Any opinions about strength vs hypertrophy?

[Maximilian]

aka low reps + heavy weight VS high reps + less heavy weight

Theres opinions all over the web on this, no real consensus (not even on wiki ). Some people claim strength gets better muscle growth, others claim hypertrophy, others claim that a bit of both are needed. What does AT think?

Im gonna give hypertrophy a shot myself and see how it goes. Drop my lifts and raise the reps and sets to see how it goes for a few weeks.

 

[AntonioHG]

Well, they go hand in hand. I mean, in the first few weeks as a beginner, everything goes up. Sure you gain some muscle in those weeks, but your neural efficiency probably carries you further than the hypertrophy in those days. Once that levels off, to improve, you gain muscle. Of course, you can't infinitely gain muscle and/or efficiency and building muscle doesn't happen overnight...

There's no one "right" path it seems. In the end, as long as you're adding weight/reps, you're gaining strength.

You want to kind of have it all, try something with block periodization, but there's no harm in working in the hypertrophy range. Just make sure you're adjusting the weight and reps when you feel as though you can and be sure to log your workouts to see if they are indeed moving up. Last thing I'd like to say is, don't chase soreness.

I'm not an expert (lol), but this is kinda-sorta what I've picked up along the way.

 

[Zivic]

I've been strong and I have been big... they don't really go hand in hand.

if you are training for strength, you train for strength. I have always had decent size, but in terms of actually building mass (muscle, not fat) you need to change your training to some extent.

for example. I could squat 5 plates +, but my legs were probably 25-26". I would do 6 reps for most of my workouts in the 425-475 range. Now, my legs are approaching 28-30" and I think the heaviest I have squated is 350 in the last year.

if you want hypertrophy you need to lift towards a certain feeling. If you lift for strength you need to follow the routines/% of max/reps/rest/set.... ie you need to lift by the numbers.

the common theme though is that you need to continually overload your muscles. for hypertrophy this includes progressive overload with weights, increasing intensity, increasing volume, shorting rest periods, ect. for strength, this usually just means progressively increasing weights.

at the end of the day, what builds strength more/most efficiently isn't necessarily the same thing that builds size most efficiently. I contend at some point in your training you need to lift heavy.

 

[z1ggy]

Agree with the above. Muscle size doesn't always equal strength. Sure they are related to an extent, but you train for a goal.

If you want power and strength, then go low vol, heavy weight. If you want aesthetics/muscle mass, then train for the "pump" with high volume, lower weight.

It's still good to mix it up though. If you want size... Then every once in a while toss in a few weeks of heavy low volume lifting to focus on strength.

 

[Maximilian]

Thanks for sharing guys :thumbsup:

Did my first hypertrophy workout today and it tired me out more. Enjoyed it though, it was a fun change. Mixing it up now and again should make things more interesting.

 

[z1ggy]

Hypertrophy routines make me much more tired as well. I'm "warmer" feeling during and after, my pump feels great, and I'm sweater. When I was on 5x5, I sweated a little bit.. got little pump, and honestly felt like I could have lifted again later that day. It's not to say it's not effective... I upped my bench around 20lb and my DL around 30lb.. But it's training for one specific thing... Strength.

When I was focusing on high reps, low rest... I barely upped my lifts. Maybe 5-10lb over the course of a few months, depending on the lift. My goal was getting more reps.. so the strength gains came a bit more slowly.

 

[AntonioHG]

I've been strong and I have been big... they don't really go hand in hand.

if you are training for strength, you train for strength. I have always had decent size, but in terms of actually building mass (muscle, not fat) you need to change your training to some extent.

for example. I could squat 5 plates +, but my legs were probably 25-26". I would do 6 reps for most of my workouts in the 425-475 range. Now, my legs are approaching 28-30" and I think the heaviest I have squated is 350 in the last year.

if you want hypertrophy you need to lift towards a certain feeling. If you lift for strength you need to follow the routines/% of max/reps/rest/set.... ie you need to lift by the numbers.

the common theme though is that you need to continually overload your muscles. for hypertrophy this includes progressive overload with weights, increasing intensity, increasing volume, shorting rest periods, ect. for strength, this usually just means progressively increasing weights.

at the end of the day, what builds strength more/most efficiently isn't necessarily the same thing that builds size most efficiently. I contend at some point in your training you need to lift heavy.

I should have asked if the OP is a beginner. If the OP is a beginner, would the lower rep range vs higher rep range make a huge difference? I don't know. I think it doesn't matter because either way you're going to be bigger than when you started as long as you're eating over maintenance.


I think you guys kind of picked up on one thing I said and ran with it. Never mind the suggestion of periodization which would take care of hypertrophy, strength, and endurance if you do it right. Then you wouldn't have to worry about, oh am I getting enough work in X-Y rep range?


Last thing I want to say is, as an example for you, Zivic, your maximum amount of reps with 350 probably went up. Your maximum single rep probably went up too. This is what I mean by hand in hand. There's no way you're plateaued at 350 at X reps -- how could you make progress?

The highlighted, part, okay, that might be true, but will the growth be that much better moving from 6-8 to 8-10? I can't really answer because I've went from following higher rep work and drop sets following someone that was enhanced to periodization and while I'm about the same body weight, my legs are larger than at the end of that year following the whole drop set, isolation, 8-10 thing. Nowadays I'm typically at a maximum of 8 reps for a couple weeks -- if I want.

 

[Pantlegz]

I guess I don't really understand what you're asking. But I'll answer what I think you're asking which is "What is the most effective way to get stronger." To be as strong as possible both are needed, the more surface area the muscle has to pull against the greater the maximal force it's able to exert. Having a ton of surface area is only part of the picture though, you have to teach the muscles to engage quickly and all together to move bit weight and the only way to make that happen is to move big weight. Speed is also a factor you're leaving out which is huge in the strength arena. There are people that use speed instead of big weight, they'll see how quick they can possibly move 405 for 10 reps, once they've hit their "maximum" speed they'll bump the weight up but they keep the weight fairly low and build massive numbers (800+ squats). In reality to be as strong as possible you need to focus on all 3 areas but the main focus should be, in my opinion, on strength and use higher rep/ true speed work as needed. Or use a program similar to The Cube Method where those days are programmed in for you and you work through 3, 3 week cycles of speed/reps/heavy days on each of the big 3 with accessory work to complement what it is you're focusing on that week. Or go "old school" with something like west side just slightly modified for raw lifting, if that's your thing.