Saturday, January 8, 2011

High volume vs Heavy weight training

There is a lot of press running around these days about high volume( high rep) vs heavy weight training. To fully understand the situation and not get confused lets look at how the muscle has adapted to handle these differing types of training. Our muscle are constructed of three different types of muscle fibers. Fast twitch, slow twitch and intermediate. The fast twitch fibers are for high volume activities ( high reps). The slow twitch fibers are for heavy weight training. That is why someone who can do a certain exercise with 100 lbs for lots of reps and not get soar gets soar when only doing one rep of the same exercise with 250lbs. They do not use there slow twitch fiber for there workouts normally. You would have the same problem if you took a powerlifter and made him do a moderate weight for a lot of reps. The intermediate fibers are just that in the middle. Your body has not decided to make them either fast or slow yet. So what is the best technique for the best effect then? Use both types of training at different intervals through your training regiment. A good example of this would be to have a light day and a heavy day on alternating weeks for the same exercise. Don't forget to check my blog for the nutrition and supplement advice that will also help you tremendously along you journey. A good supplemental article is The supplement trifecta for the basics.

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