work for you” (Schwarzenegger). One of the greatest weightlifters ever has even

stated doing different rep ranges and being unpredictable to the targeted muscle is best. Even

though this case deals with calf muscles specifically, this principle works with any muscle group

you want growth and development in.

As you can see, performing both rep ranges are ideal for promoting muscle growth and

overall fitness because both ranges accomplish the criteria by 1)b Being able to work both the

fast twitch muscle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers, 2) having a variety of method training

to shock the muscle and finally,3) being able to build a muscular, lean body type. Even though,

strength trainers claim low reps build a muscular physique,. eEven though they are able to build

a muscular physique, they fail to consider their physique may not be in the healthy range of

body fat percentage and with the addition of high rep ranges you gain more diverse methods to

shock your targeted muscle group.

Work Cited

Bell, Jessica. "Do I Need a Certain Body Fat Percentage to Build Lean Muscle Mass?" LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Berg, Michael. "Your Ideal Rep Range." Men's Fitness. Weider, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Fiatarone, Maria A., Elizabeth C. Marks, Nancy D. Ryan, Carol N. Meredith, Lewis A. Lipsitz, and Williams J. Evans. "." JAMA Network. American Medical Association, 13 June 1990. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Haycock, Bryan. "Feel the burn: low reps vs high reps." Flex Mar. 2015: 78. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Knowlden, Adam. "Shock Your Body Out Of THE COMFORT ZONE." Shock Your Body Out Of THE COMFORT ZONE. ABC Bodybuilding, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Kratz, Rene Fester. "Biology Basics: The Basics of Muscles." For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Mannie, Ken. "Bullet points for strength training and weight management." Coach and Athletic Director Mar. 2006: 8+. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "Calf input: training the lower legs has puzzled many over the years. Here's Arnold's two cents." Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness Sept. 2005: 230. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Scott, Wayne, Jennifer Stevens, and Stuart A. Binder-Macloed. "Human Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Classifications." Human Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Classifications. American Physical Therapy Association, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

"Skeletal Muscle Structure and Function." Skeletal Muscle Structure and Function. San Diego State University, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Som, Phano Paul. "Shocking Your Muscles To Stimulate Growth!"Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com, 24 Apr. 2002. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Haycock, Bryan. "Feel the burn: low reps vs high reps." Flex Mar. 2015: 78. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Mannie, Ken. "Bullet points for strength training and weight management." Coach and Athletic Director Mar. 2006: 8+. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "Calf input: training the lower legs has puzzled many over the years. Here's Arnold's two cents." Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness Sept. 2005: 230. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Berg, Michael. "Your Ideal Rep Range." Men's Fitness. Weider, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Scott, Wayne, Jennifer Stevens, and Stuart A. Binder-Macloed. "Human Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Classifications." Human Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Classifications. American Physical Therapy Association, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Som, Phano Paul. "Shocking Your Muscles To Stimulate Growth!"Bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding.com, 24 Apr. 2002. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

"Skeletal Muscle Structure and Function." Skeletal Muscle Structure and Function. San Diego State University, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Kratz, Rene Fester. "Biology Basics: The Basics of Muscles." For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Knowlden, Adam. "Shock Your Body Out Of THE COMFORT ZONE." Shock Your Body Out Of THE COMFORT ZONE. ABC Bodybuilding, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Bell, Jessica. "Do I Need a Certain Body Fat Percentage to Build Lean Muscle Mass?" LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Fiatarone, Maria A., Elizabeth C. Marks, Nancy D. Ryan, Carol N. Meredith, Lewis A. Lipsitz, and Williams J. Evans. "." JAMA Network. American Medical Association, 13 June 1990. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.