Derick Thai's Training Blog: June 2012

Check out this bodybuilding routine.

If you look at that routine, you'll notice the reps lie in the higher rep range, 8-12 reps. This must mean if you train like that you'll get massive right? Wrong. You need to understand that steroids plays a significant role in the training of professional bodybuilders. If you did a routine similar to the one I linked above, provided you are not using steroids I guarantee that you are wasting your time.

On an elite level, bodybuilders and powerlifters train specifically for their goals (size for bodybuilding, strength for powerlifting). This may give you the impression that this also influences the way they look because of the way they train, but the truth is the steroids that they take are also specific (different steroids affect your body in different ways). If you didn't get that, professional bodybuilders take steroids which promote muscle growth, whilst powerlifters take steroids which promote muscle strength without as much increase in muscle size compared to bodybuilders.

If you look carefully at the image above, there are a lot of grey areas in terms of how your body responds to different rep ranges. This is because when you train in the 5-12 rep range, you will gain a combination of the different types of hypertrophy (myofibrillar and sacroplasmic). In myofibrillar hypertrophy, the muscle's ability to contract forcefully will be improved, and the myofibrils in a muscle also increase in size. In sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, the increase in muscle size is primarily due to the increase in sarcoplasm in the muscle, which means the cells in the muscle become better at retaining fluid.

This means getting bigger and getting stronger aren't as mutually exclusive as people think. If you don't plan to take steroids but want to gain muscle guess what? You have to get stronger, and you have to eat enough to promote muscle growth. Don't expect to get bigger just by following routines of professional bodybuilders and taking magical supplements that claim to promote muscle growth. It actually takes time, hard work and some level of sacrifice. If you look at natural bodybuilders in the past like Reg Park and Marvin Eder, they were strong as hell. Reg Park could bench press 500lbs (~230kg)! There are even modern natural bodybuilders today who also compete in powerlifting. Do you really think your body will produce big muscles naturally that aren't strong? How the hell is that useful? Of course your body isn't going to do that. When your body realises that it is being subjected to stress (in the form of training), it will respond accordingly.

So how should you train then? For beginners 5 reps is a good range. It gives them enough reps for them to practise correct technique, but doesn't take them so close to the point of failure that their technique breaks down significantly. Volume is achieved though more sets, 5 sets of 5 reps works well for beginners (my previous posts cover suitable routines for beginners). This isn't the only way beginners can get stronger, but this method definitely works, provided you put in the effort through training hard and recovering sufficiently (eating and sleeping enough). As a lifter becomes more experienced, they may wish to train in different rep ranges (e.g triples for the main lifts to focus on lifting heavier weights, and higher reps on assistance exercises such as curls and tricep extensions) but that won't be covered in this post.

Bottom line, if you're not willing to train hard and get stronger, then you don't deserve that physique of your dreams. This is the truth. There are no shortcuts, no secrets.