When starting a weight-lifting program, often a the first questions or concerns are:
“HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD I BE LIFTING?”
“WILL I GET BULKY/MUSCULAR IF I LIFT TOO HEAVY?”
This video will help to answer those questions
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Here is a cliff notes section of different rep ranges
Low Reps (1-5 reps) : Generally, exercising for low reps emphasizes muscular strength and neurological improvements.
In other words: Your gains are more strength than size or endurance.
Medium Reps (6-12 reps) : When you lift for medium reps, you get some strength, but not as much. Your body responds by increasing muscular size, primarily.
In other words: Your gains are more size and endurance than strength.
High Reps (13-20+ reps): When you lift for high reps, you get little strength, but more endurance. Each repetition doesn’t require that much strength, so your body doesn’t require better neurological efficiency or muscular size.
In other words: Your gains are more endurance than size or strength.
Comments
comments
Regarding hypertrophy, have you gals read the recent studies that say that a lower load lifted to failure results in similar hypertrophy as a heavy load lifted to failure? What do y’all think of that?
Here’s a site that summarizes it: http://www.danogborn.com/training/30/
Citations for the studies:
Mitchell, CJ et al. (2012). Resistance exercise load does not determine training-mediated hypertrophic gains in young men. Journal of Applied Physiology. 113(1):71-7.
Burd, NA et al. (2010). Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men. PLoS One. 5(8).