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REP RANGES AND HYPERTROPHY
This is a rough article/post I put together that will help explain muscle hypertrophy and the rep ranges you should use depending on your goals, note; because these rep ranges are explained with figures they are arguable, not miles off but not necessarily nail on the head depending on who you are and how your body reacts to training, this is merely a guide!
Right so first things first, There are two main types of hypertrophy; myofibrillar hypertrophy, and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. These terms may or may not mean anything to you at all, depending on your background, but they are two terms that are great to understand if you choose to begin lifting weights.
- Myofibrillar hypertrophy - Is the hypertrophy ("enlarging") of the actual contractile units in the muscle, the muscle fibres. I’ve heard a great way of describing the muscle itself before and I will use it here because it’s pretty much the perfect way of explaining it. So you have to imagine a muscle cell as a jelly donut… The myofibrillar hypertrophy range packs more jelly into that donut, but doesn't make the donut itself any bigger until no more jelly can be held. When more “donut” is needed, you gain a little bit of muscle mass, and continue filling up the “donut" with “jelly”. The “jelly” is what enables your muscles to contract harder and stronger basically creating functional strength. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is best stimulated with low reps, usually between 5 - 8 (may vary). This is the current kind of hypertrophy I base some of my own training around for Powerlifting. Myofibrillar hypertrophy will keep your muscles hard and strong, but deceptively small. Most athletes participating in strength-based sports work in this range. Some powerlifters like myself work in this range, and that is, in part, along with other forms of training, why we are often able to lift large amounts of weight and often be relatively small.
- Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy - is the hypertrophy of the "donut” itself. The "donut" gets bigger, but no extra "jelly" is added, just increasing muscle mass and not necessarily strength.Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is what some (not all) bodybuilders do to get their godlike physiques that dwarf us mere mortals. It's important to note again, however, that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy does not yield much for strength gains, and is just about all mass and no power behind it, depending on the exact range you use. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy will make the muscles bigger. It is generally thought of to be found between rep ranges of 10 - 15 which can also vary. Training more on the 15-end of the spectrum will yield some muscular endurance, however I would recommend a heavy 20 rep squat program to anyone for increasing muscle mass. Make sure not to confuse muscle mass with an off season bodybuilder who bulks overboard and eats too much junk food, this is a great rep range for anyone looking to increase muscle size & a few months back I based some of my assistant work around it.
And then there is the 5-and-below range..
The 5-and-below range stimulates, mostly
neuromuscular hypertrophy. Take a moment to soak that word in. It's beautiful, isn't it? This is another range favoured by Powerlifters for obvious reasons.It is vital for you to understand in some detail what makes muscles strong. Muscles are strong by two means - the muscle itself, and the connections between the muscle and the brain. I gathered this lot online – “Now, the muscle itself has clear-cut limits, for the most part. But the limits of connections between the muscle and the brain are quite vague at best. Most of the strength in the muscle actually comes from neural connections; some estimates are as high as 80% (crazy isn’t it!). This considered, strength training need not only exist in hypertrophy ranges. One could become extremely strong yet remain small, lean, and compact." Like a 74kg powerlifter ;-)
Personally I know very little about Neuromuscular facilitation just what I could gather on sites online but it is essentially the physical incarnation of the old saying that "practice makes perfect". When we lift weights, both our muscles and our CNS (Nervous system) are affected in great ways. By working in the 1-5 range, the neuromuscular connection has to be pushed along to help the muscle contract safely. When the body realizes that the neuromuscular connection successfully prevented you from, well dying, it strengthens that neuromuscular connection for next time, in doing so making you stronger than before, meaning that this type of training yields primarily strength gains and is why you will see a lot of powerlifters doing heavy sets of 3 reps to help increase their 1 rep max. Also from what I have gathered online “ATP depletion is at its least when you lift very low reps, such as in the 1-5 range. This means that you could lift every day in the 1-5 range and continue to get stronger!”
But what if you want to train low-rep, for maximal strength, and still gain muscle mass?
Volume is the answer. Volume is your friend and it is the total number of reps performed.
If one were to perform, 3 sets of 10 benchpresses, that's a total of 30 reps. (mainly
sarcomplasmic hypertrophy)
If one were to perform 5 sets of 6 benchpresses, that's also a total of 30 reps. (mainly
myofibrillar hypertrophy for max strength)
If one were to perform 10 sets of 3 benchpresses, that's also a total of 30 reps, (also
myofibrillar but with a focus on maximal strength!)
All three methods of adding volume will result in similar hypertrophic effects. In my own experience I find a good mix of all three will yield a lot of results whether its muscle strength or muscle mass you are seeking it’s always good to have a mix.
Below is something that might work well when training a muscle once per week (also similar to my own way of training) this will be a pretty good mix, Note the weights used should always be weight that you can just about hit the rep range with, if you can continue on and do another 20 reps after your set your just kidding yourself
First 1-2 Exercises - 3-4 sets with heavy loads in the 1-5 rep range with compound movements.
Next 1-2 Exercises - 3-4 sets with moderate loads in the 8-12 rep range with mostly compound movements.
Last 1-2 Exercises - 3-4 sets with lighter loads (doesn’t mean you can toss it round like a piece of paper) in the 15-30 rep range usually with an isolation movement.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. This has been quite a bit of research and scouring the net for myself, which won’t do any harm, as it’s all a learning experience.
Now…. Shut up and squat! Share with your friends and family and see what they think!
Picture i found on the internet as well handy for a quick look at the ranges
![[img17]](/styles/smilies/8.gif "daumen [img17]")