Super High Reps

Does anybody have ACTUAL experience using super-high reps schemes? I'm not talking about the 25-50 rep range that most refer to as super-high, but more like Heavyhands type workouts with higher weights. There's virtually nothing posted on the web, outside of the heavyhands sponsored sights or Dragan's fitness 4x4 system(maybe that should tell me something:)).

The theory behind it seems pretty sound, as far as distributing the aerobic(or anaerobic as the case may be) workload among four limbs.

Anyway, I wondered if anyone here has experimented with this sort of system, and what they got out it. Also, any workouts/tips would be appreciated. I’ve been working it in for the past couple of weeks and notice an improvement in my upper body endurance, but it’s kind of early to gauge results.

I have and I have had some interesting results in size and appearance. Due to a shoulder injury I cannot handle really heavy weights when pressing or raising side ways (quite annoying when you are trying to gain size in the delts) so I adopted a super high rep program and take an empty olympic barbell and go for 100 reps (behind neck press with a really wide grip…old weightlifting style) in as little time as possible.

Depending on how I feel and how my energy level is I repeat this once or twice. The burn and pump is unreal. I literally look twice as big afterwards.

I do the same with side raises and take 5-10lbs and do two to three sets of 50-100 reps. By then I am ready to cry like a little girl. I then do one set of Cybex machine presses where the first ten reps are 4 sec up and 6 sec down and then rep out till I cannot see straight anymore.

My rear delts are fine and I handle heavy weights there.

the odd things is, as brutal as this sounds after a few weeks I started to recuperate real fast from these workouts and am now doing this workout at least twice a week and the gains in mass and the difference in shape are astounding.

Poliquin wrote once that shoulders lend themselves to this type of training and I sure wish I knew about it ten years ago.

Make sure your form is picture perfect the first 50 or so reps otherwise it is no use.

Hope this helps.

I used to ride the exercise bike on interval random hill climb. I would coast along and then hit a “hill” and peddle hard for a couple of minutes. I once counted and stopped after counting 100+ reps per leg for the “hill”. I was using the bike at its highest seting (20) and riding for one hour. I was in great physical condition but, my legs remained skinny…

[quote]IamMarqaos wrote:
Poliquin wrote once that shoulders lend themselves to this type of training and I sure wish I knew about it ten years ago.

[/quote]

Also Craig Titus is a big supporter of this as well and yes I know he’s a pro bodybuilder and uses some other aids but still it’s the same point, about high reps for shoulder

yep, I used to work out at Gold’s in Venice and saw him and his wife do very high rep training all the time. He’d blow up like a balloon. There was another guy in there, a black gentlemen who was not a pro but unreal huge and he did 12 sets of 100 reps for legs, back and shoulders once per week.

It doesn’t seem to be the kind of size that stays with you for a long time though. But you increase size very fast. Recently I have added a set of maximum reps with 60% of my max to both biceps and triceps and the exploded in size in two weeks! My arms are at least 1/2 inch bigger and look totally different. I was never a big fan of training with less than 80% of max but at certain times it does do the trick!

Thanks for the input everybody.
However, what I had in mind was more along the lines of using weights as cardio devices and just distributing the muscular work throughout the body for a more balanced effect. I’ve been incorporating high-rep snatches and swings, as well as the “vertical lift” described on the fitness 4x4 site. Right now I’m trying to go for time, not reps. Once I reach 15 minutes with a given weight, then I’ll up it. Right now I’m doing this twice per week and not switching exercises intra-workout, but staying with one lift each time. Next week, I’ll move up to 3x.

I realize I’m “Guinea Pigging” it a little, but I’m curious to see what a few months of this will do for my overall conditioning(fat loss, strength-endurance, resting heart rate, etc.).

I certainly welcome additional comments and/or experiences.

Once some time goes by, I’ll post my personal observations and improvements.

I realize this is an old thread, but as I’ve found some interesting articles that can be of use to someone I thought it appropriate to post.

Clarence Bass has three articles that I know of about Dr. Leonard Schwartz’s Heavy Hands.

Conversation with Leonard Schwartz, M.D.:
http://www.cbass.com/SchwartzInterview.htm

Heavyhands Revisted, Article 1:
http://www.cbass.com/DESKOF.HTM

New Heavyhands!, Article 125:
http://www.cbass.com/Schwartz.htm

As always, Bass’s site is a wonderful resource for free information.