2944: Low Reps vs. High Reps — Which Actually Builds More Muscle? (The Answer Surprised Us)

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer and Justin Andrews.

Sal Di Stefano (0:13)

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Justin Andrews (2:11)

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Sal Di Stefano (2:29)

All right, your strength training, your lifting weights, because you want to build muscle, you want to sculpt your body, you want to boost your metabolism.

But what's better, low reps or high reps? Are there advantages to one versus the other? Disadvantages? Which one should you train in for your goals? We're going to break it down right now based on the data and our experience. Here we go, low reps, high reps. This is the challenge. Low reps, fight! Done.

Justin Andrews (2:54)

Did you see the episode? High reps.

Sal Di Stefano (2:57)

This was a debate for a while.

Adam Schafer (2:59)

The one you're not doing.

Sal Di Stefano (3:00)

Yeah, well, we're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. They are different. So here's the deal. There's two schools of thought. One school of thought says this is a better rep range versus the other one. Pick your choice. Then there's another school of thought that says it doesn't really matter. Just as long as you mix them up, they're both the same.

Both of them are incorrect.

They do both have value. They do both provide results. But they're also both different. They also do different things to the body, mostly when it comes to performance.

But I'll even argue, and this is completely anecdote, I'll even argue it does create maybe a different look in the body. This is pure speculation. Bodybuilders have talked about this for a long time. I think I've noticed this as well. But I think the important thing to start with is, and the data shows this clearly, they both build muscle. Like you wanna build muscle, low reps, high reps.

Justin Andrews (3:58)

I think that's what matters.

Sal Di Stefano (3:59)

They both build muscle.

Adam Schafer (4:01)

Somebody who's contemplating this or having this discussion, what do you think is the biggest or the biggest mistakes that are made?

Sal Di Stefano (4:08)

Yeah, good question. I think one of the big mistakes is people navigate to the one that they like to do better, thus.