Chuze Fitness: 22nd & Kolb

Difference Between Low Rep High Weight Workouts and High Rep Low Weight Workouts

You've probably seen a variety of workout styles during your time as a fitness enthusiast. While you may have a difference of opinion with your workout partner on which triceps exercise is better, high-rep or low-rep workouts shouldn't be a debated issue. High-rep and low-rep workouts each offer benefits that the other workout doesn't offer, so make sure your range provides the benefits you want.

Everyone Likes Power
If you train with a low-rep, high-weight routine, each set has you lifting the weight between two and six times. If you are focused on strength, your range is two to six reps per set, while power lifters aim for two to five reps. Both strength and power lifters focus on multijoint exercises and a faster speed when lifting -- one second up and one second down. Multijoint exercises let you work multiple muscles at one time to achieve the highest power output. Examples of multijoint exercises are the clean-and-jerk and the deadlift.

Right Square in the Middle
If you are lifting for muscular growth -- hypertrophy -- you use between six and 12 reps, while advanced lifters train between six and eight. Hypertrophy training is right in the middle of low-rep, high-weight and high-rep, low-weight routines. Use a combination of multijoint and single-joint exercises for your routine to focus on specific muscle groups. Your leg routine may involve the multijoint barbell squat and the single-joint machine leg extension.

A Bunch of Reps
High-rep, low-weight workouts are designed to increase aerobic power and muscular endurance, and increase the time you can exercise before exhaustion. High-rep, low-weight workouts use between 15 and 20 repetitions and focus on multijoint and single-joint exercises. If you are doing high-rep, low-weight workouts, your focus is on enhancing your performance in a cardiovascular exercise such as running or cycling.

A Few Good Tips
When training at low-rep, high-weight intensity, cardiovascular training normally goes to the back burner. According to a 2009 study published in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research," men who combined resistance training with cycling or running didn't gain strength or hypertrophy as quickly as men focused only on resistance training. While low-rep, high-weight routines are good for untrained exercise enthusiasts, advanced enthusiasts showed more improvement on the rower with low-rep, high-weight routines than high-rep, low-weight, according to a 2004 study published in the "Journal of Strength Conditioning and Research."

Does Running Give You Muscular Legs?

Running is usually done as a method of increasing cardiovascular fitness and burning calories to slim down. If you're just started to up the intensity, or are beginning running for the first time, you'll experience muscle soreness after running, in much the same way you would after lifting weights, and might be wondering if this has the same effect of increasing leg muscle size.

The Experience Factor
Going from couch potato to regular jogger in the blink of an eye could result in some muscle growth and bigger legs, due to the fact your muscles go from doing virtually nothing, to suddenly training on a regular basis. If you're already fairly active, however, or used to lifting weights, running won't make your legs bigger. In fact, you'll need to be careful you don't lose muscle and make your legs smaller. Running is calorie-intensive, and to preserve muscle you need to increase your calorie intake to match expenditure, notes New York-based sports dietitian Lauren Antonucci.

The Key Players
Several different muscles are involved when you run, but the main ones are your quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes and hip flexors. If any muscles are going to increase in size, it's these. However, as running is more of a cardiovascular exercise than a strengthening one, the intensity you're working at generally isn't high enough to build much muscle mass.

Muscle Mechanisms
Muscles grow when they're exposed to a stimulus. This stimulus causes the muscle tissue to break down, to be built up again bigger and stronger, thus increasing muscle size. Your leg muscles are undoubtedly working hard when you run, but not in quite the same way as they would be with a bodybuilding or strength routine. Generally, low reps build strength, sets of six to 15 reps build muscle mass and anything over 15 reps per set starts to venture into endurance territory, notes strength coach Will Scudder on the Muscle and Strength website. As distance running is a low-intensity activity performed for a sustained duration, the reps are much, much higher and therefore you're unlikely to build muscle.

It's All in the Type
Long, steady runs won't build much in the way of leg muscle, but you could increase leg size with different types of running. Hill sprints may actually build muscle, according to trainer John Alvino. A short, maximum-intensity sprint up a steep hill is much more taxing that a steady jog and places a greater demand on your muscles. Likewise, doing weighted sprints wearing a weight vest or running while pulling a sled places more strain on your quads, hamstrings and calves and could help muscle gain.