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    Big OddStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 10:00am

    I wouldn’t call 8 reps “low”.

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      Junker23Big Odd
      7/21/16 12:34pm

      Same. I’d like to see how another group, predominantly in the 3-5 rep range, would do.

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    PunstuffStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 9:49am

    So, the moral of the story? Lift till failure. doesn’t matter how you get there, just that you get there. If you wanna do high rep low weight stuff for an hour or 10 minutes of insane weight; the end result is the same?

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      KevGatzPunstuff
      7/21/16 9:55am

      Yes this is pretty much what it is saying. So long as you work until failure you should get similar results, it just takes forever with light weights.

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    truthless-hunterStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 10:30am

    The study is a little flawed in terms of practicality of strength vs hypertophy. I train specifically in powerlifting and building strength and specializing in lifting a heavy weight once (usually determining/displaying brute strength), “low reps” is considered 1-5. When I (and most others who train for strength) train high reps, we start at 8 (whereas the study considers 8 low reps)

    There are actually a number of studies that show what this study supports: training 8-15 reps gives the same type of results as 15+. Anything over 8 is usually called a bodybuilding set for those reasons.

    Still a good article and a worthwhile piece to keep in mind while training but I think the aim of the study was a little off.

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    ForcebewithyouStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 9:35am

    Herschel Walker the football player(9th all time nfl rushing 1st all professional football) turned now 50 year old MMA fighter, never lifted weights. Bodyweight only exercises thousands of push-ups, sit-ups, squats and countless variations of those.

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      CandiceBergenBelsenForcebewithyou
      7/24/16 11:41am

      Sure, but looking at an extreeeeeme outlier (probably a 1-in-100 million athlete) isn’t a great way to determine to larger principles.

      Plus, who’s to say what he might have accomplished if he lifted heavy.

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      ForcebewithyouCandiceBergenBelsen
      7/24/16 1:06pm

      Between the 3 years of USFL and the rest of his professional football career in the NFL he was #1 in al time rushing.

      His Olympic career as a sprinter and bob sledding not so storied .

      His MMA professional career (at 54) 2 wins by knockout.

      1-100 million, jails are full of bodyweight only athletes tens of thousands. Most jails don’t have weight rooms or weight yards you see in movies and tv(kinda dangerous to give inmates tools to bludgeon each other).

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    ForcebewithyouStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 9:40am

    Herschel Walker former NFL player, now current MMA fighter at 50 has only used high rep bodyweight exercise. Thousands of sit-ups, push-ups squats and countless variations.

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      NotahipstersorryForcebewithyou
      9/12/16 1:30pm

      Yeah, we got that when you commented the exact same thing the first time. Thanks though...

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      ForcebewithyouNotahipstersorry
      9/12/16 3:32pm

      6 weeks later............

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    James KattStephanie Lee
    9/29/16 11:15pm

    The biggest problem of high rep exercises is the extra wear and tear on the joints.

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    sirrumskiStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 3:28pm

    This seems to be the new “eggs are healthy...eggs kill baby Jesus”. One study says high reps-low weight, another says heavy weights-low reps. But I think you nailed it in the first paragraph about just going until failure.

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      Stephanie Leesirrumski
      7/21/16 4:50pm

      Actually, many studies have shown that low-rep and high-rep training both can build muscle, as long as you work really hard. I talk about it in my reps article here. :)

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    TheOtherHalfStephanie Lee
    7/21/16 1:28pm

    When I lift to failure, either 8 rep max or 12 rep max, the 8rep just “feels” different. Is that just psychological, or is there a difference when failing over a longer exercise?

    Would failure at a lower rep have a different effect of the hypertrophy throughout the muscle resulting in a “bulkier” distribution as opposed to a higher-rep hypertrophy distribution resulting in the same volume, but distributed differently throughout the muscle? Or is higher rep to failure = “long, lean” hypertrophy just an exercise myth?

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