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muscle fibers. slow twitch vs fast twitch require different rep ranges to stimulate hypertrophy
Overview Growth In Muscle Fibers Below
Repetition Range Type I Type IIA Type IIB Strength Gains
1-2 repetitions Very Low Low Low Excellent
3-5 repetitions Very Low Low Decent to Good Excellent
6-8 repetitions Very Low Good Excellent Good
9-12 repetitions Low Excellent Very Good Good Within Rep R.
13-15 repetitions Decent Very Good Decent to Good Endurance
16-25 repetitions Very Good Diminishing Low Endurance
25-50 repetitions Excellent Low Very Low Endurance
Numbers Translated
The first aspect I need to stress is that each set of repetitions I placed above were based upon how hardcore you were while performing them. You need to select a weight that causes you to certainly come at or near the edge of failure in the selected rep range. Furthermore there are many variables that will cause this to occur aside from the amount of weight you are lifting. Here is a list of factors:
1. How Strict You Are - Let say you are trying to hit your fast twitch IIB fibers in a range of 6-8 repetitions for the biceps. If you take the barbell and start swinging it up and down like a fat slob downs beers you will inevitably take much of the stress off of your guns and place it onto your deltoids and back. By doing this you will certainly have to lift a much heavier weight if you hope to hypertrophy the target muscle group. However, if you lower the weight, and eliminate your accessory muscles as much as possible you will still fail in the 6-8 repetition range, and have stimulated probably more growth then the fat, drunk slob method. The reason for this is that your biceps actually faced more weight then they would have, because you asked them to
" shoulder " the load.
2. Speed of The Repetition - This is perhaps the most difficult variable in the equation. Remember as a bodybuilder the goal is to feel the muscle contract, not to execute a repetition. This simply means that the majority of the time momentum should not take the weight up, but rather your muscles. All to many times I see bodybuilders perform a set of 12 on the bench press in 2 seconds flat! The problem is that they are neglecting the negative aspect of the repetition. Countless studies have shown that more damage is done eccentrically( lowering the weight ) then concentrically. And so they will allow gravity to bring the weight down, rather then their muscles and use momentum by not pausing on the bottom( actually rather then pause they bounce ) to lift the weight back up. In essence the athlete has cheated him/herself out of growth twofold by eliminating the negative and lessening the concentric (lifting) effect of the exercise. Therefore do not rush the negative.
On the other hand changing the speed on the concentric portion of the rep can actually change what type of muscle cell you target( 20 ). If you lift a semi heavy weight at a decent controlled speed you will target the IIA fibers, but if you explode on the concentric you will target a greater percentage of white IIB fibers. The great thing is that by accentuating the negative you will have eliminated quite a bit of the momentum and therefore your muscles will take much more of the load, even while explosively lifting on the positive portion of the lift. Adam "Old School " has discussed this method quite a bit in the forums, and he is incredibly on the money!
This is an excellent way to stimulate growth, but the body adapts to lifting speeds quickly. I would say every 2-4 weeks. Therefore another way to increase the load on your muscle fibers is to completely eliminate momentum. Studies have shown that it takes several seconds for momentum to be eliminated after lowering a weight. If you pause at the bottom for 1-2 seconds you will have eliminated much of the mechanical advantage and force your muscles to do more of the work. Milos Scarvey due to injuries decided to use this method of training and got phenomenal results for the 1998 Olympia. Also technically if you lift the weight slower than normal then even more of the mechanical advantage will be eliminated. The real point here is to play with repetition speeds! Overview:
a. Accentuate the Negative, studies confirm this to be the most important aspect of hypertrophy training.
b. By increasing the speed of a rep, your body will recruit more IIB motor units. However, after a few weeks the hypertrophy effect of this will diminish.
c. When This Happens, eliminate momentum almost entirely by pausing on the bottom of the rep, thereby forcing your muscles to work harder due to the increased workload. Decreased Momentum = Increased Stress On Your Muscle Fibers.
3. Negative Sets - As I stated, negative repetitions maximally stimulate growth in muscle fibers. It just so happens that a muscle can handle up to 150 percent more weight on the negative then on the positive portion of the reps. This is a conservative number, because one athletes negative strength will be better than another. For example, a power lifter may not focus on the negative because it takes away from momentum and in turn takes away from the maximum amount of weight they can lift. Therefore, " relatively " speaking their negative strength may not be as strong as a bodybuilder's would be. Considering the fact that you can use more weight on a negative, and that fast twitch muscle fibers have a higher threshold, it would make sense to incorporate this method of training. An example of how to begin this, would be to start out 10-15 percent heavier then a certain repetition range's maximum. Say you can lift 250 6 times. You would raise the weight to 280 and only focus on the negative portion of the rep for the same total of repetitions. Of course you will have a training partner taking as much weight as possible off during the concentric portion of the rep. Negative sets are a proven method for targeting dense IIB and IIA fibers!
4. Development of Endurance Properties: As I discussed higher repetition sets recruit more muscle fibers than their lower rep counter parts, but I would like to briefly explain why. Take a one rep max and compare it to a set of 10 reps. For the set of one, your body adapts by recruiting as many motor units as possible, in a synchronized fashion. In addition it does not develop endurance characteristics such as mitochondria( below I will explain how to increase mitochondrial density ). A higher repetition set recruits muscle fibers in the same fashion as my stair example. Which is to say, the body adapts to progressively
recruiting cells, rather than as many as possible as quickly as possible. As you recall, it takes all the way till the end of a set for all muscle fibers to fire together at a maximum frequency. Therefore the fast twitch fibers adapt by acquiring more endurance qualities.
This is excellent, because it allows fast twitch cells to last longer, which increases the amount of time that they are exposed to the stress of resistance, and enhances hypertrophy. You will also find out shortly that these endurance properties are the difference between a bodybuilder continuing to grow way past his so called genetic limits, or for him to plateau so badly that he considers retirement (or decides to just settle for second or even third best of what he was really capable of! )! On another note, training for endurance, and having your body adapt to recruitment of muscle fibers in this fashion can be detrimental to the powerlifter if overused. This is one of the reasons why I have stated that bodybuilding and powerlifting are completely different sports.
5. Time Consideration - If you look at hockey players you will notice that they have absolutely massive legs! This is across the board, almost all athletes in this particular sport have accumulated a tremendous amount of hypertrophy in this specified region. It just so happens that their sport is similar to weight lifting, as far as fast twitch muscle fibers are concerned. They go on the ice and sprint until they have essentially reached failure and then recover on the bench. The typical shift for these athletes lasts between 30-60 seconds of maximum effort. I noticed this myself years and years ago( I'm biased, I used to be a hockey player )! Several weight training coaches have also noticed this for years( 8, 9, 10, 17, ) and it is just now becoming popular main stream. ( In fact I was just reading a study/strength training journal on time under tension by Allen Hedrik ( 17 ) he did an excellent job on the subject! ) The theory is that maximum hypertrophy in fast twitch IIA and B fibers occurs between 30-60 seconds. This is the primary reason why the repetitions above fit this bill, because they usually all fall within this range. Think of 30-45 seconds as 6-8 reps and 46-60 as 9-12 repetitions. This method of training can be applied to almost any activity that causes an athlete to exert a maximum amount of effort within the time frame. One technique this is perfectly applied to is static contraction training or static strip sets. As I have stated in my articles, when using this shocking method, you want to time yourself within this range.
Notice that the illustration discussed above was an activity outside of weight training! Do not be fooled, this can very much be applied to us as bodybuilders. Recently a client of mine's legs had plateaud. I instituted short all out sprinting sessions, lasting 30-60 seconds against high levels of resistance( a higher level on the bike ) and he ripped through his plateau like tinfoil! His quads grew so much that he had to pull out the vitamin E due to the stretch marks he had developed. I don't believe that this will be the traditional style of training for our sport, but it can and will stimulate growth in your fast twitch IIA and B fibers! If you look at sprinters their hamstrings are incredible. Try sprinting for a month to induce hamstring growth and see if they don't explode! Again, apply this principle to whatever activity fits the bill.
7. Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers - The story on working type I cells begins happily, but has a sad ending. The reason why it begins so easily is due to their low thresholds. Which is to say, any low weight exercise immediately recruits slow twitch motor units! If you can recruit them, you can stimulate growth in them! So far so good. The sad ending however is the extreme pain you will have to endure to actually force them to hypertrophy! Believe me, benching 135 pounds might seem like easy money, but lifting it for 100 reps is about as hardcore as a human being can get! The throbbing pain is almost too much to bare! Never the less, that is what it takes. Fail or come close to failure in the repetition range that I discussed above and your slow twitch muscle fibers will give you more mass then you would have believed!
6. Shocking Methods Applied - Shocking Methods have very specific applications to mass. I try to get into detail on what these accomplish through my articles on them. A few are:
1. The larger and stronger your muscle fibers become, the harder it is to stimulate growth in them. Shocking methods extend sets to points that straight sets simply cannot.
2. They allow you to target all three muscle fiber types to their full potential in one fail swoop. Think of it this way, a 8 repetition set may not give you a complete stimulus in your fast twitch fibers. By stripping the weight, you almost ensure complete stimulation across the board. You may also manipulate sets in ways that would be impossible any other way! For example, lets say you wanted to go extremely heavy and super high rep at the same time. Or if you wanted to combine the positive aspects of low rep sets with those of high rep sets. You could easily lift a weight that causes you to fail in the 5 repetition range, then strip to another weight you can only lift 5 reps on, and so on and so forth! Furthermore, compound sets release hormones on a wider response, where as isolation exercises release specific hormones for the particular muscle group worked. By combining a heavy compound with an isolation you will get the best of both worlds. I can go on and on, but it is for this reason that I write entire articles on shocking methods. ( you will also see that they are exceptional at creating density in mitochondria ).
Fast Twitch IIB " Glycolytic Fibers " - These are our power fibers, so working out in the 8-15 repetition range will most certainly develop mitochondrial density here.
Fast Twitch IIA " Oxidative Fibers " - Working out in the 12-25 repetition range will work for these.
Slow Twitch I " Density is best accomplished in the 50 and up range. I would not recommend going past 100 reps.
Rest Time - Remember, your body replaces its energy stores between sets. By occasionally cutting down on rest time you will force your body to become more efficient at producing ATP! Normally I recommend the following rest times, for optimal recovery.
3-5 reps = 3-5 minutes
6-8 reps - 3 minutes
9-12 reps - 1-3 minutes
13-15 reps - 1 minute
15 -25 - 30 seconds to 1 minute
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6'5" 215 lbs @ 9% bf 27 years old
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