# Different rep ranges for different muscle groups?



## x~factor (Nov 3, 2011)

This was asked on another bodybuilding forum. Great question, I thought, but unfortunately, the responses were idiotic. 

*When it comes to hypertrophy, do different muscle groups have different rep ranges they respond to better? For example, higher reps for legs, lower reps for chest? *


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## pieguy (Nov 3, 2011)

T NATION | Muscle-Specific Hypertrophy: Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders

T NATION | Muscle Specific Hypertrophy: Biceps, Back, and Lower Body

bicep/brach - Regarding the number of reps to use, while the biceps is fast twitch dominant, it's only dominant by approximately 5%, so medium to low reps work best. The brachioradialis is more fast twitch with ~60% type II fibers, so go heavy on those hammer curls.

lats - On the topic of the lats' muscle fiber type composition, the lats on average have an equal amount of slow and fast twitch fibers, so they respond best to medium reps.

traps - The chest is fast twitch dominant, but the traps are a postural muscle and are correspondingly slow twitch dominant, so you should do more volume for your traps than for your chest.

hams/glutes/lowerback - The glutes are slow twitch dominant by a few percent, but the hamstrings are composed of a whopping 70% fast twitch fibers. The erector spinae are slow twitch dominant by around 6%. This means you should use low reps for the hamstrings, but medium to high reps for the lower back and the glutes.

quads - both

abs - who gives a shit, just don't be fat

chest - As for the optimal amount of reps to use for chest exercises, use low to medium reps. The pectoralis major is a performance muscle and both its heads are predominantly fast twitch in almost everyone, with 60% type II fibers being the average.

tricep - The triceps is composed of 67% fast twitch fibers, so train it according to the adage, "go heavy or go home." do overhead work

shoulder - slow twitch dominant, medium to high reps

this all being said, you'd be a fool to completely neglect one set of muscle fibers, but read the whole article to actgually understand.


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## sassy69 (Nov 3, 2011)

I would also factor in the complexity / fragility of the joints involved - I'm thinking particularly of the shoulder / rotator. Heavy delt work can be a mess and often its just not necessary so you can sub in higher rep stuff -e.g. front / side raises, etc. Too heavy on some of the more "unsupported" lifts (e.g. Arnold presses on the transition from front - side before the lift) can mess things up. The bigger, stabilizer muscles are designed for, well, stabilization, so it Is worth training them w/ that approach. I'd also even make adjustments from maybe high rep / low wt to higher wt / lower rep (to whatever is appropriate to the muscle group & your ability to keep tight form) to change things up ("Weider Confusion Principle" LOL). Training is always cyclic as well.

So for many different reasons IMO its important to tailor each exercise instead of having an across-the-board way to judge "progress".


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## CowPimp (Nov 3, 2011)

Although I get the idea behind what they're suggesting, type I muscle fibers have a lot less potential for hypertrophy.  So, you should primarily utilize the traditional repetition ranges considered optimal for hypertrophy regardless of muscle group (5-12RM or so).


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## Vincent M. (Nov 3, 2011)

Sprinters have huge quads and few of them do any resistance training other than the sprints they perform

These sprints consist of 30 strides per leg or 30 repetitions, so don’t get hung up on what is the exact number of reps to get huge but instead mix up the number of repetitions and this variation will help you to avoid neurological adaptation to any one exercise (which will cause a strength gain by performing the same pattern over and over, but no size gains) and help you keep growing


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## CowPimp (Nov 7, 2011)

Vincent M. said:


> Sprinters have huge quads and few of them do any resistance training other than the sprints they perform
> 
> These sprints consist of 30 strides per leg or 30 repetitions, so don???t get hung up on what is the exact number of reps to get huge but instead mix up the number of repetitions and this variation will help you to avoid neurological adaptation to any one exercise (which will cause a strength gain by performing the same pattern over and over, but no size gains) and help you keep growing



Elite level sprinters do use resistance training as part of their program.  Also, although the number of repetitions they perform is high, the explosive, high force output, nature of the movement does involve using more fast twitch fibers.


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