Hey guys,

 

So I was just curious, can you train individual muscles differently than others?

 

For example, can you train with high volume on your arms but train strength on your chest if these are what helps them grow?

Another example, can you train one muscle with lets say 6-8 reps and another with 12-15 reps?

 

Personally, I feel as if individual muscles in my upper body respond better to different types of training. I find myself forcing my muscles to coincide with one style of training and I don't think it works for me.

 

Any thoughts?

Just trying to maximize my potential results!

 

Ben

Hey @England11!

 

Everyone is different, so you very well could have muscle which respond better to different types of training.

 

For most people, their smaller muscles like biceps or triceps don't need as much direct training (volume) as the bigger muscle groups like your chest. When it comes to your rep range, you can absolutely switch them up for muscle groups because you might find you need to push one group harder than another to get it to grow.

 

At the end of the day, you need to listen to your body. If one muscle group isn't responding the same as another, then editing what you are doing is the best thing you can do. There is no point training for months on end in a certain way if you can clearly tell it's not working and producing any gains.

 

Jordan

Thanks for the reply Jordan,

 

I was hoping someone would say something like this. I still do more reps on my larger muscles than my smaller ones, it's really about how I approach the reps.

 

On my arms and shoulders I do dropsets once the heaviest weight I can do to AT LEAST get 10 reps gets heavy. I'll drop the weight 1-2 times in order to reach at least 10 reps. It's killer.

For example: Set 1, 40lbs 10 reps Set 2, 40lbs 8 reps then 35lbs till failure Set 3, and so on.

 

But this type of training doesn't work well for my chest at all. I don't get a pump as I do in my arms and shoulders. My arms will actually have a pump for 3-4 days after this. You should try it once.

 

Just being more specific, but what you said helps a lot.

 

Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey guys,

 

So I was just curious, can you train individual muscles differently than others?

 

For example, can you train with high volume on your arms but train strength on your chest if these are what helps them grow?

Another example, can you train one muscle with lets say 6-8 reps and another with 12-15 reps?

 

Personally, I feel as if individual muscles in my upper body respond better to different types of training. I find myself forcing my muscles to coincide with one style of training and I don't think it works for me.

 

Any thoughts?

Just trying to maximize my potential results!

 

Ben

Ben,

 

In general, the distribution of white muscle fiber (strength) and red muscle fiber (endurance) varies per individual and sometimes per muscle group. Only thru trial and error do you learn which training style works best for your body. Don't use the "pump" as a criteria to determine the effectiveness of an exercise or a training routine. You don't need a pump to tear muscle tissue to induce growth. The pump is dependent on the amount of glycogen stored locally in the muscle and the amount of blood flow induced by the exercises performed.

 

The best way to hit both types of muscle fibers is reverse pyramid rep schemes with reps in the 6-15 range. Scott's current videos in his holiday training series demonstrates this. To build a balanced physique, you need to train both types of muscle fibers for maximum size and strength. Following a routine that only targets one type of fiber for any or all muscles is not the best way to proceed. As such, a combination of progressive overload AND higher volume is the best route. Progressive overload can be achieved either by heavy weight low reps or increased volume and intensity with light to moderate weight. The advantage of higher volume training is you exhaust a muscle more completely as it has to do more work over time. Again, this statement is only valid if your muscle make-up is predominately red, slow twitch fibers versus white fast twitch fibers.

 

John

Thanks John!

 

I had no idea about what you said in regard to glycogen and a muscle pump. This may be why my arms get a much bigger pump than my chest. I've always struggled with getting a pump in my chest so maybe I should just keep progressive overloading and I'll be fine.

 

That helps a lot! I'll also watch Scott's holiday series.

 

Ben