Posted on August 08, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

I was fortunate to have an excellent lecturer at University, I’ll always remember my first applied physiology lecture. He stated that to develop an individual physically you have to develop several components at once, if you miss one, the rest slow down progress like an anchor. These components include things like:

 

• Strength of the muscle contraction.
• Speed of the muscle contraction.
• Endurance of the muscle.
• Force production of the muscle.

Believe it or not, just doing 3 sets of 8-12 over and over isn’t that useful for developing the muscle as a whole, it develops one element of what the muscle can do but neglects other components. Instead trying using the 3-5 rep range to achieve your goals.

So what does training in the 3-5 rep range do for you?

• It makes you strong… this doesn’t happen by building bigger muscle but through improving your neural function. I know its hard to take in but working close to your maximum won’t make you gain muscle size. It will simply make you more efficient at using the muscle fibres you have.
• Using the 3-5 rep range will improve your core stability more so than any other form of training you do, that includes sit ups, planks, playing on the Bosu or any other rep range.
• You’ll get quicker, much quicker. The relationship between 1RM squat and speed is very well documented. If you play sport, football, rugby tennis, squash, netball, basketball, run…. anything you should be including periods of near maximal squatting.
• YOU WON’T GAIN WEIGHT- this is the last most important point. Whether you want to tone up or are wanting to improve your 10km time, training in this rep range won’t cause lots of hypertrophy. This means your weight stays more static. Guess who’s going to drop fat faster, someone that can squat 100kg or someone that can squat 10kg…. exactly. So start using the 3-5 rep range if you want to drop fat!

So here is a sample of some of my closely guarded rep, set, and intensity schemes for particular goals using the 3-5 rep range.

TONING CLIENTS

For toning clients I spend 3 weeks every 12 focusing on increasing their 1RM, if you can increase your 1RM for an exercise the weight you can shift for the 6-8, 8-12 and 15+ rep ranges goes up, meaning that you can drop fat and improve tone quicker.

Target muscle = 2 workouts per week of 5 sets of 3-5 reps at (85% of 1RM) per muscle group.  Tempo is dictated by the weight in these lifts and I will never ask a client to control tempo under 5 reps.

HYPERTROPHY CLIENTS 

For clients looking to build muscle I will spend 4 out of every 10 weeks increasing their 1 RM. However I manipulate the 5RM to work in a more favourable fashion. I simply reduce the intensity (weight) and increase the volume.

Target muscle= 2 workouts every 6 days of 8 sets of 3-5 at (80% of your 1RM) per muscle group.  In theory in the first 3 sets the client should be able to do 6 reps per set, however after fatigue the 6 rep weight (80%) becomes the 3-5 rep range weight, making it perfect for both strength and hyperthorphy.

SPORT REALTED CLIENTS

If I haven’t lost you yet, for individuals looking to get more athletic, I will spend 4 weeks out of every 6 in this rep range. This will improve their strength to weight ratio dramatically.

Target muscle= 3 workouts per week of 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps at 90% of your 1RM) per body segment. This requires extended rest periods, extreme focus and patience.

In summary don’t be tricked into believing that the low reps can’t help you improve your training, it has a place in all training plans. If you want more advice please drop one of the motive8 North personal trainers a line, we are always here to help.