John Christy Promotes low rep training to gain Absolute Strength

With this type of hypertrophy there is very little gain in the amount of “stuffing” (support structures). To create MH you need tension – a lot of tension. The creation of peak tension has been shown to produce widespread microcellular damage to individual myofibers causing them to grow in cross-sectional diameter. And remember how you create tension – it’s how hard the muscle needs to “flex”. Well, when you’re straining against a weight that you can barely lift one time – you’re creating about as much tension as possible. You would have to do this over and over and over again anywhere from 8 to 15 sets of one rep to be able to get a significant hypertrophy response. I generally don’t recommended this as a methodology to achieve MH because although you may be able to tolerate this once in a blue moon, doing so every workout will literally tear your joints apart (as well as cause negative effects on the nervous system and endocrine system). But, it is possible to train continually in the one to four rep range (or doing “singles” but without a truly max weight) over a long period of time without the joint destruction mentioned above as long as the rep target is “cycled” from workout to workout. And this is exactly what Olympic lifters do. You’ll notice particularly at the lighter weight classes that Olympic lifters are muscular – “rock hard” in their appearance but not overly large – as in the case of a bodybuilder. This is important because this “rock hard” but “not bloated” look is the result of pure gains in myofibular mass with little gain in the way of the “support structures” or the “stuffing” of the muscle that I have alluded too. Of course I am assuming that both “models” (Olympic lifter and bodybuilder) are both low enough in bodyfat percentage that you can “see” all the musculature. Creating pure MH is a very, very slow way to increase the measurable size of a muscle -- but it also takes the longest to lose if a layoff or inconsistent training is forced upon a trainee.



Creating the Real Thing: Part II

The Best of Both Worlds

To stimulate that maximum amount of “functionally usable” muscle size in the shortest amount of time you need create within your body high levels of tension combined with high levels of fatigue. This combination will stimulate increases in the actual myofibers (real muscle tissue) along with the “stuffing” to help support (as it’s supposed too) the newly acquired muscles’ function, repair, and growth. Stimulating gains in MH and SH simultaneously will make you big as fast as possible with the “size” gains being functional. To pull this off you need to create fatigue but not at the expense of losing a high level of tension. Perform multiple sets (generally three to five) of 5 to 8 reps with relatively short rest intervals (three minutes) that still allow you to use nearly a max weight (within a rep of failure) for all of your working sets. And you must create voluntary tension with every rep that you perform. To describe this in another way, you need to get a “pump” while using heavy weights for low reps. In all honesty; I have seen great mass developed at the lowest end of this range without the “relatively short rest intervals”; with rest intervals in the five-minute range. This is the time honored five sets of five reps training protocol.



Generating Tension Without Fatigue to Create Increases in Absolute Strength

By now, you may have figured this one out. To generate as much absolute strength (for one exertion, or one exertion performed many times) you must create as much tension as possible with as little fatigue as possible. This is exactly the same as how you would train to create “pure” MH, but with the intention of teaching the body how to recruit more of the myofibers it already has.

Train in the one to four rep range for many sets. How many? Most of the time you should stay around five, but there may be times when you could possibly increase this for a short period – if you are trying to specialize on a particular lift. And, you must avoid fatigue like the plague by taking long rest intervals – at least five minutes – and possibly even longer dependent on fiber composition and training experience. The one to four range allows for the use of very heavy weights creating maximum “involuntary tension”. And you must “flex” as hard as possible on each rep that you perform to create as much “voluntary tension” as possible. You won’t believe what employing this “tension combination” does in this rep range to a trainees one rep max until you actually try it for awhile. I mentioned above how the creation of tension helps to stimulate the actual myofibers to hypertrophy, but at these lowest rep ranges its greatest effect is neurological -- it teaches the body to recruit – or activate – more of the fibers that it already has. And if you want to lift the heaviest weight that you possibly can, you must learn to recruit as many myofibers as possible.



Summary

Creating as much fatigue as possible during a training session by performing high reps and relatively light weights – getting a great pump with light weights --will make you big – fast. But the size won’t contribute significantly to functional strength, and you’ll lose the size quickly if training gets even somewhat inconsistent. Basically you will become a big water weenie.

Creating the combination of as much fatigue and tension as possible while performing in the five to eight rep range – get a good pump with heavy weights -- will make you bigger, and functionally stronger. This is the way to go for the fastest gains in “real” size.

Creating as little fatigue as possible and as much tension as possible --get no pump -- by working with very heavy weights -- below five reps, will make you bigger. But, this is the slowest of processes for getting bigger, but will elicit the fastest gains in absolute strength.