Looking for some veteran input on a theory.

So, you read and hear so much about working in rep ranges of 1-5, 6-8 and 12+ and how those different ranges work different muscle fibers. 1-5 is heavy to build strength, 6-8 is medium for size and 12+ is light for endurance. If I'm lifting a 5x5 chest routine on Monday, who's to say that I can't go lift a 6-8 medium weight rep range for chest on Tuesday because I'm hitting "different muscle fibers" and that be all the chest I do that week. According to the "experts", you would be hitting different fibers, so doing chest two days in a row shouldn't matter, and you would be gaining size and strength at the same time. Then you could turn around and do the same for back and legs on Thursday and Friday. I'm saying all of this with a dash of sarcasm intended because I'm sick of seeing people argue constantly about over training and how what rep ranges work what and what you can and can't do on a daily basis. According to their theories, this should work, but somebody would argue that it wouldn't, simply because you are hitting chest two days in a row.

P.S. - I don't really believe in "over training" in the sense that people now speak of it, seeing as my grandfather build cinder block houses from the ground up day in and day out his whole life and had arms as big around as my legs well into his 80's.

P.S.S. - Don't spam me with talks of doing TRX and hiring a personal trainer. I don't need to buy any knock-off sunglasses either.
 
The rep ranges are sort of a classic ballpark that don't always stay consistent. They provide a good base, though. However, 6-8 reps is considered to be the hypertrophy range, not strength.

So, no, you're not actually hitting different muscle fibers by doing a different number of reps. You're training the same fibers for different outcomes. Even if you were to do the high-rep endurance training, it would still largely be the same muscle fibers you'd be working.

That being said, doubling up on a particular muscle group but with different number of reps is still best avoided, as you won't be allowing the muscle to have adequate recovery time.
 
However, 6-8 reps is considered to be the hypertrophy range, not strength.

That's what I said. "1-5 is heavy to build strength, 6-8 is medium for size and 12+ is light for endurance."



I could have bet my paycheck that someone was going to use "adequate recovery time" at some point lol. I agree though. I don't double up on lifts. I just come across blogs and articles that constantly contradict themselves with all of these "facts". Personally, it doesn't make a difference to me whether I work in the 1-5 or 6-8 range. If I eat enough, I'm putting it on, so I typically stay in the 1-5 to maintain/keep strength. If I want endurance, I'll sprint or work on the heavy bag.
 
One key thing to remember with rep ranges is that they're a sliding scale. "3x5 is strength but 3x6 is hypertrophy" is general silliness in my view. I mean, they're 1 rep per set apart, they aren't going to have vastly different outcomes. I actually think that people misunderstand strength when they say that one rep range trains it and another doesn't. Let's be realistic, if I can squat 10x100kg today, and a month from now I can squat 10x110kg, I'm stronger. In the real extreme, if my 1RM squat is 150kg and I can consequently do widowmakers (20 rep squats) at 90kg, and then I spend a year strictly doing widowmakers (or repeating the same weight until I can do it for 20 reps), and get my widowmaker up to 150kg, there is no doubt in the world that my 1RM squat is going to be above 150kg. It may not be as high as if I'd trained specifically for it, but it's definitely going to have improved. And I'll have more muscle mass to accommodate that higher weight, too. So, that's strict "endurance" training, having caused hypertrophy and having elevated max strength. In the same way, max strength training improves endurance, although not as directly or effectively as endurance training. If my 1RM today is 80kg and in 12 months it's 150kg, I will definitely be able to do 80kg for more than 1 rep, although perhaps not for as many reps as if I'd focused on endurance training.

All of that is to say that the premise of the question is wrong.

I will note that you can train the same lifts/muscle groups multiple days in a row. Whether or not you should is a different matter and there are far too many variables to give a distinct yea or nay, but it can be done -- and productively -- in the right circumstances. There are 3 very basic training variables: volume, intensity and frequency. Most people can progress fairly well as beginners with a moderate dose of all of the above (in fact, most beginners can't handle high volume or high intensity, and lack the discipline to properly benefit from high frequency, so a moderate dose is often the best thing for a beginner). At an intermediate level, most people can handle 1 of the above being high and 2 being moderate, or 2 being high and 1 being low, while having all 3 at high will typically result in burnout, and having all 3 at low or moderate will typically result in under-training. High frequency training is not something that's often looked at from a bodybuilding perspective, however it does have it's place in the strength sports, and is often used by Olympic weightlifters across a variety of methods. There's the Bulgarian lifters, who, IIRC, pretty much just snatch, clean, jerk, and front squat or back squat up to a daily max (noting that accumulating fatigue from session to session will mean that today's max may be lower than yesterday's max), then deload by stripping back the volume for a couple of weeks and letting a great big wave of super-compensation carry them into gainsville before starting the brutal self-hate all over again. So it certainly can be done, however it may not be ideal for your goals, and it takes lots of time to build up that weekly work capacity.

RPE is another thing to consider. This is another measure of intensity, but instead of measuring intensity by %1RM, you're measuring intensity by how close you come to failure, with an RPE of 1/10 being the amount of exertion required to lie in a coma, 10/10 being an absolute rep-max, 9/10 being 1 rep left in the tank, 8/10 being a couple reps left, and 7/10 being light enough that you could get fairly high bar speed on the final rep (if you choose to). You can read more about that by looking up RTS (reactive training systems), although RPE has been around for much longer than RTS. The more frequently you train, the more you'll want to play around with RPE. If you were to train the same lifts 5 days a week, it might play out like this throughout the week (day:RPE): 1:10, 2:6, 3:8, 4:5, 5:9. That's two heavy days, one moderate day, and two light days. The light days allow you to get more practice, without increasing fatigue much (and possibly causing active recovery). How much skill development you need will often have a say on how often you train. The more technical the training, the more skill is required, and skill is developed through constant practice, although that practice doesn't always have to be intense.

It's generally considered that for hypertrophy, it's more important to hit a muscle hard than it is to hit it often. This is probably increasingly true as a lifter progresses, needing greater stimulus to provide results, and needing greater recovery to make use of that stimulus. There's always discussion over how long that rest should be. Again, you could train the same muscles/lifts most days of the week, although that may not be so great for hypertrophy purposes. It's generally recommended that beginners and intermediates train the same muscles/movements 2-3 times a week, with 1-2 days recovery between sessions. From what I hear, the whole once a week 5-day split program design has its origins in anabolic steroids, which (supposedly) increase the amount of time a muscle can spend growing after a stimulus. Apparently, after a couple days, without steroids your muscles will be done growing, and will thus not be doing anything until stimulated for growth again. On the other hand, providing the same stimulus twice or three times a week does not appear to provide two or three times the mass.

All in all, I hope that something I've written here has been insightful, or at least bears some semblence of accuracy; if not, enjoy my otherwise inane waffling.
 
That's what I said. "1-5 is heavy to build strength, 6-8 is medium for size and 12+ is light for endurance."



I could have bet my paycheck that someone was going to use "adequate recovery time" at some point lol. I agree though. I don't double up on lifts. I just come across blogs and articles that constantly contradict themselves with all of these "facts". Personally, it doesn't make a difference to me whether I work in the 1-5 or 6-8 range. If I eat enough, I'm putting it on, so I typically stay in the 1-5 to maintain/keep strength. If I want endurance, I'll sprint or work on the heavy bag.

Sorry about that. I totally glazed over and misread and thought you said "6-8 is for medium strength".
 
OK here is a slightly different take on the rep ranges and what they do. The facts are in here but I added humour and analogy to avoid readers dozing off or losing the will to live.

Three types of muscle fibres, the number you have of each is genetically defined, you cannot increase their volume, only their mass or condition.
Red fibres, or slow twitch, Red because they are full of blood and run predominantly on aerobic energy.
White fibres, or fast twitch, lack of colouring is due to them using more fuel from anaerobic sources. Remember however the blood still pays for the energy used eventually.
Pink fibres, girlie colour and typically indecisive, can be converted to work like either red or white fibres, but this is a choice that takes time to convert to.

There are some interesting rumour about one type of fibre being stronger than another etc. Please try to ignore these and view it as below.
All muscle fibres can lift the same but they do it in different ways. For the sake of this each fibre lifts 100 grams in a minute, this is for representation only the concept is right the numbers are nonesense.
Red fibres lift thier 100 grams 10 at a time, and recover most of their strength within the minute so they tire slowly and keep lifting 10 grams at a time until this has to drop to 9, 8 etc. For example we will say this drops 1 every 10 minutes.
White fibres can lift their load all at once but after doing so need the rest of the minute to recover. Again we will say they drop 10 grams a minute every 10 minutes.

Building strength into the muscles they will gain it suited to their type.
Reds will be stronger in each movement and recover faster due to improved blood flow, so over time you could be moving 15 grams per fibre 10 times a minute and recovery will drop this 1 every 15 minutes.
Whites will be able to lift 150 grams at a time and take only 55 seconds to recover. They still drop 10 grams ever 10 minutes though.
Add to the mix that pink fibres will be switching to what ever is needed and that means your training direction means more transient fibres working as red or whites.

The final confusion otherwise known as the all or none rule. Muscle fibres are recruited in this manner so when you summon one it gives all it can every time. Half effort means half the fibres used, not each doing half it's max.
!RM work means recruiting every fibre available regardless of colour, yes reds help out when told to even on power work, but only 10 grams at a time.
As the reps increase the number recruited at a time drops. Up to 5 at max this generally means at the end of a set you have fried the lot and need a long recovery. Damage from this is serious and gains are more in stregth than size.
6 to 10 range represents a longer set so by the time you reach the end some of those used in earlier sets are recovering and some may be recruited again. Rest times can be shorter and damage is less severe meaning this is better for building.
Higher rep ranges mean the body can use more reds and that they will be recovering in time to keep helping, the fatigue you get will be when the whites start to give out.
Real long duration high rep work like distance running, each stride is a rep, mean the body only has to recruit small numbers of fibres at a time and you can keep going far longer. Whites do still help out especailly if you put in a sprint at the end.

If you are still awake and think you are sane, you may want to re-evaluate, and congratulations on being almost as sad and boring as I am.

In summary the factors controlling why the different rep ranges do different things are due to the effect on individual fibres, especially those indecisive pink girlies and influenced by the all or none rule.

Over-training and recovery are totally dependant on what you want from your training. If you want optimum growth you have to allow for full recovery as muscle will repair first and grow after, it has to. If you want ability first and appearance second you will still want to allow sufficient recovery to get the best balance. If you are a bit strange and just love training and couldn't give a rat's posterior how you look, do what you like and ache like hell forever more.

This from someone who has over-trained virtually non-stop for over 2 decades and gained in muscle size and condition what would take someone with my genetics and more aesthetic leaning at most 5 or 6 years. Basic message, choose what is important, then choose your training.
 
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