18 Comments

  1. Troy - Cube.Dweller.Fitness
    August 10, 2011 @ 10:40 pm

    Kevin,

    Nicely done. Great content and the graphics are perfect.

    Go LOW to Get BIG! Bring on the “Myofibrillar Hypertrophy”.

    Keep it up!

    -Troy

    Reply

    • Kevin
      March 4, 2012 @ 8:44 am

      Thanks for the comment Troy. I do agree that in the end myofibrillar growth looks better and is definitely stronger muscle. Sometimes though, sarcoplasmic is the answer for getting a bit bigger and fuller … that’s why a mix of both is ideal.

      Reply

  2. Ahmed-Live, Don't Survive
    August 11, 2011 @ 3:14 am

    Your article here is an excellent example of the kind of information that needs to be presented to kill the common myths such as the high rep one you presented above.

    Reply

    • Kevin
      March 4, 2012 @ 8:46 am

      Thanks Ahmed, I remember the days of high reps to get ripped … very glad I’m STILL trying that method to get muscle definition 😀

      Reply

  3. Kris
    August 17, 2011 @ 2:51 am

    I can definitely vouch for the Visual Impact program, I’m in phase I myself and already seeing awesome results. Can’t wait to start phase II in about a week and looking forward to going into the lower rep range.

    Awesome photos here btw, the black and white thing is really cool.

    Reply

    • Kevin
      March 4, 2012 @ 8:47 am

      Thanks Kris! I know that not everybody is crazy about phase II. Seems most prefer I or III but I personally like II the most. It’s cool that there’s a little bit of something for everyone … and that you can tailor the workout to your liking.

      Reply

  4. Raymond-ZenMyFitness
    August 22, 2011 @ 3:34 am

    I totally agree when I started doing low volume heavy weight training I noticed my muscles started to look hard and defined.
    A lot of people mistakenly think it’s only for powerlifters but the secret is in the eating that compliments the training.
    Eat too much and you will look big, bulky and powerful .. keep the calories low and you will definitely get shredded, hard and muscular.
    Raymond

    Reply

    • Kevin
      March 4, 2012 @ 8:50 am

      So true Raymond. It doesn’t really matter how you workout if you aren’t eating correctly. In order to truly get ripped you HAVE to workout and eat right … not one or the other.

      Reply

  5. Dan
    September 12, 2011 @ 4:24 pm

    So I understand the logic you’ve explained (in a few of your articles actually) about why the low-weight high-reps approach doesn’t actually help to create the definition many people think it does, but what if you’re really concerned with performance- muscular endurance- more pushups, more pullups, better running, better swimming? It would definitely seem you’d need to do more reps in practice to be able to do more in competition- similar to running lots of miles.

    Reply

    • Kevin
      September 13, 2011 @ 7:20 am

      You’re absolutely right. The low-weight / high-reps approach is purely for muscle mass — not even strength.

      As far as performance goes it just depends on what you’re training for. For example, endurance training is completely different than strength training. If you train to do more pull ups or more pushups then you’ll want to train in the high rep range. If you want to get stronger so that you can bench press more or do heavier, weighted pull ups then you’d want to focus on lower reps and heavier weights … in the end, it just depends on what type of competition you’re training for.

      What’s cool about doing workouts to get ripped is that they are generally strength training workouts that focus on building muscle density. These types of workouts will make you stronger — they’re not just for looks.

      Sounds like you’ve got it.

      Reply

  6. George Super BootCamps
    January 31, 2012 @ 12:45 pm

    One thing I wonder about is the level of effect this change would make.

    If we were to take two examples;

    1: Medium to high reps
    2: Low reps

    And put a bunch of people on these two programs, both with calorie targets tuned to give the same bodyfat loss, my guess is that the difference would be pretty small.

    But pretty small still means the difference would be there! And in that case it’s still worth ensuring that the final phase of a program that’s designed to get you ripped is also one that creates the most dense muscle look.

    The other benefit of doing low rep training during periods of calorie deficit is that you don’t tend to waste as much muscle, due to the workouts being less metabolically stressful. I remember Pavel Tsatsouline talking about this many years ago in an interview with Bill Phillips, and thinking it made outstanding logic, especially when pretty much every other bodybuilding coach would get you to do ‘high reps for cutting’.

    Having said that, the real key to getting ripped is always going to be diet. Your training contributes a much smaller percentage of results than diet (with some people saying diet is 95% of your results).

    Keep up the good work,
    George Super Boot Camps

    Reply

    • Kevin
      January 31, 2012 @ 1:57 pm

      I do agree that getting ripped is more of a matter of diet than of working out. But yeah, you do need to workout and this is the type I recommend for it.

      Reply

  7. Rowland caramonte
    August 30, 2012 @ 6:52 pm

    Rite now im lifting to get some size but rite now i feel that im ready to shred dwn so u can lift heavy but lower reps to get that definition cuz i dnt wanna look swollen but more cut n defined and i need some help doin that

    Reply

  8. Tim
    January 6, 2013 @ 6:19 am

    Are there any studies to show that you can build sarcoplasmic muscle fibres with more emphasis than than myofibrillar hypertrophy?

    I haven’t found any.

    Reply

  9. Xavier
    April 22, 2013 @ 8:15 pm

    About how long do you think it would take to build a decent amount of mass and then to come in and make it dense and hard? Because I want to build some size on my upper chest and my shoulders but I also want to make them defined and dense

    Reply

  10. Rocky
    July 20, 2013 @ 8:28 am

    Nice, This is just what I needed : ] Thank you for the inspiration. Ive always been tall and skinny, looking to bulk up. Looks like I just need to eat the right foods, and work out better lolz. Thanks again, Keep on writing new blogs please! 😀

    Reply

  11. James Heller
    May 22, 2014 @ 4:59 am

    I had started my workouts by seeing videos on YouTube, but it doesn’t work a lot but when I read your content which approaches low to high, many doubts are cleared of mine. Thanks, Kevin

    Reply

  12. Annonymous
    May 20, 2016 @ 11:03 am

    Hi im 15 and slightly muscular but it’s not visible because of a layer of fat on top of the muscle, how can I lose this layer and at the same time try to increase my muscle definition? My main goal is to get my muscle density bigger for a martial arts tournament, what diet/workout would you suggest?

    Reply

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