Quick Tip: Muscle Growth

      Most of the time when dealing with repetition ranges as high as 15 - 20 per set, you'll find yourself working muscular endurance. Touching on the endurance pathway is a good idea here and there but you're probably not going to get a ton of muscular growth, if your program is centered around this training style.
     However, everyone's body works differently and there is no one training style that will work perfectly for all. That said, some individuals need more time under tension then others to experience hypertrophy. Depending on the range of motion and speed of the exercise, 15 - 20 reps can land you anywhere between 40 - 70 seconds under tension. For some, this is an ideal amount of time to build muscle! Also, some muscle groups, for example the legs, have a higher proportion of lower threshold fibers calling for higher reps to engage them!
     An easy way to try this secret out during your very next session is, to cap of your sets with a particular exercise by performing 15 - 20 repetitions. So, if you're doing 5 sets of squat, lower the weight and make that 5th and final set around 20 reps. If anything you'll at least get a great pump!


- Brig Van Etten CSCS -