Ultra High Reps

[dens228]

Scott,
For pump sets you've said upwards to 30 reps.
I'm just curious if ultra high reps, say a 50 rep set are of any benefit.
I don't do them very often but sometimes I'm just in the mood. Is there any added benefit to going above 30? Or is it even actually detrimental?


I actually find it funny that I even do those since when I powerlifted I used to say that if I was going to do anything over 8 reps I might as well just take up running.

[Altamir]

Not Scott, but I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I spent some time doing 100 reps set, before doing FT, and I feel like I got a lot out of them. I also think they were again a good training / mental toughening for FT pump sets which for me are some of the hardest stuff (mentally) I've ever done in the gym.

Paul Carter is also a guy who is a big fan of them, and I personally have a lot of faith in the guy, and his training methods.

Here's a article he wrote on them.

http://www.lift-run-bang.com/2012/09/mor...of-my.html

[dens228]

There's times I'll shoot for 50 reps, I've never went for 100 though except a couple times for tricep pressdowns with a doubled mini band.

[Scott Stevenson]

Scott,
For pump sets you've said upwards to 30 reps.
I'm just curious if ultra high reps, say a 50 rep set are of any benefit.
I don't do them very often but sometimes I'm just in the mood. Is there any added benefit to going above 30? Or is it even actually detrimental?


I actually find it funny that I even do those since when I powerlifted I used to say that if I was going to do anything over 8 reps I might as well just take up running.

Well, I guess if you want to look like a runner... LOL JUST KIDDING!

Like Altamir said, if it works for you, I'm all for it.

50 reppers and 100reppers are larger units of stimulus in terms of total work done, so you may have to adjust the number of Pump sets you'd do.

I'd still do these continuously (no pausing between reps), which is not how folks often to 50-100 rep sets.

I was asked a REALLY good question in a talk I gave (free Meetup.com meet up) last week about the impact on the nervous system of heavy vs. light weight sets. I talked about a number of things, but this question highlights something important in that the really high rep sets like this can take a larger toll on the nervous system, simply psychologically, as well as because you're spending more time in the "almost hit failure" zone.

During, let's say, a 25 rep Pump set, the last 5-7 reps might be the ones you're really getting some nitty gritty effort from, so this might be 10-20 seconds. On a 50 repper, you're in pain during a period of time that is twice that long - ROUGHLY - and this will depend on how you do the set (fast reps vs. slow reps or even some kind of partial).

Also, the load will be a bit lower for a 50-100 rep set, of course, so the impact of load on the growth stimulus will be less, and thus the interaction between load x metabolic stress will be less.

High reps sets like that (like in Paul's article) kind of test your metal and carry over into the rest of your training, but they also would need to be used sparingly (as Paul kind of insinuates when he says, "phases").

So, I say go for it. One way to test out the effects of these would be to make all of your pump sets 50 rep sets... You can probably imagine how that might impact you over time without even trying it, so that gives you some idea of how you might want to incorporate those.

-S