Hail to the Dinosaurs!
There's plenty of silly stuff on the
internet discussion boards and Facebook
about "sets and reps for building size
vs. sets and reps for building strength."
You also see it in books and articles.
And I haven't been to a commercial gym
in ages, but I suppose if I visited one,
I'd hear guys arguing about it there,
as well.
Most people who follow the debate firmly
believe that you need to do "volume
training" to build size ("hypertrophy).
In essence, they contend that you need to
do many sets of many reps and many different
exercises to build size.
And the same people will tell you that low
reps (five or less per set) are only good for
building strength.
I find this to be hilarious, because I built
myself from 180 to 225 by doing progressively
heavier singles in most of my exercises -- and
doing five reps per set in a couple of others.
That's 45 pounds of muscle -- and I did it on
a program of heavy singles in the squat, bench
press and deadlift. I trained 3x per week, for
about one hour per session. That sure as heck
isn't "volume training."
That surprises a lot of people, and it certainly
flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
But if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
You see, it's not about volume. It's about hard,
heavy consistent effort -- compound exercises --
progressive poundages -- and the iron will to
succeed.
Frankly, volume talk is a gimmick. What really
counts is adding weight to the bar. As you get
stronger, your muscles become larger and thicker.
And you end up having a good mix of strength and
size.
Many years ago, there was a famous bodybuilder who
followed the pumping method of training. He ended
up looking pretty good and weighing something like
210 or 215 pounds.
But he struggled to perform a single military press
with 180 pounds!
In contrast, John Grimek could military press close
to 300 pounds.
Grimek trained for strength as well as size. He ended
up with both.
The other man trained for size alone -- and that's
all he got.
I like the Grimek approach.
As always, thanks for reading, and have a great
day. If you train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. For more about how I gained 45 pounds of muscle
with heavy singles and low rep training -- and for more
about how John Grimek and other old-school champions
did it -- grab a copy of Strength, Muscle and Power:
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
