54 year old male. Looking to gain or maintain strength, wanting to trim body fat. In your opinion is it better to use low weight, high reps and 4-6 sets of each exercise or high weight, 6-8 reps and 2-3 sets of? I would also like to hear your why. Thanks.
p.bxtrm
:
High weight and low reps, but also lower sets.
3-5 reps with 2-3 RIR. No need to get close to failure for strength.
Strengt gains seem to plateau at about 5 sets per week. No need to go crazy with volume.
But also I don't really like to talk about x anounts of sets, since volume, intensity and frequency is synergetic. Both for strenght and hypertrophy, all sets that are not at max capacity = when muscle is fatigued and can't lift as much gonna yield way less adaptation. If first set is 10 reps and 2nd reo is 8 reps with the same weight, that is not a 20% decrese in stimulus, more like a 50-70% decrese. Then a 3rd set of 6 reps is another 60-80% decrese.
But again, not hard numbers since rest periods are key here.
So spread volume out over 2-3 sessions, keep rest periods sufficient (preferably cycle muscles so you get 20-30 min rest at least).
Mentality play a big part too. A lot of people think cutting means losing strength. Not true at all. Being at a real low body fat % will take strength away tho. I am cutting now, is about 13-14% and did two all time PR's yesterday. So I'm not low enough yet.
Believeing you gonna lose strenght will have placebo effects and have the weights feel heavier.
Poor form is bad for joints. Joints are trained the same way muscles are. High weights, low reps, moderate volume so they can recover and adapt gonna build stronger joints.
Carphill007
:
You said strength, not muscle. For strength you want lots of recovery and lower volume. You dont always have to go heavy, but you do need to go heavy sometimes. Higher rep ranges aren’t really where you want to be.
Trimming fat is more diet but is also a little counter to strength gains. You can still do both together but they are kind of at odds so it’ll be a little harder.
Workout Addict
:
Go high reps (10-20 reps) and low weight. It’s better for your joints. As long as you are training to near failure, you should see some gains. I would limit the number of sets to 4 to 5 of each exercise.
3 comments
3-5 reps with 2-3 RIR. No need to get close to failure for strength.
Strengt gains seem to plateau at about 5 sets per week. No need to go crazy with volume.
But also I don't really like to talk about x anounts of sets, since volume, intensity and frequency is synergetic. Both for strenght and hypertrophy, all sets that are not at max capacity = when muscle is fatigued and can't lift as much gonna yield way less adaptation. If first set is 10 reps and 2nd reo is 8 reps with the same weight, that is not a 20% decrese in stimulus, more like a 50-70% decrese. Then a 3rd set of 6 reps is another 60-80% decrese.
But again, not hard numbers since rest periods are key here.
So spread volume out over 2-3 sessions, keep rest periods sufficient (preferably cycle muscles so you get 20-30 min rest at least).
Mentality play a big part too. A lot of people think cutting means losing strength. Not true at all. Being at a real low body fat % will take strength away tho. I am cutting now, is about 13-14% and did two all time PR's yesterday. So I'm not low enough yet.
Believeing you gonna lose strenght will have placebo effects and have the weights feel heavier.
Poor form is bad for joints. Joints are trained the same way muscles are. High weights, low reps, moderate volume so they can recover and adapt gonna build stronger joints.
Trimming fat is more diet but is also a little counter to strength gains. You can still do both together but they are kind of at odds so it’ll be a little harder.