How important is it to workout "slow twitch" muscl

[CCS]

HTGT says not to do more than 10 reps ever, and my father never goes above 12. But on BB.com, so featured writers say you need to work both types of muscle fibers to get the best results.

How many reps works the slow twich fibers best? 15? 25+? Cardio style (rowing machine)?

I'm planning on alternating with weighted dips and chin ups at the bigginning of my workout, 3 sets each, 7-10 rep range, so the muscles get more rest and can go heavier. Then I plan on doing my second half with back/bi 3 in a row (probably rows) at lower weight, higher reps, followed by lower weight bench press, 3 light sets in a row, to get my slow twich fibers. Can 14 reps really work the slow twich fibers?

BTW, the most detailed article on this said guys with 50% slow twitch/ 50% fast twitch should just do 10 reps. It was a different article on there that suggested splitting it 8/13. Also, one article said middle guys need 3-4 days to recover, but other articles say you can do all the work once a week, or spread it out. I even got fast chin up gains doing 10 chin ups, 6x per day, spread out, every day. So what's the deal? Is there really a 48 hour rule, or does that only apply to heavy workouts?

 

[mulder]

From what you've been writing I assume you're a relative newbie who hasn't seen substantial gains yet. I would just stick to doing 6-10 reps and maybe higher reps for a warmup set or two. You really shouldn't be worrying about stuff like this yet.

 

[joseph49853]

Best gains I ever made was from a six month period of total intensity and a severe case of tunnel vision. I didn't look at my body in the mirror once, or even step on a scale. That's CCS's problem, he's way self-aware and impatient.... too busy caring how he looks to others instead of how he feels inside. Bust your *** and eventually everything falls into place.

 

[hair today gone tomorrow]

ccs can you point out where i said to NEVER go above 10 reps?...i MAY have said i never go about 10 reps...but i never said you shouldnt....ACTUALLY as far as muscle hypertrophy is concerned id say you can still work in the 12-15 rep range and get results...i just personally wouldnt. anything after 15 and all your really doing is working on muscle endurance.

 

[s.a.f]

I've gained muscle doing 20 -30 reps. I never do below 8.

 

[CCS]

I've decided to aim for 6-8 reps, but that no going to near failure until the last set, and even then not straining to get the last rep in.

As for slow twitch, I think they are important. But I think 15 reps weakly works the fast twitch, not so much the slow twitch. I think 100 reps is slow twitch. By definition, slow twitch is whatever force you can actually maintain a while, so I'd say 5 minutes of pushups against a wall would get them. The reason I'll work them is not so I'll get them bigger, since they don't grow. My goal is just to keep them from getting smaller from catabolism. I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) that muscles that are used are not catabolized as easily as muscles that are not used. I also think that simply holding my handle bars is not the ideal stimulous for them.

So I'll do 3 sets of each compound muscle pair, every other day, with upper body one day and lower body the next day. And I'll do 5 minutes of wall pushups (probably 1/3 the weight of a real push up) for 5 minutes on the days between my upper body workouts.

 

[hair today gone tomorrow]

I've gained muscle doing 20 -30 reps. I never do below 8.

if you are a noob to lifting than its not gonna matter...if you are intermediate 20-30 reps is not going to be very useful at all....why dont you just pick up a 10lb dumbbell and do a 100reps? is that efficient/ conducive to hypertrophy..No...like i said i wouldnt not recommend going past 15 reps...and even that is a little to high for my tastes....6-10 is a good range to work in.

 

[CCS]

I realized that too. I had huge gains when I first started years ago. But newbies respond to anything.

 

[hair today gone tomorrow]

I realized that too. I had huge gains when I first started years ago. But newbies respond to anything.

noob gains are equivalent to steroid gains....its possible for a noob to put on 20-30lbs of muscle no problem.

 

[CCS]

Well, I'm not a total newbie, since I don't respond to just anything. But I think I got plenty of growth ahead now that I stopped doing those rediculous burnout workouts. Now I do 5 exercises for my upper body, 3 sets each, hitting all my upper body muscle groups once. I know it is too early to say, but I went from 8 reps on bench to 9 reps through all three sets, same weight. Maybe that is a gain, or maybe I had more energy today. I'll find out over the next few workouts. Nice thing about EOD is I can track my progress better.

 

[CCS]

My father is now making gains 3x as fast as he was before. Now every workout he does an extra rep on all 3 sets, and adds 1.25 pounds to each side of the bench press bar every other workout.

He did this by working in the 8-10 rep range, instead of the 10-12 rep range.

He agreed with me that 15 reps is not slow twitch --- it is just an ineffective way to work the fast twitch muscles. Probably even 100 reps is not slow twitch. Slow twitch is something you can maintain at least 5 minutes. If you can't, that means the fast twitch are helping out and not getting trained right. And if it is less than 15 minutes, probably the slow twitch muscles are getting fully worked.

You can get stronger in the 15-100 rep range, but you'd be much better off doing 8 reps, and then having a separate workout on another day where you just do a light weight for 10 minutes straight, if you really want to work your slow twitch muscles.

 

[mulder]

The best way to target slow twitch muscles is to do cardio that works that muscle group. Given all the cardio equipment out there it shouldn't be too hard to target all the slow twitch muscles in your body at various times.

One issue I wonder about is vascularization of type 2a fast twitch muscles. Maybe higher reps are good for building good quality 2a fast twitch...

 

[CCS]

I heard there are three types of fibers:

Type I (slow twitch)
Type IIa (fast twitch)
and Type IIB (an intermediate version of the fast twitch)

Maybe I have my labels wrong, but those are the type. I heard slow twitch do not turn into fast twitch, but fast twitch can turn into that intermediate type, and you lose some explosive strength when that happens. Constant speed, high intensity cardio causes the fast twitch to turn into the intermediate twitch. Interval training avoids that.

I'm guessing 30 reps up to 2 minutes (push ups) works the intermediate fibers.But these fibers are a lot less common in most people than the fast and slow twitch fibers. I'll still do some pushup max sets now and then.

 

[CCS]

while I do want endurance, my main reason right now for working slow twitch is so they are not catabolized, and I burn more fat since the body needs fuel and gets less from catabolized muscle.