4 ms·

I think the science says you need <= 3 reps in reserve to build muscle. But yes, it is easier for beginners. Also yes on the 1/9th of the volume but from what

by YZF 2y ago

I think the science says you need <= 3 reps in reserve to build muscle. But yes, it is easier for beginners. Also yes on the 1/9th of the volume but from what I've read you still need to obey the <= 3 reps in reserve. e.g. you can get by with one set per muscle group per week. Progressive overload forces you into close to failure territory regardless of volume/time. The other thing to be said is there are variations between people and something that works for one might need to be tweaked for another.

Jcampuzano2 2y ago
Its more like <= 2-3 reps to achieve roughly equivalent muscle growth - but the science here is still shaky since studies contradict each other all the time due to so much individual variance. Some studies show consistently going 2 reps from failure vs going to failure all the time result in roughly equivalent muscle gains, but from what I've read and watched the running hypothesis seems to be this is due to to volume being roughly equated. i.e. Going 2 reps from failure all the time means your rep count can stay still pretty high across sets, whereas going to failure typically results in the first set having more reps but higher dropoff per set leading to roughly equivalent volume overall. But nonetheless it doesn't mean you have to go that far to get any gains at all, up to a point. It depends on whether your goal is maximal growth vs getting some growth at all and just looking for health benefits. Regarding the lower volume to maintain, like I said before - anybody who got to a significant amount of muscle mass would likely have already been accustomed to frequent strain/hard training, but yes I agree. And yeah a lot of this is hard to generalize since studies show so much individual variance to training that it makes it hard to generalize. But regardless, just train hard and you'll see benefits whether you do minimal sets or many sets lol. Another thing is many beginners have no idea what real failure is, so while they may be able to not hit failure and see growth, its still recommended to take some sets all the way to failure. Beginners tend to underestimate how much more they really have since they have lower pain tolerance/adaptation to straining their muscles than others. They often are actually 5+ reps from failure when they would have estimated they were only 1 or 2.

by YZF 2y ago

Jcampuzano2 2y ago

Its more like <= 2-3 reps to achieve roughly equivalent muscle growth - but the science here is still shaky since studies contradict each other all the time due to so much individual variance. Some studies show consistently going 2 reps from failure vs going to failure all the time result in roughly equivalent muscle gains, but from what I've read and watched the running hypothesis seems to be this is due to to volume being roughly equated. i.e. Going 2 reps from failure all the time means your rep count can stay still pretty high across sets, whereas going to failure typically results in the first set having more reps but higher dropoff per set leading to roughly equivalent volume overall. But nonetheless it doesn't mean you have to go that far to get any gains at all, up to a point. It depends on whether your goal is maximal growth vs getting some growth at all and just looking for health benefits. Regarding the lower volume to maintain, like I said before - anybody who got to a significant amount of muscle mass would likely have already been accustomed to frequent strain/hard training, but yes I agree. And yeah a lot of this is hard to generalize since studies show so much individual variance to training that it makes it hard to generalize. But regardless, just train hard and you'll see benefits whether you do minimal sets or many sets lol. Another thing is many beginners have no idea what real failure is, so while they may be able to not hit failure and see growth, its still recommended to take some sets all the way to failure. Beginners tend to underestimate how much more they really have since they have lower pain tolerance/adaptation to straining their muscles than others. They often are actually 5+ reps from failure when they would have estimated they were only 1 or 2.