Is there a perfect range??????

[heavyduty-club]

It's that time of the year again when we are all considering joining a gym to become the best "you". For the past 3 years i have been exactly the same i'm no saint myself, and it really bothers me when i think that just a few years ago i felt unstoppable in the gym, i looked like a fat shit but it was a good feeling pretending to know what i was doing and thinking that i might acctually look like a flex cover star, despite living on a shitty diet (if you can call it that) and not being a steroid user. How wrong i was, but the staggering truth is i just looked at a program and without thinking i just did it, no questions asked and i certainly didn't pop over to any forums. But now that im almost 26 (in may) i feel like i don't belong near a gym let alone try to change my physique, will i just have to learn to deal with being out of shape and just live my life as it is or do i give it one last go and try to become that new "me".
I've been back and forward looking at various styles and nothing goes in, when i see a style i like, i tell myself that its the right program and thats the one i am going to do when i do decide to pick the weights back up, but maybe its because im not doing anything that is putting me off but sooner rather than later my mind has changed and im on to something else. So while i sit here trying to figure out what im going to do in 2016, i have the question of this, is there a secret i dont know about, is there a perfect routine or is there an ideal rep and set range i can follow.
Recently i have dropped all faith in becoming a bodybuilder, that side of me has died so now i want to become as big as i can possibly become thats it, i just want to be a big hurting machine. I've looked into strongman training and all that jazz but on my quest i came across an article that talked about rep ranges. It mentioned that 6-8 reps was best for upper body size, and 10-12 for lower body, is there any truth to this and if so how many sets per exercise and are all sets performed in this manner.
This really is last chance saloon for me to at least improve my current self, or should i just take the long walk out of here.

 

[Saiyan7]

I had great strength gains doing a 5x5 program. That was for all compound lifts. Isolations I'd do 3x12. You really have to find what works for you. I am not doing a two day split. Monday is chest and back. Tuesday is shoulders and legs. Heavy weight, low reps, up to 6-8. But even 3-5 I'm ok with if I go really heavy. Then I repeat on Thursday and Friday except I do lower weight, high reps. Upwards of 20 even. That gives me a heavy day and an endurance day.
You can't talk about giving up though. We are in this for a marathon. It's not a quick fix deal.

 

[heavyduty-club]

In the 6-8 rep region (of course using weight), is that enough though for size, can i build muscle with such method, i think i heard lee priest mention that in his day he would do 5 sets per exercise of 6-8 reps for his arms!!, the confusing part is trying to figure out if this will work vs doing 15+ reps per set, i like the idea of flooding muscles with blood and going for the pump i can give or take getting stronger i only care about size

 

[Saiyan7]

Again it's all on the person. I grew a fuck ton doing the 5x5 I stated. Some say they only grow in the 15 rep range. You'll have to spend a few weeks or so on each and see what benefits you the most.

 

[FlexManning]

I'd probably recommend sticking to a 5x5 style program until you get everything you can out of it. Avoid the temptation to let your weight training devolve into the cable curls and flexing in the mirror style workouts 75% of the gymgoers perform. "I have to get higher reps for sarcoplasmic growth/hypertrophy" is part of the justification those folks use.

 

[heavyduty-club]

The only reason why i hate the idea of doing 5x5 is that i have not really read anything on people getting bigger from it, i'd like to try it of course but i really want mass of strength, and it might be harder to gain anything on a program like that because i'm not juicing and i never will so i have to keep it realistic. I used to be a big believer in heavy weights/low reps for size, but it has a very low possitive feedback responce from forum on bodybuilding.com, again i'm not saying that it doesn't work i'm just curious about higher reps, victor costa mentions not lifting heavy at all, instead he ops for light weights and he doesn't count reps, and does about 4-5 sets in this style, but if any info from you guys is a huge help, i maybe need to start applying some of methods to see if i can benifit, but its really size i'm after.

 

[Saiyan7]

I grew 20lbs with 5x5 in 6 months. That was all natural. I continued for another 8 months and in total put on 35-40lbs. I want from 160 to just under 200. And it created a strength base that I needed to transition into other routines. I'm not trying to convince you one way or another, just telling you it's absurd to say you can't grow on it. I'm too new into my heavy/light split to tell progress but I can feel the strength and personally can see some size increases. Again. You just have to get in the gym and try something. If you do 5x5 for three months and aren't 100% satisfied, then who cares? I guarantee you'll still be better than you were. So use that to find something else.

 

[heavyduty-club]

Yeah totally man, you made a fuckin good point there, and you said you acctually grew from it?, what i was really trying to get out of this post was to see if anybody had results in the 6-8 rep region with heavy weight, or if a much higher rep range was indeed better for over all size gains, i personally enjoy the heavy stuff but in my mind i'm not big enough or i'm just not benifitting from, my friends and other people who know me say i am big even before i tell them i'm lifting so maybe it's all in my head, i got a good amount of feed back when i was doing Dorian Yates "blood & guts 6 week trainer", even had a boy call me a bear when he noticed my chest & triceps, of course i couldn't understand why, so i'm hoping just like yourself that most people are gaining from the heavy stuff and that i don't go back to doing embarassing weights for like 15-20+ reps, don't get me wrong i like the pump but i always felt it was just cosmetic and not really great for drug-free dudes like me

 

[bigorse]

Yeah totally man, you made a fuckin good point there, and you said you acctually grew from it?, what i was really trying to get out of this post was to see if anybody had results in the 6-8 rep region with heavy weight, or if a much higher rep range was indeed better for over all size gains, i personally enjoy the heavy stuff but in my mind i'm not big enough or i'm just not benifitting from, my friends and other people who know me say i am big even before i tell them i'm lifting so maybe it's all in my head, i got a good amount of feed back when i was doing Dorian Yates "blood & guts 6 week trainer", even had a boy call me a bear when he noticed my chest & triceps, of course i couldn't understand why, so i'm hoping just like yourself that most people are gaining from the heavy stuff and that i don't go back to doing embarassing weights for like 15-20+ reps, don't get me wrong i like the pump but i always felt it was just cosmetic and not really great for drug-free dudes like me

drug free is your problem buddy just kidding. there are 2 types of hyperophy, myofibril and sacroplasmic hypertrophy. one is targeted in higher rep ranges and is a hypertrophy that allows the muscle to effectively store more energy in the form of glycogen and the other is targeted in lower rep ranges where your body is adapting to the stress to make the fibre larger and stronger. this is why the typical 8-12 reps is consideres best for bodybuilding as it hits both forms of hypertrophy. however! we all have different muscle fibre types and bodily reaponses so some people may effectively grow in different rep ranges based on the make up of their muscle fibres. finally we have hyperplasia, the splitting and differentiation of muscle cells to form new muscle cells. this alley way for growth is still very much up in the air esp. for natural lifter but there are studies suggesting weighted stretches can cause hyperplasia. dog crap training by daunte trudel (spellings probs off) incorperates these waited stretches along with heavy weights and set extending techniques to hit both forms of hypertrophy.

hope that was informative!

 

[WalkingBeast]

Just from my personal experience, take what makes sense to you. Fuck trying to be a bodybuilder, powerlifter, strongman, whatever. No need for classifications. If you focus on becoming big and strong you can refine and make adjustments later. Ive personally never identified with any class. I wanted to just becoming a big nasty motherfucker. A demon from hell was the imagery in my head. Never to be pretty. You sound like you just want to be big and powerful. Thats plenty to work with. All the various classes (powerlifter,bodybuilder, etc) are derived from that one goal. You can split off in any direction you like, if you really feel the need to belong to one class, later on.

Fuck programs. I would reccomend you train with a few specific short term goals. One is progressive resistance. Pushing your weights and reps higher each session (atleast trying like its life or death each set), will move you in the direction of becoming stronger and way beyond what most people are doing in the gym. Keeping records and logging your lifts will help greatly to see where youre at. Its hard to remember each set, but you should strive to break records on anything that is not a warm up set. There is no ONE lift to try and break personal records on. Every lift should be that way and nearly every set. I rarely see anyone train like this, but its what ive always done. My routines are different now after 21 years but its what got me where I am.

The next thing is consistancy. You really should only need to train 4 days a week and be able to hit everything. The rest of the time should be eating as much good food as you can and resting, preparing mentally for breaking records on your upcoming sessions. I reccomend high volume to failure and beyond (high intensity). Your body will adapt to whatever you throw at it, over time. The eating needs to be consistant and diet is really dependant on the individual. Im just addressing the core values that have worked for me.

Rep range is bullshit that has been advertised in magazines for decades. There is no universal rep range as we all have different fiber make ups and respond differently. Different body parts even have different types of fibers within an individual. So forget about that shit. You can embrace all rep ranges while training to failure. As you pyramid up, for example, you can take even warm ups to failure. Hitting records after being heavily pre exhausted means youve gained even more strength, since you are at a deficit. Your lighter sets , as you pyramid up, will be very high rep since they are to failure. As you reach the top of the pyramid you get your lower rep sets in. This can be done on all movements.

Make sure you take enough rest between sets to hit those records on each set. You wont every set of course, but thats the mindset and goal. Diet is atleast 80 percent of this shit from my perspective. Thats something you have to tweak. I can tell you that most dont eat nearly enough. Its not about eating until full. Its about continually feeding throughout the entire day. Inbetween feedings such as milk (doesnt fuck with my appetite, drink 60-90 oz daily) and light non cook items, peanut butter, etc. Dont worry about eating 6 meals. Meal number doesnt mean shit. Worry about getting in all your nutrition. Set an amount and dont dip below it. If its not working, increase it. Be consistant.

There are many techniques to increase intensity without going heavier, but those are more valuable when you are either purely focused on bodybuilding or injured. So I wouldnt concern yourself too much with them. You can get in some more volume with dropsets at the end of a pyramid (going down the stack without rest), but I would focus mainly on straight sets with enough rest to perform your best on each set.

No need to worry about the smaller variables really. Just focus on getting stronger through progressive resistance and bigger through the volume of abuse and eating. Everything else will fall into place around those core values.

KILL THAT SHIT !!