Quote:
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People with years of training under their belt might benefit from doing more training in the low-rep range, whereas those that have been training less than a year or two might benefit more from higher reps."
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I firmly disagree. I think beginners and oftentimes intermediates would benefit MORE from doing lower overall reps focusing on building a strength foundation before going to higher reps.
Basically, take two twins who are beginners ->
Joe Bodybuilder #1 does "high reps".. Say sets of 10-15 reps.
Joe Bodybuilder #2 does "low reps".. Say sets of 5 reps.
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Keeping DIET out of our equation, lets look 3 years down the road..
Joe #1 put on 30 lbs of lean mass, he isn't very strong for his build, and he's unfortunately plateaued strength/mass wise.
Joe #2 put on 20 lbs of lean mass, looks a lot thicker, and has some impressive lifts. Joe #2 now decides to take his neural efficiency and apply it to the "higher reps", and low and behold continues growth.
The difference in these two lifters after 3 years is the following:
Joe #1: Bench Press: 200 x 10 reps.. Not bad.
Joe #2: Bench Press: 250 x 10 reps.. Better.
Basically, if Joe #2 is focusing on strength (with plenty of mass accruel on the side), he's setting himself up for success compared to Joe #2 who decided to "fuck" strength and go for the higher reps from the start.
So to me, that excerpt makes zero sense. If anything, it's backwards
Noone should be at all concerned with muscle fiber composition as a beginner in the first place. What matters in BODYBUILDING is that people start off developing strength for a few years before bothering with the higher reps at all.
Being a member of A LOT of various bodybuilding forums, I see this shit ALL THE TIME! An example would be a 190 lb 20 year old creating a thread asking about which "chest" exercises are best for mass. He goes on to say that he's lacking in the chest. Finally, about halfway down the page of advice, it dawns on someone to ask what his bench is currently at. "Oh, I'm benching 185 x 10 reps." Can you imagine why his chest isn't up to par?!
