So lately I have been reading more about Myo Reps and “Effective Reps” from dr carl juneau.
Essentially the logic is for time efficient hypertrophy that it may not be the total volume that matters but more about the amount of volume you perform closer to the point of failure.
Strength and Muscular Adaptations After 6 Weeks of Rest-Pause vs. Traditional Multiple-Sets Resistance Training in Trained Subjects - PubMed (This was one of the research studies behind the idea)
I guess I was curious to hear more experienced and knowledgeable opinions.
I like the idea of enhancing efficiency by having shorter training times even if the work may be a bit harder to perform. Which I guess may be a psychological advantage because “if I believe this is amazing, I will probably put in more effort/ consistency to follow this kind of program” compared tot a Starting Strength/ novice LP straight sets across approach.
I was wondering if the goal is to basically put on say 80% of your genetic potential for muscle in a short time efficient way if this would be suitable even for a novice as myself?
I believe that instead of going all the way to failure, it would be done with a more “1-2 reps before failure” to mitigate fatigue so that I can train 2-3 x per week and not experience the 72hour + recovery period if I am doing sets completely to failure multiple times.
When you say you’re a “novice”, what do you mean by this?
What are your main goals in training?
I would I guess classify as a normal novice by your standards. Haven’t gone through a consistent resistance training program for longer than a month.
My main goal is essentially trying to put on 80%~ of my genetic potential for muscle in a time efficient manner.
So when I stumbled across the philosophy of effective reps/ stimulating reps/ myo reps / rest pause it seemed like hypertrophy was comparable in half the time per training session.
I would certainly not recommend the exclusive use of myo-reps in training, if that’s what you are thinking. I think they’re a fine tool to use when time restricted, for lower-priority and/or isolation-type movements, and a few other situations.
The issue with “trying to put on 80%~ of my genetic potential for muscle” is that you cannot predict this with any degree of accuracy, not to mention that any attempt at prediction is going to be confounded by how much weight you are willing to gain in the process - so just train intelligently and you’ll end up where you end up.
Similarly, your concern about doing it “in a time efficient manner” should not be your primary concern in terms of programming structure. No one wants to waste a bunch of time, of course, but when you obsess over pursuing a training outcome with “optimal efficiency” – e.g., getting as strong as possible, as fast as possible at the cost of everything else – you end up like so many other lifters who do the “optimal”, “milked-out” novice progression and can be found lifting … not that much more weight, several years later.
1 Like