weight versus strength

A

Allon

0
Hi everybody,

I have a few questions. I am hearing lots of conflicting information and am slightly confused.

I know that lifting heavy weights with less reps causes more growth. I know also that it is important to do a warmup set and then a heavier set to reach failure for best results.

My question is this:

What about endurance? If I build muscle and do sets of 6-10 reps, or even 10 - 14 reps, what about my endurance? Should I not evry now and then do a few weeks of 20-30 reps? I feel this is important also, it may barely cause the muscles to grow but it seems to me it will keep them safer from injury. Also a week or two of 4 days in the gym working all the body with 20-30 reps would be like a rest from the high intensity of heavier weights.
Anyone agree or disagree?
I can only think that in those weeks of doing high reps, I will lose my progress and when going back to heavier weights I will be weaker (even though endurance wise I will be stronger) but this would also work visa versa...
I thought of combining the two in the same workout (1 set of 20-30 reps and then the same exersize but with lower reps and heavier weights) but I imagine I would be very tired from doping so many reps and also when doing heavier reps you only work the muscle about every 4 days which would mean my endurance progress would be pretty slow...

Anyway I have many more questions on the subject but I will add them to a different thread as this is getting confusing already.

So what do you guys think?
 
dont combine them in the same workout - a workout should have a speific goal, whether that be spee, strength, endurance etc.

But as for taking a week out every now and then to switch up the routine ... god thinking! go for it!

I am gonna try doing that myself - 1 week of high rep/low weight in between every couple of months of low rep/high weight.

I dont know if a high rep week will make me weaker or stronger for the next low rep session, but i wouldnt expect it to make much change. i will let you know how it goes!
 
Thanks for the reply Alex! :)

I am wondering how much a high rep workout should be, how many reps and sets... What do you think? I was thinking 1 set of 30 a second of 20 with a higher weight and a third of 15 with the same weight as the second set or maybe more.
 
to build mass, you dont necessarily have to do reps that low. the program i am on right now is supposedly great for building mass, and it does 10 sets of 10 for each compound movement...low reps do also build mass, though...
 
10 times 10 is nicknamed the german technique as far as I know, it sounds like it can easily cause injury.
Do you lift the same amount of weight for each set, and how many times a week do you work a muscle group?
 
it is called german volume training. the idea is to do 10 sets of 10 with the same weight, 60-90 seconds between sets. as for how often to do it...there is some variation, but hers how i do it:

day 1: chest and back
day 2: legs and abs
day 3: rest
day 4: biceps, triceps, and shoulders
day 5: rest

after day 5, go back to day 1.

as for risk of injury...it puts the muscles through a lot of abuse...obviously, some precautions should be taken to reduce the risk of injury. if you havent been lifting for very long, i would not advise going on this program yet. Dont stay on this program for more than about 4-6 weeks. and most of all, use proper form.

here is a great article on GVT:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/charles3.htm

scrroll down the page a few paragraphs to find the article.
 
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