To get toned and ripped muscles, it’s best to do a lot of reps with light weight to failure…wrong! That seems to be what most people think now-a-days because of these group fitness classes and home work-out tapes. The next time someone calls lifting light weights “strength training,” I may just have to use the huge, ripped, muscles I acquired over the years from powerlifting to smash a 45 pound plate over their head.
What would you say if I told you in order for anyone, man or women, especially women to build “real” muscle, they must lift heavy. You would probably say I was wrong and that I’m just a meat head. Sorry to tell you, we would both be right, but one style will take you a lot further. There are two different kinds of muscle growth, also known as hypertrophy. The first one is Myofibrillar, which is the growth of denser stronger muscle, that you get from heavy lifting. The Second is Sarcoplasmic, which is bloated, soft and useless muscle, that you get from high rep, light weight training.
Sarcoplasmic is what you get from the “feel the burn training.” You know, when your trainer tells you to go to failure because it’s the best way to build muscle and if you aren’t sore, then you didn’t get a good workout? This is all BS. Sarcoplasmic, high rep training, builds fake muscle. This kind of training will increase muscle cell fluid inside the muscle, giving you the appearance of “real” muscle. Over time when training is stopped the fluid will leave the muscle and you are left with nothing but a painful memory of “feeling the burn.”
Myofibrillar, on the other hand is the growth of real muscle. In order to build good quality muscle you must recruit more muscle fibers. The more muscle fibers you have in a muscle, the harder and bigger that muscle becomes. To build more muscle fiber, there must be a demand for more muscle fiber, and you won’t get that from lifting light weights any two-year-old can handle. You must challenge yourself and force your muscles to work harder, by lifting heavier weights. I’m not saying put yourself at risk by lifting weights you can’t handle, but devise a strength program that forces you to become stronger, in turn building more muscle fiber. These muscle fibers will stay with you for a hell of a lot longer than the “feel the burn” pump you will get from light weight training.
How can you go about building strength and develop real muscle? This simple program should help:
5 x 5 x 5
Five exercises. Five sets each. For five reps.
The exercises should be compound or multi-joint exercises, such as presses or squats. Sets should have at least one to two minutes of rest in between. The five reps should be challenging, but not bring you to failure. You should stop two reps short of that.
Example Program:
Day 1
Barbell Squat
Reverse Lunge
Bench Press
Single Arm Dumbbell Row
Dips
Day 2 – Off
Day 3
Leg Press
Dead Lift
Standing Military Press
Incline Dumbbell Press
Pullups
Day 4 – Off
Day 5
Front Squat
Good Mornings
Chest Press Machine
Upright Row
Seated Cable Row
Day 6 and 7 – Off From Weights
To build muscle and strength, three days a week on a full-body split can be more than enough if done right. Plenty of rest should be applied, as well as proper food intake. Cardio can be performed three times a week. This would include: one low intensity cardio day for a steady state, and two high intensity interval training cardio days. After a few weeks of this program, you may adapt, that doesn’t mean you have to throw it out. Just simply rearrange the order of the exercise, or change the days you do them. There are a ton of variables that can be applied here, what should remain constant is your dedication, desire and determination to become better.
For additional information on this topic, check out Power to the People by Pavel
PDF 
Adam Signoretta is a natural bodybuilder who has competed in ten competitions within the past five years. He has also competed in three powerlifting meets in the past two years, earning two overall best raw lifter awards. He is NASM, CES, PES, and RKC certified. If you have any questions on bodybuilding, powerlifting, or kettlebell training, email him at Asignoretta@aol.com or visit Conquestkettlebell.com. 
Great article….now if I could only get my wife to truly understand what this article expresses about “toning.” She so concerned about “looking like a man”….it’s freaking annoying.
Chadrick…You have one of those too? My wife doesn’t understand that weight training will help her with her races she likes to run. Also shed a few more lbs after being pregnant and/or breast feeding for the last 5 year. She has lost 45, but she could have lost 55-60 incorporating weights.
I tell kids in my health class that everyone, guys and girls, should be lifting heavy. I give them all kinds of reasons (strength, performance, long-term health, fat loss, mental health, etc.). The girls always tell me that they are afraid to look huge and muscular.
I have many responses to this, but usually I reply: ‘if it were that easy to gain massive amounts of muscles, don’t you think the guys at our school would be a lot larger? Wouldn’t I be a lot larger?’
They don’t really have an answer for that one.
Well you’re halfway there. But leg press? Cable row? No, no, no. Read _Starting Strength_ by Rippetoe and Kilgore immediately. Machines are the enemy of strength. Long kinetic chains over multiple joints are the best way to overload your system, leading to the greatest adaptations. Seriously.
leg press, machine press yeah i would throw those out too, just squat, bench,deadlift, and throw in all the variations of them that you can think of, but the seated cable row and vertical pull variations are all great assistance movements to help with posture and strength imbalances.
I am female age 56 and i am learning how to powerlift. I strongly recommend lifting heavy. It feels great to be in better shape at 56 than at any other time of your life and as stated by previous posts it helps with ones cardio if that is their thing. I never did a real deep knee bend until i was 52 and one of these days I am going to squat 200 pounds raw! Heavy weights also makes you look young! best beauty aid going! To all those trainers out there don’t baby your older clients you aren’t doing them any favors!
slight correction: Myofibrillar hypertrophy does not cause hyperplasia of muscle fibres (increased number of muscle fibres; as far as it has been studied in humans there is no evidence of that). what it does is makes the fibres bigger and stronger by getting more myofibrills by increasing the size and number of sarcomeres. but the number of fibres remains the same. like i said, more of a semantic correction, the gist of the article is entirely correct.
if machines suck and have no purpose I doubt Elitefts would sell them on the site, everything has its purpose, there is never one way to do something.
I am all for getting bigger and stronger, and more importantly I write to help those who would like to do the same. I never knock anyones theories until first trying them, If you did the same the world would be a better place. Just because you don’t do something, or some guru says its bad, does not mean you can not get results.
Example, if leg press is the enemy, tell that to my buddy who was ranked number one in the nation for shot put and has hit a raw squat of 625 at 208 his first meet. He is a firm believer in full range heavy leg presses.
Thanks for reading
What about the argument that high reps help the muscles to recover and flush them with nutrients? I agree that low rep training should be the focus but I think high reps have their place too. They shouldn’t be thrown out completely.
novocaine is right about myofibril hyperplasia + if you read Wendler’s 5/3/1, his assistance work is usually in the 10 rep range…
Definately with you Mark. I do both bodybuilding and powerlifting. High reps are good as well and have their place also, so do single joint movements. In my opinion there is really no wrong way to train,. However, if you are squatting 135 for 20 everywork out when you can hit 225 for 20, then you are just half assing it,and that is unacceptable. That is the point I am trying to get accross in this article.
Thanks
Although I like the idea of 5×5 and the idea of low rep training, I don’t believe you should just throw out higher rep training. Every rep range has its benefits… why not start your chest day with a 5×5 compound movement and then move on to other exercises with different rep ranges. Squats 5×5, Good Mornings 3×8-12… catch my drift?
Pro bodybuilders have worked in the higher rep ranges for year, that is where real muscle hypertrophy occurs, drugs aside.
Joseph, have you seen some of these pro-bodybuilders a few years after they stop/slow down lifting. Some of them look like they’ve never lifted a weight before but were huge during their competition stint. I think this is somewhat what the author is trying to get across. I’m not dissing any hardworking pro but just look at Kevin Levrone when he stopped competing and shrank like a busted ballon but then take a look at Bill Kazmier who still looks like he could crush your head with his hands even if he is a little on the heavy side.
I think this article is shockingly terrible. “Better not go above 3 reps, don’t want to build that “fake” sarcoplasm muscle. Now go do leg presses.”
“I dont want to look like a man.” Is just another way of saying Im pathetically lazy and Im not going to do it.
I don’t like to do more than 6 reps. Ever. Well, maybe on good mornings. Three to six reps is where I live. Maybe I’m just a lazy bastard.
It was 5 reps Phil
i dont think Adam was saying to never do high reps, everything has its place. When i think of “heavy” i think of something that really makes u struggle like hell to finish the set even if it goes up to 15-20 reps (giving it your all). this 5x5x5 program is also just an example. there is no “perfect” program out there. it was just an example for people to see what he means.
i guess that’s why kroczaleski’s back is so small and weak right? those 30 reps rows are useless.
As a 31 yr old girl, who lifts heavy … it’s sooo hard to keep the mass on.
Even taking in over 200g of protein, helps a bit, but really, we’re not built to be beasts.
What *most* women don’t understand, is that we don’t produce enough testosterone to ‘easily’ build muscle. We often mistake FAT for muscle
yeh but not everyone can lift heavy…does that mean im waisting my time in the gym doing lighter weights for reps? chin ups and leg press is all i can do heavy rest is high rep kettle bell moves push ups and inverted rows..
im 110kgs so doing higher reps with lighter weights is still very challenging dont knock it to hard and would be nice to feel some love artical wise for ppl who cant train heavy…in fact ppl who cant even put a barbell on there backs
You guys that can train hard any way you want to shouldnt take that for granted i would kill to be able to deadlift squat flip tyres do power cleans, huge amounts of weight
knowing u can flip a car if needed………
Also, there are hormonal benefits to lifting in the high rep range to exhaustion. (i.e HGH, IGF, testosterone)
Well, also most women just don’t like hard physical work. Now, I have seen very attractive women who train hard (one was a natural powerlifter squatting 400+ for high box squats with large but graceful, feminine legs) and I have seen masculine, gross ones too. But usually the latter started out that way and training didn’t t do that to them unless they are on ‘roids.
I should point out that 30 rep rows won’t make anyone’s back huge like Kroc’s unless they are already pretty strong because otherwise they won’t be handling enough weight. It’s not just the exercise, but also the lifter that matters. This is why novices get bigger with heavy weight than with high reps and why high reps are more useful for more advanced trainees than less advanced ones.
And yes, hyperplasia unfortunately does not happen. What that means is, if you were not born with a lot of muscle cells, you probably will not become world class. There might theoretically be a way, via gene doping and stem cells, to induce hyperplasia. There’s the future of doping, folks, hah.
Again, we take a portion of a statement and twist it up. There is so much more to it. IMO if you are truly getting “ripped”. than you are probably drying out your body. Lifitng heavy weights during this time means you are taking a huge risk in tearing muscles and tendons. That’s why people who are “getting ripped” will lighten the load. They’ve already done the mass building.
The training has to suit a purpose. As does diet, cardio, and supplements. You need heavy weights for sure, but there’s a place and purpose for lighter weights to.
BTW, what the hell is toned ????
alot of pseudo science in this article, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is not functionless! Those muscles cells that get bigger don’t just grow because they feel like it, it’s an adaptive response that allows you to perform more reps at the same weight over time.
”Myofibrillar, on the other hand is the growth of real muscle. In order to build good quality muscle you must recruit more muscle fibers. The more muscle fibers you have in a muscle, the harder and bigger that muscle becomes. To build more muscle fiber, there must be a demand for more muscle fiber, and you won’t get that from lifting light weights any two-year-old can handle. ”
this is rubbish too, you are refering to hyperplasia not hypertrophy, which incidently has not been shown to occur in human muscle yet though it is thought possible because it can occur in mice and cats.
Sorry Elite, I like you guys, just not this article.
Hey Adam, I don’t think you have a warmup for this laid out on your site. Would a bodyweight circuit, followed by 2 warmup sets of the first exercise be sufficient?
Also, do you honk metabolic conditioning should be done on off-days or after the workouts?
I’d like to say that I enjoyed your article immensely!
Oh, sorry, I didn’t see the end of your article. That clears things up.
However, would it be counterproductive if I supersetted the motions? I really like the principles behind that kind of exercise technique and I feel it’s really fitness-demanding.
I trained on 5 rep systems for years and packed on tons of muscle. Great system, just make sure you add in some higher rep work every fee weeks or your joints get beat to hell. There’s a time and place fr all sorts of rep schemes.
Exactly Krypton, train smart, thats all. Something works stick with it, make changes where needed, nothing is set in stone.
Heh I抦 literally the only comment to this incredible post.
This routine seems like it would work for me being that its 3 days a week. The only thing is I have been dealing with some pain in my right elbow for the last month. Not sure if its tendonits or not but I do feel it throughout the day. I took a week off to rest. Is it not a good idea to be lifting heavy with a 5×5 program having some pain or am I going to feel it anyway? Thanks!