Rep Difficulty when Muscle Building?

Endomorph trying to put on some muscle after cutting.

But I never realized, should every rep be a struggle for any exercise?
Powerlifters for instance squeeze their balls out every rep but if I’m trying to gain both muscle and strength, should I for example on the bench press, struggle on the first rep and at the end of about 4reps basically have the spotter pull the bar up for me?
Sounds dumb as fuck but this gent told me to lay off the weight and do a weight that I can push for 10 reps and struggle only a bit on the 10th rep.
I told him sir I’m trying to put on size and strength and he said “dont matter”

Spotter is there for added safety. He shouldn’t be lifting the weights for you at all.

I’m sure others will give more meaningful replies as to the reps struggling part. Personally though, I only want to struggle on the 4th to 5th rep on the third to fifth set on a 5x5 scheme, but that’s that’s just me on a strength approach. Form breakdown should be the most important limiting factor.

No it doesn’t. He is correct.

Was he bigger and stronger than you?

2 Likes

Someone sounds dumb AF though…

2 Likes

How can every single rep be a struggle? Unless you’re doing max effort doubles and singles all the time, I don’t get it.

Are you trying to say you should put maximum effort into every rep?

Ever heard of an Arx machine?

2 Likes

I’ve never seen this.

Is this like a spongy balls thing?

2 Likes

No.

Also, no

Are you under the impression the two aren’t related?

Absolutely not, on any level, no.

Sounds like a pretty smart guy.

Also:

No.

Pick a respected program that you believe in and meets the goals you have for yourself. If it’s a respected program, it will have guidelines for loading and progression built into it. Follow them, don’t try to find the shortcut by altering them.

Edit: and forget this endomorph self limiting bullshit. If you are not at your goal physique, it is because you haven’t put the work in, not some made up label. Own that and put the work in.

2 Likes