Low Rep Back Training

I’ve been realy happy about a change I made to my routine. I switched my back training to low reps, 3-5, but mostly 3, and I could not be more happy. I feel the tension where it should be, like in the lats with DB rows and close grip Pulldowns. Each session I’m pulling more weight while feeling it almost all in the lats. My girlfriend noticed some growth as well.

It also seems to work with biceps training, as I can curl much more weight with low reps, even more so than I would have taught, possibly due to my lousy muscular endurance.

It may also be due to the fact that I started lifting like CT recommends, trying to accelerate as fast as possible on the concentric and trying to apply the principles of the perfect rep as much as possible.

I tried it with chest and shoulder training but due to a nagging injury in my left shoulder, I cannot go under 5 reps for bench press and military press, it just feels very uneasy and painful.

Anyway I just wanted to share, does someone else had a breakthrough like that in the past?

[quote]gogotheviking wrote:
I’ve been realy happy about a change I made to my routine. I switched my back training to low reps, 3-5, but mostly 3, and I could not be more happy. I feel the tension where it should be, like in the lats with DB rows and close grip Pulldowns. Each session I’m pulling more weight while feeling it almost all in the lats. My girlfriend noticed some growth as well.

It also seems to work with biceps training, as I can curl much more weight with low reps, even more so than I would have taught, possibly due to my lousy muscular endurance.

It may also be due to the fact that I started lifting like CT recommends, trying to accelerate as fast as possible on the concentric and trying to apply the principles of the perfect rep as much as possible.

I tried it with chest and shoulder training but due to a nagging injury in my left shoulder, I cannot go under 5 reps for bench press and military press, it just feels very uneasy and painful.

Anyway I just wanted to share, does someone else had a breakthrough like that in the past?
[/quote]

I have but in the opposite direction, I had been training in the 1-5 range for months and I decided to do OTSBBB which uses really high rep ranges (13-15) for every bodypart, I progressed like never before.

I just want to be huge like the person I work with!

^good luck with that, particularily if you work at the zoo

The best training gains come from using something new after you become stale. Using low reps for a long period of time may require a little time of higher reps to snap your system back on track. Vice versa if you are using high reps all the time. I like to start out my workout with a low reps exercise, lets say curls. I will do some low rep work (3-5) for the first exersice. My next exercise may be up to 6-8 reps. My next exercise will be something like 8-12 reps. I try to move those exercises around from workout to workout. This not only seems to make me stronger, but I also get that great pump. I am a big proponet of “ramping” and autoregulation.

I noticed crazy back width and thickness gains when switching to low reps twice a week. The gains were very noticeable within 2-3 weeks and shirts were getting tight, arms grew a little as well.

I’ve tossed Deadlifts back into the mix after a stint with lower back and glute issues, which I’m sure has helped.

I like low reps on certain lifts for back. Rack deads, and floor deads yeah. I also like weighted chins, rack chins and such with low reps. For some reason though on most rows I like 7-12 reps, Can really get that scap retraction with a bit higher reps.