Every now and again, when we post our videos or pictures, we receive the comment “You Are Not Lifting Heavy Enough!” or words to that effect.
We’ve been lifting a good while now and know what works for us, hence the way we lift, but, more often than that, there is a greater reason for the weights we are lifting – we use periodisation.
What is periodisation?
There are many forms of periodisation – and they can take place over weeks or many months. We suggest googling or looking at bodybuilding.com for other methods. The version we use is where we follow a week or two between 6-8 reps, a week at 12-20 reps and a third week of up to 30 reps for upper body and as high as 50 reps for lower body.
Sounds stupid/waste of time/won’t build muscle
Actually, thats not true! Varying your rep ranges impacts which muscle fibres you work to a large degree. Training with higher repetitions (15-30) will stimulate the slow-twitch fibre more. Working in the lower rep ranges (6-8) will stimulate the fast-twitch fibre more. Training all rep ranges thus means we hit all twitch fibres effectively.
So, what does hitting all twitch fibres mean?
Put simply, twitch fibres are the fibres found within your muscle. These fibres are the ones that grow and thus expand your muscle and thus your body. We want them all hit and thus vary week to week how we lift, and so ensure we grow as much as our diets and bodies will allow us.
I hope that helps explain why we lift like we do!
