Lindsay: Welcome to the Lifting Lindsay Podcast.
Guys, what is it with this month?
Like, it's just, what are we, the third week of January?
I'm gonna pull up my calendar right now.
This is the third week of January.
I have spent two weeks out of this three just sick.
What is going on?
I mean, something is.
Is going on, like is being passed around Utah.
My kids have been so sick.
We finally got over it.
We're thinking we're all through this.
And then two days ago I'm at the gym and I just got so sick.
I'm in middle of my lift.
I honestly wondered like, did I push myself really, really hard?
All of a sudden I'm kind of feeling nauseous.
But also, if you guys remember, we are doing IVF.
So I have started, my estrogen estradiol shots and those can
make you feel a little nauseous.
You're not as hungry.
So I've kind of been going through this like, well, I'm not, I wasn't feeling
nauseous, but I was, wasn't very hungry.
Maybe like once in a great while.
I felt like little twinges of it, but not much.
So then, Monday I, we started this new challenge in Be strong.
Be strong is my, my community.
Under be strong, you can get tons of stuff like, recipes, nutrition
help, all of your training programs.
We do lives, we have like exercise breakdowns.
People send in their form videos.
Like it's this really, really fun community.
And then we also do challenges and, and I.
Maybe I should tell you guys about this challenge.
Maybe I should challenge all of you all.
I mean, you guys won't get the fun prizes and rewards.
We're doing this one rep more challenge.
It's all pretty much based off of some studies also my personal
experience of people just don't know how to gauge reps in reserve.
They don't know how to gauge really how close they are to failure,
which is actually why one of the, a lot of people will say, you
don't need to train to failure.
And and I do agree with that in general.
But in practice, if you never hit failure, then you literally don't
know where failure is, right?
Because aren't we over time supposed to be growing stronger?
And so if somebody's just, I can't go to failure because that one
Instagram person told me never to go to failure and that I didn't need
to, so I'm never gonna go to failure.
And so they never do.
Then they never know where it is, and it's really hard to
gauge failure at that point.
It's actually one of the reasons why I encourage at least the last set being
taken to failure, so that we can actually keep a better gauge of where failure is,
and then a better understanding of, okay, staying like 3, 2, 1, away from that.
It's like you're driving and you're supposed to stay between the lines, but if
you don't know where the lines are, it's really hard, right, to stay between them.
If you can't see 'em, then you're literally just guessing.
So I was encouraging my be strong community.
Okay.
Let's, let's push ourselves.
You think you know where failure is on that last set?
I'm gonna challenge that.
I am, I'm gonna challenge you on that one.
For the next two weeks, the next, the last two weeks of January, we're
gonna do the one more rep challenge.
On that last set after you, you think you've hit failure, like
I want you to like imagine the, the community or imagine me.
whoever, you have to imagine standing over you, looking at
you being like, one more rep.
One more rep.
So far the stories that I've been getting in just over the past three
days have been really, really fun.
And to be honest,
they don't surprise me.
People saying, I thought I hit failure.
'cause I was going by what I did last week and where failure was last week.
And I thought, okay, I can squeeze one more.
And then I just kept imagining this is what one woman wrote yesterday,
I kept imagining you standing over me saying, one more rep.
One more rep.
She goes, I did six more reps before I hit failure.
I have been selling myself short.
That it is honestly very, very common, even amongst trained individuals.
And I am, I do not exclude myself from this group by any
stretch of the imagination.
And even within studies, it's interesting because when you're listening to
breakdowns of studies, of training studies, one of the questions, one
of the critical questions, rightfully so, may even be, but were they
training in a lab with trainers over them or lab assistants over them?
Because people generally work harder, train harder when they have people over.
So I thought I was s sick because I doing this challenge too.
On Monday, I was doing leg press and I was just, well, I did like some
hip shift r dls and kept telling myself, you know, one more rep.
I, I squeezed out another rep on leg press, I squeezed out one
and a half and, and that's okay.
I mean, I was, I gave my community some guidance on how to be smart with going
to failure to kind of some guidance and ideas of what exercises to take
to failure versus other ones not to.
I thought I was just sick because maybe I'm like, wow, maybe I
just pushed myself too far.
Then yesterday I was having a, a business meeting and all of
a sudden it just hit me like.
I'm kind of frustrated, not because it's the beginning of the year,
but because I actually break my quote unquote years into 12 weeks.
So I have these 12 week plans goals, and so I'm frustrated
'cause I'm like, dang it.
I been sick for two of them, so I'm just really focusing on the low hanging
fruit of what I can do during this time.
Even though I don't feel very good and I'm probably going to do this
episode and then go, go lay down.
And yesterday I had a few kids saying they were really, really nauseous too.
I thought they just were trying to get out of school.
Now I feel bad.
I thought they were just trying to get out of school.
They had just come off of a holiday.
So today we are going to be talking about, rep ranges.
This is a question that I get a lot and rightfully so, right, because
we do have some studies saying it doesn't matter the rep range, if the
goal is hypertrophy, I should say.
It doesn't matter the rep range, as long as you are working near or to
failure, you are going to build muscle.
And that is, that is true.
So if that's the case, then does it just not matter at all?
And I, I don't believe so.
I still think rep ranges in which you choose matters.
And so let's dive into what, what matters about them.
Right?
Um, 'cause a lot of times people will send me questions like, what
are the most optimal Well, for what?
Right?
And all, there's a few things.
There's your goal.
There's your own preference.
I love bringing up preference because oftentimes people think optimal has
nothing to do with that, and it just has everything to do what some research
paper said, but, but research oftentimes is in a controlled lab or environment,
and it's not conducive to real life.
So keep that in mind whenever I use the term optimal.
Optimal is contextual.
So if you've been, you know, following me for a while, you, you know, that
that's something that I, I preach.
Optimal is contextual.
Contextual to your goals, your preference, and even your age, your physiology, right.
So we're gonna be talking about that a little today because somebody who
is having some issues with hormones for one reason or another, maybe peri
postmenopausal, what's optimal and the rep ranges that they may choose
are going to be a little different.
So let's get into all of that now.
Let's first though, define what is low rep range?
What's high rep?
Um, because otherwise these are just very vague terms.
Like what does that even mean?
Does low rep mean, you know, two, three reps?
Does high rep mean 30?
Right.
Sometimes people literally are having these conversations
without even laying down
basic definitions or even defining context.
Context is really, really, really important.
And I try my hardest when I am, um, speaking on the podcast or on
Instagram to lay down the context.
Low rep range, I'm just gonna define anywhere between six to under 12.
Okay.
And high I'm gonna define between 12 and like 12 plus.
So maybe 13 to 20.
And the reason why I am not gonna include anything higher than that is because
20 plus rep range, like rep range would require such low weights to do that, that
we're not creating a lot of tension and it's just gonna be a suboptimal for body
recomp for strength and for hypertrophy.
The main things that I often speak towards.
So that's not even in the range of beneficial to tho to that space.
Okay.
You would need such lightweight that there's gonna be very few
effective reps at that point.
Let's go over the pros and cons of low reps who is going to choose low reps.
And we'll do the same thing with higher reps.
So because lower reps are going to require higher amount of weight
to hit failure within that rep or to near failure within that rep scheme, right?
So you are more likely to get more muscle fiber recruitment earlier on in your set.
Think about it this way, lower reps and heavier loads, you're
getting higher recruitment from earlier on reps within a set.
So it's actually much easier to accumulate effective reps closer to failure,
which is why a ton of people choose.
This lower rep scheme because you can do less, um, reps and
get way more bang for your buck.
Okay.
It's also much easier to gauge reps in reserve and research has
actually shown that the lower
the reps and the higher the load, it's much easier to actually gauge
where that's at versus, and, and get closer to it, versus people who
choose lower weight and higher reps.
So we do have studies showing that you are more likely to quit
before approaching adequate enough failure if the reps are too high.
So there's another, I think, pro reason somebody would pick
higher loads and lower reps.
The third one is huge for a lot of women, and that is strength gains are going
to be better had in lower rep schemes.
It is much easier to increase weight with lower reps than with
higher reps, so muscle building muscle, it takes a lot of time.
Like, I'm not talking about easy gains.
I'm not talking about your first three months in the gym and you just can do
the crappiest movements in the world.
Just walking into the gym and touching weight, you're gonna, people are
going to put on muscle and, and unfortunately, a lot of people get
used to how fast it comes at first, and so then they don't realize that
they are going to kind of hit this plateau and things will start
slowing down, and then they're like, oh, like I am, I'm done.
I can't put I had a male client who was a coach to come to me saying,
I think I just hit my genetic max.
And I worked with him for months and I was like, you did not hit your genetic max.
You're falling victim to what you blame your clients for doing.
It's slow goings for somebody who is more trained, so you can't compare
a more trained individual and how fast they put on, or I should say
how slow they put on muscle compared to somebody who's newer in the gym.
It already takes, if your goal is put on more muscle tissue,
it takes a really long time.
So while we're waiting, I always try to encourage people, have
other goals and strength goals are really fun to have in the meantime.
Going in and doing reps that are six to 10 and feeling way stronger, being
able to push way more load than if you chose like a 15 to 20 rep scheme.
It's fun.
I had this experience the other day.
I walked up to a leg press and the gym was really, really packed because
it was the beginning of the year.
And so I really like to over communicate, be very, very friendly and
really communicate well with people.
And I knew I was gonna be waiting forever for a leg press,
'cause even if you're standing there on the side, people don't mean to, but they
just don't know what you're waiting for.
And if, if a leg press frees up for one second, somebody else might jump on it.
So I, and I also have this one leg press that I really love, so I.
That's how you know you're a gym junkie is when you have your favorite machines.
They have like four leg presses, but you have your favorite, right?
I went over to the two men using the machine, I said, I know it's so
busy and I asked them about how much longer they had, and they're like,
we have about five more minutes.
I'm like, okay, I'm gonna wait.
No pressure.
I'm gonna stand far back so that I'm not getting in your guys' space, but
I'm gonna be standing over there and as soon as you're done, can you just
wave over to me to make sure that I can get this machine and somebody else
doesn't kind of, you know, sneak in.
And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so when they were done, they wave over to me.
I walk over and they start unloading and they had about 10 45 plates on there.
And I said, oh, no, no, you can leave it.
And they looked at me and they're like, leave it.
You're gonna.
You are gonna start with this.
And I knew what they were thinking.
They were thinking what we're ending with you're starting.
And I just kind of laughed.
I'm like, this is where I'll start.
And they're like, oh man.
And they just like, it was so funny, this interaction.
But, but at the same time, do you know how much I loved that?
Do you know how much I love feeling strong.
And that's something that, you know, I really want muscle growth,
but it's so slow right now.
And in the meantime I'm just, I'm going to live off of going to the
gym and feeling my strongest self.
So if your goals include strength, it's not just hypertrophy, but you
also want strength, then you're gonna wanna choose the lower rep scheme
because you're gonna to get both.
You're gonna get both, and you're gonna feel really strong, and it's gonna be
really fun while you wait for that slow process of muscle gains, so that is one
reason why in my program, on my app, I have a muscle and strength program
because we are going to be spending way more time in those lower rep schemes.
I have another program in there called the Fat Loss Program, and that's actually
going to be more towards metabolic work and kind of including more, uh,
cardio suggestions and all of that.
And we may move into higher rep schemes and not always be
sitting at lower rep schemes.
Okay.
So that's why there's a difference there.
Uh, mainly we want to rely on food nutrition to drive that calorie deficit.
But, I do like giving other training options of, you know, higher rep
schemes and metabolic work systemic or incomplete rest method that
people, really, really enjoy where they can still get muscle gains.
But maybe they're not leaning towards caring about a lot of the strength
gains that some of these other women are, are really interested in.
Now let's go into higher rep schemes and kind of talk a little
bit about, um, some advantages or disadvantages there, choosing that one.
You know, I did actually mention earlier too, that depending on somebody's
physiology, so depending on, you know, if they are experiencing some hormonal,
uh, issues that they are working with a specialist on, maybe they're
approaching perimenopause and they're not feeling their best selves, um,
they're experiencing some like estrogen dominance or just other things like that.
That may change not always and forever, but they may actually want to choose
more, uh, lower rep schemes as well.
And the reason why is because look, every, every type of, workout, exercise
modality, is going to increase cortisol.
That's not a quote unquote bad thing.
Like I've literally heard professionals say like, well,
you shouldn't work out because it increases cortisol, but it actually
teaches like a response in recovery
though, so it, yes, it may spike for a short period of time, cortisol,
but it is like almost this adaptation that you're, it's not almost, it
is this adaptation that your body learns to spike and recover quickly.
And in fact, we have some really interesting studies showing just
that about, uh, weightlifting
that even in athletes, I, I believe they were, uh, professional tennis, players
that including going from no weights to including weights in, into their training,
it actually over the long run was able to lower their overall cortisol levels.
But also just keep in mind how you do weight training does matter.
So if, if they were doing more of tension hypertrophy, then that's,
that, that could be one thing.
Even some systemic work with hypertrophy has been shown to do that.
Now we are seeing in the literature that there are much higher cortisol response
rates in the higher rep schemes.
And that may not matter to the general population, but if somebody
is having some hormonal issues.
Then that could be just the thing that tips the scales and keeps them
in kind of a, a poor position., And it could be for a few reasons, they get
a much higher cortisol response rate, but also higher rep ranges do require
longer recovery between workouts, so you're not recovering as quickly.
The body's not able to do that as, as well.
And so if you are experiencing, like I said, for for one reason or another,
some hormonal issues and disturbances, I would actually say we don't
wanna choose the higher rep ranges.
It's okay to get a, a little cortisol response, but we don't wanna go
in and, and get a really high one
that then also requires way more recovery because then are you fully recovered by
the next time you train, um, is your, um, hormonal imbalance for whatever, like if
that, is that sex hormones, is it thyroid?
Like, where is, which one is that?
And because of it, this hormonal issue, that can in and of itself
affect recovery rates as well.
So a few weeks ago, I actually did a story about this on Instagram saying like if
you are having some hormonal issues that you're trying to work through, if you're
noticing some big shifts during perio post menopause and like you probably wanna
choose the lower rep scheme, you probably want to choose my muscle and strength
program because it is going to tailor.
A little bit better towards that population versus, um, some lower, uh,
rest period really high, um, rep scheme.
So that's just some additional food for thought.
So we really win.
We are dealing with hormonal, whether it's like thyroid or sex hormone issues.
We really do want to prioritize recovery and a slight increase of cortisol due to
weightlifting is fine, but we don't want excessive and we don't want prolonged.
So getting in doing a 60 minute training program, that is going to be higher
rest in between sets, sets of like three to four, but you're looking at,
you know, six to 10 reps, that is going to be kind of a sweet spot for you
during this process of healing and, and trying to, uh, stabilize things and
get them into healthy balances again.
That set aside, let's just talk about some advantages of higher rep schemes.
You can actually get a temporary cell swelling from higher rep
ranges that make you feel like you have like bigger muscles.
And so that response, this, the likelihood of getting, that gym pump is a lot
higher, and that could be the very thing that gets, you keep going back for more.
That's not a bad thing.
That can be a really fun thing.
Now, higher reps, because it's lowering the weight, could possibly be even easier
on the joints, and if you've had a an injury, it may be better for that as well.
I say may because I still want you to be cautious that if
you're really high rep scheme.
A lot of times continuously pushing into that higher rep scheme can just
build a lot of fatigue, and so sometimes that built fatigue can make it so
maybe you exceed your active range, or can actually get you hurt too.
So be cautious about that too.
So yes, it can be easier on joints.
Yes, it can be a great option if you have an injury, but we still need to be
cautious of the fact that a lot higher rep ranges can still build this fatigue.
And when we are more fatigued, when we are more tired, is when we typically
slip up and can actually get injured too.
So that's just food for thought.
The cons are some people actually don't like the burn, right?
So higher rep schemes lead to that sensation, that burning sensation.
Um, and some people don't like that.
Some people really love it.
So that just kind of depends.
Like I said, we have with higher reps, it can lead to longer
recovery times in between workouts.
So let's say you really wanted to build glutes and so you want to put
a little bit more volume in them.
Well, only so much volume of work can be done in one day.
And so a lot of times people will spread that out to, you know, three days a week.
That's often why with specialization programs, we're doing, you know,
three days training on that muscle so that we can evenly, and wisely
distribute the amount of volume, while keeping intensity towards that volume
high, and so you'll spread that out.
Well, if you really want to train it more often during the week, but you're
going with really, really high rep schemes that require more recovery,
then that can, in and of itself end up hurting you instead of helping you.
So that's some food for thought.
And, and like I mentioned before, it's actually a lot harder to gauge
reps in reserve or RIR, meaning it's a lot harder to gauge nearing failure
with more reps and lighter weight.
So there's just a full breakdown for you of, yes, studies are
saying high reps, low reps.
It doesn't matter for hypertrophy as long as you are getting close to failure,
but I still think that it, it matters because it depends on the person's goals,
their preference, and their physiology.
Ultimately I do think a really good training program for the year even.
We can have meso cycles, which are, what you're doing for a certain amount of time.
Like let's say eight, 12 weeks, you're doing the same microcycle.
That's what you're doing per week.
You're doing that on repeat and that makes up a mesocycle, and then you
step back further from there and that's gonna be kind of like your macro cycle.
That's what you're doing for the full year.
And for the full year, I actually think it's really wise for people to
kind of move between doing high and low reps, which is why oftentimes I
will cycle through that a little bit in my programs because I do want to
introduce different stimuli to clients, and then sometimes people just respond
better to one versus another too.
So a lot of times kind of stepping away from one stimulus and moving to another,
people can actually, uh, one stimulus can potentiate further growth for the next.
So kind of cycling through higher and lower rep schemes can actually be pretty
beneficial for a lot of people, and it can kind of keep things interesting too
for a lot of people to continue going to the gym and enjoying their time there.
That's basically my full breakdown on choosing higher or lower.
I find for myself, I really enjoy training between eight to 12 reps.
But towards some training programs I do like including drop sets and, and that may
be pushing, you know, things further up to, I do a drop set and that last set, so
that one lands me around like 15, 16 reps.
So even I will cycle through these things, um, a little bit.
And I, I can.
Find it really fun and enjoyable to use all the tools in my toolbox really to make
things fun, but also when wisely used, they can help people continue to progress.
It's interesting because some people, they don't know how to push themselves.
They don't know how to choose weight.
They don't know how to really push themselves.
I shouldn't say they don't know how to push themselves.
It's just mentally we hold ourselves back.
We think we're, we're pushing ourselves more than we are.
And I find that with both food and nutrition, right, people think that
they're following their nutrition plan, but they're really not.
They're guessing on most things.
And studies have shown that we are really poor at actually gauging how much.
Calories are coming in, we usually assume like 20 to 50% less
than what's actually coming in.
And I say that there's no difference between nutrition and training.
A lot of people go into training and they think I'm pushing myself
hard, and then all of a sudden I'm standing next to 'em and they can,
what was them hitting failure?
So they thought they're able to get another six to 12 reps.
Like I've literally had that happen and watched that happen where I'm
like, no, you still have like a bunch.
You don't, it's not even like one more rep.
It's like, I think you have like six, seven.
Like, why did we choose such low weight?
I remember training in person with a few women and they weren't hitting failure
till like 22, 23 reps, even though they thought they were choosing a weight
that would get them to failure at 12.
So we do have studies even showing we're really poor at gauging things like that.
So that's why I do think it's really important that, you know, every so
often, for me personally, I try to take at least one set of, uh, my
exercise is to failure the last one.
You don't need to take every single set that's gonna accumulate far too much
fatigue, require way too much recovery.
But just taking that last set to failure, it will help you keep a really good
gauge of where failure is so you know how much you should be pushing yourself.
But hopefully this really did help you realize that one, if, if
your goal is muscle and strength, choose the lower rep schemes.
If you are going through peri or post menopause or you are working with a
specialist as far as, uh, there's some hormonal issues, thyroid issues, whatever,
then choose the lower rep scheme, right?
If you just generally enjoy that, choose that.
The other reasons why you would choose the higher is because
maybe you enjoy the burn.
Maybe for you, uh, you need something to be easier on your joints.
And these are conversations that I have with people in my Be Strong community
when they message in and are like, Hey, we're, I'm doing this exercise.
You have the rep scheme here.
What should I be doing?
And I love walking people through this process of, you know.
Let's find what works for you.
This is, and then we kind of break down.
Maybe you shouldn't be doing that exercise.
Maybe do this one and do it with this rep scheme, because you are an individual
and you need to listen to your body.
But you need to learn and know how to listen to your body then we can develop
kind of this plan that works best for you.
So hopefully this episode just gave you some really good considerations
as you sit down and are looking at a, a plan that's already planned out
for you, or that you're writing for yourself, or even writing for clients.
This gives you a much better understanding of what you're trying to accomplish,
what their goals are, and how we can help them, or you hit your goals.
Thank you so much for joining me today on the Lifting Lindsay Podcast.
I really hope that this was helpful and beneficial.
If you have any questions, you can always shoot me a DMM on
Instagram at Lifting Lindsay.
I would love to work with you too.
Join our community at Be Strong, show up at the lives.
Write in your questions, you have direct communication with me where I can
help you develop your nutrition plan.
You can send me pictures, show what you have done, what you want
to do, what you wanna accomplish.
I'll help you get your plans lined up and working towards what really
is going to be the big rocks and drivers to help you hit your goals.
You guys have a wonderful week.