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Originally Posted by Musclehead
I'm looking for size, but I think I should be changing the rep ranges to keep the body guessing.
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You don't need to do that. Variety for variety's sake is useless. To keep the body guessing is not why people periodize, it's just what clueless people say to sound smart. If they gave you a simple prescription based on your needs, they wouldn't appear as knowledgable. There may be reasons for certain people to change rep ranges in some linear fashion at some point in their training but that is not it. Personally I think linear peridization sucks even for what it's meant to do. But some people find it works for them.
You know that story (Roman, I think) about the guy who gets this bull calf and carries it up a hill every day. As the bull grows and grows, the guy continues carrying it up day after day. Once the bull is full grown the guy is like hercules or something. I forget his name. But hopefully you get the point, it's fantasy and myth, but even back then people instinctually knew how the body adapts.
The "shock the muscle" theory probably has it's popularity due to the widespread epedemic of attention deficit disorder. Some people just can't stick to a plan
. Things take time. Don't expect miracles. If you're not Ronnie Coleman in two weeks it doesn't mean the answer is to change your rep range. Usually progress stops because the trainee fucks it up, not because the body is confused as to what it is supposed to be doing.
Personally I hate any program that starts out complicated and in order to have it keep being productive you have to further and further complicate it. That's my problem with HST. But you'd be much better off with that rather than just doing some random rep ranges for a completely invalid reason.
Keep things as simple as they can be and still result in progress. Only complicate them when more complexity becomes necessary.