So I have been in a bit of a research about how much volume is necessary when you are training with ‘proper intensity’ because I am having trouble progressing on my lifts on PHAT hypertrophy program (I am on a bulk) and I am afraid all weight I am gaining is fat, and a lot of people claim that high intensity low volume is much better

However I found this comment on one of max euceda’s videos and I wonder if this is proven in any way “High reps can get you closer to failure because the division of effort per rep is finer. So after “failure” you may not have the energy to lift 100kg but you’d still have the energy left to do 90kg. The point of lowering reps is because other muscles, heart, lungs and nerves can tire before the target muscle”

Specifically because this ‘energy division per rep is finer’ makes a lot of sense, as the rep ranges on hypertrophy days on PHAT constantly increase with each exercise and your effort is divided finely among all the 12-14 sets as they contain a high amount of reps

So I think doing 4 sets of 8-12 reps of DB press would have a pretty similar effect as doing 3 sets of 6-8 reps assuming all were taken to failure, so this could be a pretty important conclusion if you have limited equipment, for example I only have dumbells with increments of 5kg (11lbs) so it’s somewhat hard for me to stick to a very specific rep range on quite a few of my exercises

I was wondering if someone here more knowledgeable could provide their opinion on this

  • Sl00k
    21·
    10 months ago

    Not OP but going to failure each set is pretty unsustainable long-term, most regiments I’ve seen will only have one set to failure. This is also why most structured weightlifting regiments have deload weeks scheduled into them. People definitely can do push to failure as much as possible, but it’s not necessarily “optimal”

    Also generally note anything under 4 reps will be more strength focused 5-8 will be both strength and hypertrophy and 8+ is pure hypertrophy, but that’s another big rabbit hole.

    You’ll also find that generally anything works, some stuff might work better for you personally as op mentioned. A lot of people on the Internet will preach about optimization, I suggest playing around with reps and sets and even regiments and find something you both enjoy and works for you