Research on Muscle Hypertrophy

I am going to talk about what the research says about how to maximize muscle hypertrophy. So we're going to be breaking down this systematic review about how to maximize muscle hypertrophy.

This is a systematic review, so it takes into account 30 other studies, and it kind of points towards the broader principles of how to maximize muscle hypertrophy. So in the first part, we're going to talk about the mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy. And then in the second part, we're going to actually talk about the training methods that maximize those mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy.

So we'll start with this quote here, that effective hypertrophy oriented resistance training should comprise a combination of mechanical tension and metabolic stress. So these two mechanisms of mechanical tension and metabolic stress combine to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and result in muscle hypertrophy. So you might be wondering, what is mechanical tension? And here's what the research says about mechanical tension.

(Mechanically induced tension produced by both force generation and stretch is considered essential to muscle growth. A combination of these stimuli appears to have a pronounced additive effect. This means that resistance training that involves mechanical overload is a key driver of muscle hypertrophy.

And when we get to training methods, we'll talk about which training methods are most effective for increasing mechanical tension. Another key driver of muscle hypertrophy is metabolic stress. Metabolic stress manifests as a result of exercise that relies on anaerobic glycolysis for ATP production, which results in subsequent buildup of metabolites such as lactate, hydrogen ion, inorganic phosphate, creatine, and others.

What this means is that when we're doing resistance training and we're using our anaerobic systems for energy production, we have a buildup of these metabolites, which have an anabolic hypertrophic effect. It's a combination of mechanical tension and metabolic stress that we have to get from our resistance training workouts and our overall resistance training program to result in the most muscle hypertrophy. Okay, so now you might be wondering, what does the research say about the training methods that specifically lead to the best outcomes in muscle hypertrophy? So this systematic review specifically points out that these three methods are particularly beneficial for time efficient training.

Agonist antagonist or upper lower body supersets. This is a training method where you're working opposite muscle groups of the lower body or upper body, or you're combining one upper body movement with one lower body movement. This training method is particularly time effective because while one muscle group is resting, the other muscle group is working.

This allows for short rest periods and higher metabolic stress. There are a ton of different combinations of supersets that you can use. For example, working your quads and your hamstrings, working your biceps and your triceps or your pecs and your back.

But working this combination of agonist antagonist or upper and lower body supersets has been demonstrated to be a time effective method for improving muscle hypertrophy. Additionally, both drop sets and cluster sets have been shown to be effective. A drop set is whenever you perform an exercise with a higher resistance and then you drop the load or the resistance down as you continue through the sets.

For example, you may be doing a leg press with four plates on each side and then you drop it to three plates and two plates to minimize the rest period. A cluster set is a little bit different. That's when we're breaking down a big set into mini sets.

So for example, instead of doing a set of 15 on leg press, you could do three sets of five with a very short rest period in between. And what the systematic review showed is that both the drop sets and the cluster set method are time effective methods for increasing metabolic stress and therefore hypertrophy. This systematic review also demonstrates that the combination of high load resistance training with low load blood flow restriction training can be an effective method for increasing time efficiency and metabolic stress.

Blood flow restriction training is a method where we occlude venous return of blood from an extremity while doing training. For example, we could use a blood flow restriction cuff on the upper arm and then do bicep curls and we're going to impair the venous return of blood from the bicep during that bicep curl. This can increase the metabolic stress even at a very low load.

This method has been shown to be effective for not only the peripheral muscle groups like the bicep, but also for proximal groups, for example, if you're doing a chest press with a blood flow restriction cuff on the arm. In order to use this method, you would want to look more into the research on how we occlude blood flow safely and how we load this effectively. However, what this is saying with the systematic review is that over a large body of evidence, it has been shown to be effective for maximizing the mechanism of increasing mechanical tension.

This systematic review showed that accentuated eccentric training can be an effective solution. Accentuated eccentric training is a training method where we use more load on the eccentric portion of the exercise than we do on the concentric portion of the exercise. There are many ways to employ this method, but what this is showing is that it is an effective method and it has been demonstrated as such over many studies.

The reason that eccentric overload can be effective is that during eccentric contractions passive muscular tension develops because of lengthening of extracellular elements, especially collagen content in the extracellular matrix and titin. Let's give you a visual for what that means. If we look at a sarcomere, which is just at the microscopic level, what muscle looks like, what this is saying is that eccentric training can have an effect on other components, not just the actin and the myosin.

For example, the titin that's connecting the myosin to the z-line is not a contractile protein, but it is a protein that can have damage and can have a hypertrophic response. So by having this eccentric passive tension element of our training, we can actually effectively stimulate more protein synthesis. Now an important point that I want to mention is that although drop sets, cluster sets, eccentric overload training have all been demonstrated to be effective, we don't need to include those in every phase of training.

It's not very realistic that every program is going to have each of these elements in it. It's more important to realize that these are just individual tools and they can be used to achieve the primary outcome of progressive overload in the program. It would actually be a bad idea to try to incorporate all of these at once into your training or just randomly go between them because the body needs a consistent overload.

You'll be better served focusing on one block of training that's focused on mechanical tension and doing higher loads at a moderate volume and employing one or two of these methods for a few weeks and then going into a block of training that's higher volume and focused on metabolic stress, but not doing that necessarily year round. Incorporating blocks of training with different volumes, different intensities and different methods and cycling between them year round will help you avoid plateaus from trying to do everything at once. Lastly, I want to cover one very important topic from this research study, which is volume.

A quote from this research study reads, Evidence indicates that significant muscle growth occurs when the majority of training sets are performed with about 3-4 repetitions in reserve, with moderate to high load. This study suggests that although the ACSM guidelines recommend 1-3 sets per exercise with 8-12 reps, 70-85% of 1RM, that the recent literature shows a much wider range of training options. Several studies have found that training with low loads, 30-60% 1RM, result in similar hypertrophy to training with moderate and high loads, greater than 60% 1RM, when volitional fatigue occurs.

So what this recent study is showing is that there's probably a wider range of loading that we can utilize than we previously thought in terms of maximizing muscle hypertrophy. Meaning that previously we didn't think that loading at 50% 1RM for high reps near failure was very effective for muscle hypertrophy, however, recent evidence is suggesting that it could be. That said, I think we need to consider that it's really only a significant driver of muscle hypertrophy if we're near failure.

We can't use low load and do 10 reps when we could have done 30 because that's not effective. That's really just junk volume. One important quote that I think really sums this up well is the following.

 

Evidence indicates that significant muscle growth occurs when the majority of training sets are performed with 3-4 repetitions in reserve. So what does that mean, 3-4 repetitions in reserve? That means that with whatever load you're using, the exercise could only be performed for about 3-4 more reps before you would reach failure. This would be roughly equivalent to a 6-7 RPE rating of perceived exertion.

The big takeaway that I want you guys to have from this is that hypertrophy training does require higher volumes than strength training for example, but it's important that we're staying about 3-4 repetitions in reserve, we're not going all the way to failure on our sets, and we're also not loading so low that it's not very difficult. While we can load across a larger spectrum of resistance, we want to make sure that we're reaching that sweet spot of intensity with each of our sets.

How actually Stretching works?

What Is Stretching? Typically, athletes stretch before physical activity to avoid injuries like muscle strains and tears.

But does stretching actually prevent these issues? And if so, how long do the benefits of stretching last? To answer these questions, we need to know what's actually happening in the body when we stretch. There are two kinds of stretching our athlete might be doing— dynamic stretches, which are controlled movements that engage a range of muscles throughout the motion, and static stretches, where the stretcher holds a position to keep specific muscles at a fixed length and tension.  A static hamstring stretch— a 30-second interval where athletes pull hamstring beyond its usual range of motion.

However, while we often think of stretching a muscle like stretching a rubber band, muscles are actually activated of various tissue types which interact to make a complex forum of stability. Rubber is elastic, meaning it resists being stretched and then returns to its original shape. But muscle is viscoelastic.

This means that in addition to those elastic qualities, muscle length changes under the stress of being stretched. At the large scale hamstring stretch pulls on layers of protective tissue surrounding the muscle fibers, as well as the tendons that connect this muscle to nearby bones.

These tissues contain elastic proteins like collagen and elastin, which allow them to slightly elongate over the duration of the stretch. At the smaller scale, the skeletal muscle fibers are comprised of millions of sarcomeres, the smallest contracting unit of muscle tissue. Sarcomeres' long, fibrous proteins can relax to elongate muscle fibers, or they can contract to shorten them, pulling on tendons and protective tissue to create the force propelling athlete's body.

And when those tissues have been stretched out, they retain their strength at longer lengths, allowing athletes to take full advantage of improved range of motion. Unlike a rubber band, this muscle's resistance to stretching decreases with each 30-second stretch, allowing athletes to continually elongate hamstring. And this improved flexibility likely decreases the chance of incurring certain muscle injuries.

But due to muscle's elastic properties, this effect will be gone in just 10 minutes without further activity. The exercise from his match should elevate his muscle's temperature and continue elongating the muscle, maintaining his increased flexibility. But once he gives his hamstrings a break, they'll retract back to their previous state.

So if all this is just temporary, how can you permanently improve your flexibility? For skeletal muscles, improved flexibility comes from additional sarcomeres, which allows to maintain strength at even greater lengths. Sarcomeres are added and subtracted to muscles depending on how frequently they're used. So improving overall flexibility requires a comprehensive stretching regimen.

Plus, athletes need to stretch often—very often. Current research suggests at least 10 minutes a day for roughly two months. And since it's unsafe to hold any stretch for too long, it's recommended that you break up your stretching within any given session.

Frequent stretching also makes lasting changes to your brain. The more you stretch a muscle, the higher your pain threshold becomes, allowing you to stretch further and further. Long-term improvements to your flexibility can provide a better range of motion for your joints, potentially reducing your risk of muscle injury in the short and long term.

But it's also possible to stretch too much, as flexible people can move their joints in potentially dangerous ways. Stretching also isn't helpful for every kind of movement, especially those where muscle injuries aren't very common. For example, long-distance running only involves a small range of motion for the joints involved, so stretching is unlikely to prevent that sport's most common injuries.

When it comes down to it, different lifestyles require different kinds of mobility, and no single stretching regimen is flexible enough to fit every situation.

Truth about Vegan Diet

Veganism has exploded in popularity across the world. For some, it's out of sympathy for animals, but increasingly, many are swapping diets due to the environmental and health claims. But are these claims even accurate? Like, does going vegan actually make a noticeable difference on the planet, or are those impacts over-exaggerated? And is it even healthy at all? Or is the lack of animal proteins and nutrients actually detrimental to your body? While a lot of claims have been made over the years, our access to good quality studies has only really just started to become accessible.

So let's dive in. First up, is going vegan better for the environment? The answer is super simple, yes. Point blank, yes. 

Avoiding meat and dairy products has a major impact on the environment. Study after study after study has found that a vegan diet, as compared to a full-on meat-eating or omnivorous diet, or even a vegetarian diet, uses less land, conserves more water, and produces less greenhouse gases, by about 70 to 80% compared to omnivorous diets. And that's a huge difference.

Now, that's not to say every vegan food is created equal. Milk is the best for the environment, and even there you can see that something like almond milk takes a lot more water to create than other alternatives. But on the whole, transitioning to a vegan or even vegetarian diet will significantly decrease your personal impact on the planet.

Of course, simply reducing your meat and dairy consumption can also make a difference, so it doesn't have to be so black and white. But full stop, a vegan diet is better for the environment and the future of our planet. All right, on to the more complicated subject of diet.

Interestingly, some of the first athletes on a strict plant-based diet were the gladiators. All fighters' diets contained large amounts of legumes, pulses, and grains, and contained little to no animal protein. But it's only recently that research has delved into the question of whether or not a vegan diet cannot only enhance athletic ability, but bolster overall health in the long term.

One of the big questions that comes up a lot is did we evolve as vegetarians or meat eaters? I mean, we've got these sharp canine teeth that look just perfect for digging into flesh, though large canines are not exclusive to carnivorous animals. It's thought they likely evolved more for intimidation and competition among mates as well as defense rather than for eating meat. And if we look at the diets of modern primates, the ones we're closely related to, like chimps, orangutans, and gorillas, you'll see that most of them have totally plant-based diets.

I love thinking about chimps being hipster vegans, like, oh, you don't have any soy milk, awkward. But seriously, if gorillas can get this jacked without the need for animal proteins, surely we're not meant to be eating meat. I mean, look at those muscles.

Because we branch off the same evolutionary tree as our primate contemporaries, surely we're also primarily vegetarian. We've also got bumpy colons, which sounds very glamorous, whereas carnivorous animals typically have a smooth colon.

But despite all these facts, the truth is there is no denying that our species turn to eating meat regularly. In fact, scientists estimate that our ancestors started eating meat around two million years ago, long before homo sapiens even existed. We've even found fossilized animal bones that were cut up for dinner that are around 2.5 million years old.

It's theorized that somewhere along the way, our environment changed. We weren't in a tropical forest anymore and didn't have access to as many plants that we could stomach. So we turned to meat to supplement that loss.

And of course, there are many theories about how meat shaped the human brain. But for now, all we need to know is that while we do come from plant eaters, we have been eating meat for millions of years. As long as we've been human, we've been eating meat.

So then, can we survive without meat at all? Some people might tell you that you simply can't get enough protein without meat, but that's really not true. You can get tons of protein from whole grains, nuts and beans, and for most people, this is more than enough. In fact, most research finds protein deficiency extremely rare, except in people who are simply not eating enough calories.

But what research has found is missing from a vegan diet is B12. Vitamin B12 is required by animals for a whole host of biological pathways and for normal functioning. And the thing is, you cannot get B12 from any vegetables.

There's zero B12 in a salad. You can find it in beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, et cetera. And studies find that B12 deficiencies are a big problem for a lot of vegans and vegetarians.

When your levels are low, it can impact brain functioning, energy, and mood, and at worst, it can cause full-on hallucinations. I mean, if that's what you're going for, maybe just try some psilocybin instead.

So if you're only consuming fruits and vegetables, it'll likely become a problem. Luckily, supplements are a thing. You can literally just take B12 pills and then you never have to worry about this.

The same can be said for other nutrient deficiencies that tend to pop up for vegans, like iron or omega-3s. There's even a ton of foods that are fortified with these to make vegan diets less of a risk. But another area that brings up some concern is bone strength.

If you grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, then you're more than aware of the many campaigns touting the health benefits of milk. Calcium is an essential part of the human diet because it helps your muscles and nerves function properly and keeps your bones good and strong. And when you don't have enough in your diet, your body actually ends up pulling it from your bones, which can potentially make your bones more likely to break.

Hence, cow's milk, which naturally contains calcium and is absorbed easily into the body, is often promoted for good, strong bones. And a research study from 2020 backed this up when it found that vegans have a much higher risk of breaking their bones than meat eaters. This was a study that followed around 2,000 vegans and compared them to non-vegans over the course of a few decades, and their risk of bone breaks was basically twice as likely.

But here's the weird part. When we look at countries that simply don't drink as much milk as a whole, this pattern doesn't hold. For example, in West Africa, consumption of dairy isn't that common, and yet they have extremely low rates of osteoporosis, like a fraction of a percent.

And a study that compared 40 countries' consumption of dairy also found that those who had little milk were not any more likely to break their hips. Even studies within the same country have found confusing results. When comparing heavy milk drinkers to light milk drinkers, there's really not a clear link between bone strength and breakage.

The truth is dairy isn't the only way to consume calcium. It's in lots of veggies like kale, bok choy, and broccoli, and there's even fortified foods like orange juice and cereal that contain it. But for vegans, even when studies account for calcium intake, those who were eating lots of calcium were still more likely to break bones.

So perhaps there is another environmental or situational factor outside of diet that's playing a role here and is yet unknown. It's worth bringing up that most of this data is on adults, and studies that do look at kids are much more clear-cut. Kids that drink milk break fewer bones than those who don't.

Finally, on the bad side, research has found that both vegans and vegetarians are at a higher risk for stroke. However, the overall risk is small, around three extra cases per 1,000 people over 10 years, and this particular study had many limitations, including quite a small sample, so it's difficult to draw major conclusions from it. So are there any specific health benefits to going vegan? Definitely.

A study on over 90,000 people found that vegans are less likely to develop high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and are more likely to live longer. A vegan diet lowers cholesterol, and many of these foods contain a lot of antioxidant phytonutrients and nitrates versus some animal products which contain more pro-inflammatory fats. These anti-inflammatory effects are believed to be the reason vegan diets seem to minimize some autoimmune diseases.

In fact, Venus Williams, who suffers from Sjogren's syndromes, credits her vegan diet with minimizing the extreme fatigue associated with her condition. Some studies have even found a vegan diet to be one of the healthiest, outperforming even pescatarian and vegetarian diets, likely because of its higher fruit, vegetable, and legume intake. There was up to a 32% lower risk among those with the highest intake of plant-based foods for cardiovascular disease, even after adjusting for age, sex, race, education, health behaviors, alcohol intake, and exercise.

So yes, on average, the health of vegans does tend to be better. Of course, it's also possible that vegans are just generally more health-conscious to begin with. Vegans do tend to smoke less, drink less alcohol, and exercise more, and whether it's something bad in meat and dairy or helpful in all the extra veggies is yet to be determined.

Of course, it's worth pointing out that it's just as easy to be an unhealthy vegan, with all the options for junk and processed food nowadays, so in no way does going vegan necessitate a healthier diet automatically. The biggest question remaining is, can it make you a better athlete? A Nermy study following 8,000 runners from across Europe comparing meat-eaters, vegans, and vegetarians is currently testing this idea of improved endurance. Because veganism may boost immunity and aid in recovery and rehabilitation from injury, a lot of athletes are keen to take advantage of these perks.

Veggies like beetroot contain nitrates that aid in blood flow and oxygen transport through the body, but the problem right now is simply the lack of good data. There is very little data to support these claims right now, so studies are ongoing. At the very least, it's been shown that a well-planned vegan diet does meet the nutritional requirements for endurance athletes.

In other words, it's just as good at the very least as an omnivorous diet, whether it's optimal is yet to be determined. At the end of the day, what can we conclude from the available research? Well, on the one hand, a vegan diet is unequivocally better for the environment. And while it's a whole other conversation to talk about the responsibility of corporations and institutions versus individuals, as an individual, it is a simple step that you can take to minimize your impact, if that matters to you.

When it comes to diet, at worst, there could be some setbacks to your health, but those can typically be mitigated through careful planning and supplementation, and at best, it may actually be better for your overall health and well-being if you put in the effort to do it with intention and health in mind. I hope this video has been eye-opening for those of you who are curious. I know there's a lot of concern around companies capitalizing on claims that may or may not be exaggerated.

I think it's totally fair to be skeptical. The vegan market is estimated to hit 24 billion by 2026. 

Heavy Weight Training vs. Light Weight Training

Should you use lightweight or heavyweight to build muscle faster? Everyone seems to have their own opinion on this topic. Some believe that high reps and bodyweight calisthenic type exercises are best. Meanwhile, others swear that low rep heavyweight training is better for faster muscle growth.

So today I want to go over which style of training will lead to the best results for you personally based on the scientific data rather than just giving you another opinion. To actually find out the answer, we first have to be clear on what training intensity is. In exercise science, training intensity refers to the percentage of your one rep maximum that you can train with.

So if you were using 100% of your one rep max, that would mean that you're using a weight load that's so heavy that you can only complete one rep and no more. On the other hand, 80% of your one rep max would be a weight load that you could probably rep out for seven to eight reps before hitting failure. And each training intensity level, whether it's 70, 80, or 90% correlates with a certain rep count based on data gathered from many strength training studies.

And you can see all that data simplified in the table that you see in front of you now. As you can see, it's pretty obvious that if you train with less weight or a smaller (1:11) percentage of your one rep max, you'll be able to do more reps. But if you train with heavier weights or a larger percentage of your one rep max, you'll only be able to perform fewer reps.

Pretty straightforward. So let's see why some lifters claim that you should train with lightweights if you want to maximize muscle growth and why they recommend that you perform anywhere from 15 up to 25 reps per set. Well, first, the high rep crowd claims that lightweights and high reps are better because they create a lot of metabolic stress, which is a physiological process that happens during resistance training as a response to low energy levels inside the cell that leads to metabolite accumulation such as lactate, inorganic phosphate and hydrogen ions.

Second, training with high reps many times feels more effective. I mean, you get a huge pump and you can see your muscles blow up when you look in the gym mirror. So it must be the ideal training style, right? Well, not necessarily.

There's nothing magical about doing lightweight high rep pump training. It's not a bad strategy for muscle growth either. And many popular bodybuilders rely primarily on lightweight training.

But there's nothing magical about it. For example, several studies found that you can build the same amount of muscle with low, moderate and high reps. Diving deeper into the data, research shows that very high rep sets where you only use 30% of your one rep max can stimulate as much muscle growth as a traditional bodybuilding rep range where you use 80% of your one rep max.

But please, before you assume you can use any weight load or any rep range to build muscle, hear me out because it's not as simple in real life as these studies that are done in a controlled lab setting. Specifically, there are three important things to keep in mind. First, very low rep training such as doing one or two reps per set is very unlikely to be optimal for muscle growth.

We can see this play out in a study that found that doing eight heavy sets of one rep max outs led to worse results than eight sets of eight to 12 reps. So make sure you select a weight load that allows you to squeeze out at least three reps per set if you want to maximize muscle growth. Second, training with very heavy loads for low reps happens to be much more stressful on your joints and connective tissues compared to training with a moderate or a high rep range.

Even if you look at the studies that found that people who trained with low reps gained the same amount of muscle, you also usually see that they had a higher injury rate as well. So very low rep training might not be ideal if you have aches or pains in your joints or if there's some other reason that makes you more susceptible to injuries. Also, even if you like to train with really heavy weight for a low amount of reps, I would recommend doing that for isolation exercises like bicep curls or lateral raises because simply it's very difficult to maintain proper form when doing these isolation movements with heavy weights and you're much more likely to cheat and use momentum.

Compound exercises like the squat, bench press, and deadlift on the other hand can be performed with heavier weight loads and for lower reps without issue as long as you maintain proper form and aim for at least 3 reps. Now let's look at the other end of the spectrum at high reps. Right away we find our third issue with selecting any random rep range.

To build the same amount of muscle with high rep sets as you would with moderate rep sets, you would have to train to failure. Research indicates that if you don't train to failure with those higher rep sets, you won't reap the full benefits. Since most people don't have the stamina to grind out 5 sets to failure with a very light weight of let's say 30% of your 1 rep max, it tends to be better to do more sets in moderate and lower rep ranges.

I mean think about it, if you're using about 30% of your 1 rep max, you'll be able to rep anywhere between roughly 25-35 reps. Are you going to have the stamina to do that for 5 sets? Also, will you be able to keep your mind focused for 25-35 reps without giving up or resorting to horrible form before you actually hit failure? Imagine right now, even if you did 50% of your 1 rep max for an exercise like squats and tried to do as many reps as possible, you'd probably be completely wiped out after just 1 set. With all that said, don't avoid high rep training altogether, or any rep range for that matter.

You can use higher rep sets for isolation exercises like lateral raises or bicep curls where excessive fatigue isn't as much of an issue. And research actually shows that you'll grow more muscle when you train with a variety of rep ranges instead of always trying to hit the same number of reps every set. The reason for this is that different rep ranges emphasize different muscle building pathways in the body.

High rep training for example primarily triggers the metabolic stress pathway, which like I mentioned before is a process that causes very low energy levels within the cell and leads to the accumulation of lactate, phosphate, and hydrogen ions. All of this has its benefits for muscle growth. On top of that, high rep training is also better for training your slow twitch muscle fibers, which are fibers that aren't as strong as fast twitch fibers, but they're more resilient to fatigue.

Low rep heavyweight training on the other hand creates high amounts of mechanical tension and that stimulates muscle growth in a different way. It activates specialized proteins in muscle cells known as mechanosensors, which in turn kick off a cascade of genetic and hormonal signals that stimulate your body to build new muscle tissue. Those mechanosensors are only activated by very high levels of tension, which is why it's beneficial to also include low rep heavyweight training into your workout routine.

Again, usually higher than 3 reps is best for low rep sets for injury prevention and faster muscle building progress. Aside from providing higher mechanical tension, low reps and heavyweights are also more effective for training fast twitch muscle fibers, which are muscle fibers that can generate a lot of force, but they also tire out very quickly. Another major benefit of training with heavyweights is that even though heavyweight lower rep sets are great at building muscle, they're also one of the best ways to get physically stronger.

And even if you don't care about gaining strength and you just want to become as big as possible, strength gains are still beneficial for size gains. Research shows us that strength development is accompanied by increased muscle activation levels during exercise. Developing more strength from heavyweight training ends up benefiting muscle growth even if you train with moderate or higher reps, because the strength gains you get from your lower rep sets will carry forward to your moderate and high rep sets, allowing you to lift a heavier weight load for those sets as well, leading to more overall muscle growth.

So to sum it up, it's best to include low rep, moderate rep, and high rep sets because they all activate different growth pathways in the body. Now from a practical perspective, you probably want to do most sets at a moderate rep range. It's less strenuous than doing many high rep sets and it's less taxing on your joints  and connective tissues than focusing on lifting very heavy weight loads for a small amount of reps.

So let me provide you some examples of how you can incorporate all these different rep ranges into your workouts for maximum results. Personally, my favorite way is through periodization. By using periodization, you can switch up your rep ranges every workout, every week, or every month.

Personally, I've seen better results from switching every month because it gives me enough time to adapt and grow stronger for the specific rep range that I'm working on. So one of the simplest ways to do this is to spend about 3-4 weeks within one of three rep ranges before moving on to the next one. The three rep ranges that have worked for me the best are 3-5 reps, 6-8 reps, and 12 or more reps.

So you spend 3-4 weeks lifting a heavy enough weight load that makes you hit failure within 3-5 reps. Then for the next 3-4 weeks, you would switch to the 6-8 rep range where you would select a lighter weight than what you were using for the 3-5 rep range, but it should still be heavy enough to hit failure within your new 6-8 rep range. Then after 3-4 weeks, do the same for the 12-plus rep range.

And simply cycling back and forth like this should help you get stronger and build more muscle faster. Each time you come back to a previous rep range that you might have done weeks or months ago, try to up the weight that you do for that rep range in comparison to last time. Now if you don't want to stick to one rep range for up to a month at a time, you can also incorporate different rep ranges during each workout and set those rep ranges depending on your goals.

So let's say you're not too focused on gaining more strength as you gain muscle. You can aim to do only 15% of your sets in the 3-5 rep range, 70% of your sets in the 6-12 rep range, and 80% of your sets in the 13-plus rep range. And this is just to give you an idea.

You don't need to do math to figure this out or be exact. With this setup, you would just incorporate 1-2 heavy sets and 1-2 light sets for every 7 moderate rep sets that you do. And understand there's nothing particularly magical about this setup.

It's just one way to incorporate all rep ranges for maximum muscle stimulation. Another scenario where you are also focused on gaining strength in addition to building muscle would be performing about 30% of your sets in the 3-5 rep range, 60% of your sets in the 6-12 rep range, and only 70% of your sets in the 13-plus rep range. One last scenario is if you're older, more prone to injury, recovering from a previous injury, or you have achy joints, then you could focus more on high rep work.

People that are older can especially benefit from high rep sets because they have less connective tissue due to a lower protein turnover rate, which increases injury risk when training heavy by weakening joints and tendons. So for older adults and people with nagging joints or injuries, they can do 1% of their sets in the 3-5 rep range, 10% of their sets in the 6-12 rep range, and 20% of their sets in the 13-plus rep range.

Personally, I still to this day prefer moderate weight over light weight, but I incorporate all rep ranges from low to high in my workout routines because of the obvious benefits.