Hail to the Dinosaurs!
In response to yesterday's email (where
I talked about gaining strength and muscular
bulk through multiple sets of low to medium
reps), I received a thoughtful and well-
written reply (with only three or four
misspelled words) from a dubious reader.
"Bolgogna Sandwich!" he said. "You need to
use high reps to build muscle."
Except he didn't say "Bologna Sandwich." He
said something else, but you can figure it
out.
So let's talk a bit about high reps and low
reps.
If anyone says that low reps do NOT build
strength AND muscular bulk, ask them this:
1. How did Reg Park become the biggest, most
massive and most powerful bodybuilder of his
era -- and the strongest -- by doing five sets
of five reps?
2. How did John Grimek become the top bodybuilder
of HIS era on a program that consisted primarily
of low rep heavy Olympic weightlifting?
3. Why are powerlifters so big and thick and
massive -- and why do they typically grow into a
higher weight class over the course of their
lifting careers?
4. Why do Olympic weightlifters grow larger,
heavier and more muscular over the course of their
lifting careers? (Cases in point: Tommy Kono started
lifting in the 148 pound class, and ended up setting
World records in the 148, 165., 181 and 198 pound
classes. John Davis grew from 180 to 230 pounds.
Norb Schemansky grew from 195 or so to 270 or 275
pounds.)
5. Why did Peary Rader (who kind of knew what he was
talking about when it came to weight training) once
note that modern powerlifting programs were equal to
or superior to bodybuilding programs when it came to
building muscle mass?
6. How did the Canadian Hercules, Doug Hepburn, build
himself into a 300 pound Weightlifting champion by
doing low reps and heavy singles on a handful of basic,
compound exercises?
Now, don't get confused. Many men have had great results
by training on 20 rep breathing squats or doing sets of
15 to 20 reps in the deadlift. But they train HARD and
HEAVY on those movements.
And please note -- I cover high rep leg and back training
in detail in Dinosaur Training, in Chalk and Sweat, and
in Strength, Muscle and Power -- as well as in Gray Hair
and Black Iron. So I'm not "agin it" IF you do it the
right way.)
I have a feeling that Mr. Bologna Sandwich was talking
about high rep sets of curls, lateral raises, French
presses, pec dec butterflies, and similar movements with
weights so light you'd have to weight them twice to get
them to register.
That kind of stuff may build some muscle and it may be
great for "cuts" -- but it doesn't build the kind of
thick, powerful, Herculean physique that heavy work on
the basic exercises will build.
So do low reps with heavy weight on the basic exercises
build muscle?
I think they do. More than that, I KNOW they do. And for
nearly 20 years I've been getting letters and feedback from
readers who say the very same thing -- because they tried
it, and it worked for them!
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. You can find all of the books and courses mentioned in
this email right here at Dinosaur Headquarters. Don't order
any of them if you're worried about growing out of your clothes
or needing to buy more iron for your home gym:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
