Zion's Knee

[Indoor66]

Just be very careful. I did the high weight lifting and ended up needing a biceps tenotomy on my right shoulder. Now virtually no lifting.

[Edouble]

I’m not trying to argue because clearly you are more versed on the subject than I am but I am a little confused. Are you saying that if I do say 50 curls of 25 pounds it will build more muscle (bulk) than if I do 5 curls at 50 pounds? When I’m talking about high reps, I’m talking about 15-20 or more not 6-12, almost cardio lifting or circuit training, nothing close to maxing out (~1/3max). Again just trying to understand because I was told differently.

Just be very careful. I did the high weight lifting and ended up needing a biceps tenotomy on my right shoulder. Now virtually no lifting.

To answer your question Yancem, I would not do curls. IMHO they are worthless. My biceps are pretty big and I never do them. I don't think either rep scheme you mention would yield much growth or strength.

One gets a lot of indirect stimulation to biceps, forearms, traps, calves, all the small muscles, if you perform the big functional, compound exercises (in order of importance): deadlifts, back squats, bench press, front squats, overhead press, pull ups, dips.

I'd wager if you did all of those with heavy weight and checked out your biceps after a year, you would have some serious guns.

Yancem, when I am talking about low reps, I am thinking in the 1-6 range, high reps in the 10-15 range. Either way, if you add calories, your body should build muscle. But you tend to get more bang for your buck with lower reps and heavy weight, as your muscles can get a lot stronger without getting much bigger.

Bodybuilders, who tend to operate in the 10-15 rep range, do not care about strength, just size. If you really want to get "pumped up", do a crazy high number of reps. Ever seen the movie Pumping Iron? Arnold, Franco, and all if those guys were in the gym for hours and hours, doing a huge amount of volume, whereas a strength program will keep you working out close to your 1RM in the gym for under an hour a session. A really big bodybuilder may not be that strong compared to say a competitive powerlifter.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...udy-finds.html

"Individual muscle fibres were isolated and tested to see how fast and powerfully they contracted. The results of these experiments allowed the team to make an assessment of muscle quality.

In contrast to bodybuilders, power athletes appeared to have an improved level of muscle quality, the researchers found

It appears that excessive muscle growth [in the bodybuilders sampled] may have detrimental effects on the quality of the muscle, and one may well be better off with normal-sized muscles than with metabolically expensive large muscles.''

Bodybuilders are only strong because they have so much muscle mass - enough to compensate for the weakness of each gram, the research suggests."

I also wanted to touch on wavedukefan70's son's football training. Although it sounds like he is strength training and trying to add size, it's totally possible for him to go this route. As a teenager, his son's levels of testosterone and growth hormone are incredibly high. His son could probably move some heavy logs around the back yard and as long as he is eating enough, he'll grow muscle.

But for someone like me who is no longer an adolescent, I have found that heavy weight and low reps is the best way to boost my metabolism to keep the fat off and the muscles strong. Which was my original point about Zion: heavy weight, low reps is a huge metabolism booster... the preferred route to stay lean and strong.