underthebar
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- May 31, 2019
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- 29
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The large majority of my workouts consist of heavy (80%+ 1rm) sets with a 5-10 rep range (though I tend to end up in the 4-8 range), with sometimes as much as 10+ sets for a single movement (I train primarily compound movements). So, I'm very weight and power oriented.
In the past I was a standard 10-12 rep lifter and I remember my muscle size increasing faster than today, though not nearly as fast as my current strength gains.
So, I decided to start incorporating high rep ranges. I noticed something today that surprised me: After doing about 8 or 9 sets of higher reps to failure, I still felt fresh. So, I knocked the weight up substantially (85% 1rm+) and was able to do 3+ more sets of 4 without the fatigue I expected. It also felt as though I was using more muscle and different smaller(?) muscles than when doing higher reps.
What I figure is I've been using primarily fast-twitch muscle fibers, so they are developed more than the slow. So, with the higher rep ranges, I was working the slow-twitch which had until then remained mostly unactivated. When I switched to the heavier load, I activated the previously developed fast twitch which were fresh and ready to work.
Could this explain the fresh feeling after the high rep sets and the surprising ability to continue on to train with heavier loads? Honestly, I felt like if I had anticipated this effect, I could've nearly doubled the number of sets (8-9 sets of high rep and 8-9 high weight/ low rep) and not overtrained.
Also, does anyone have any experience splitting a workout into slow and fast fiber emphasis for one muscle group, doing two workouts a day?
In the past I was a standard 10-12 rep lifter and I remember my muscle size increasing faster than today, though not nearly as fast as my current strength gains.
So, I decided to start incorporating high rep ranges. I noticed something today that surprised me: After doing about 8 or 9 sets of higher reps to failure, I still felt fresh. So, I knocked the weight up substantially (85% 1rm+) and was able to do 3+ more sets of 4 without the fatigue I expected. It also felt as though I was using more muscle and different smaller(?) muscles than when doing higher reps.
What I figure is I've been using primarily fast-twitch muscle fibers, so they are developed more than the slow. So, with the higher rep ranges, I was working the slow-twitch which had until then remained mostly unactivated. When I switched to the heavier load, I activated the previously developed fast twitch which were fresh and ready to work.
Could this explain the fresh feeling after the high rep sets and the surprising ability to continue on to train with heavier loads? Honestly, I felt like if I had anticipated this effect, I could've nearly doubled the number of sets (8-9 sets of high rep and 8-9 high weight/ low rep) and not overtrained.
Also, does anyone have any experience splitting a workout into slow and fast fiber emphasis for one muscle group, doing two workouts a day?
