More Weight or More Reps or Both?

Completely agree with sijomial. I don't lift heavy weights any more but I do a rowing machine daily for around an hour. My lats were pretty hum drum most of my life. They are ridiculously large now. Six years of rowing did that. Extremely low weight per pull, just massive reps.

Too many variables to give you a complete answer with the info you have given.

Current evidence shows clearly that hypertrophy can be achieved comparatively in wide range of different rep ranges.

The old bioscience of thinking a high rep/low int is always better than a low rep/higher intensity simply is bogus.

The hypertrophy recipe always starts with adequate volume at appropriate intensity. How you achieve that is nuanced.

I would suggest startinh with a program that incorporates your equipment and time available and see how you respond.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Others answered the question, but since you asked it, I'm thinking you might find some useful info in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

A well-designed created by a professional will deliver better results than "just do some stuff with weights".

I'd strongly encourage you to follow a whole-body program, rather than just working selected areas for appearance reasons. A well-balanced whole-body muscular system is functionally useful in daily life, and helps with injury avoidance long-term. (It also looks better, so bonus.)

Like Mike, I'm a rower, long-term. Yes, it will develop arm muscles (also legs, BTW), but it's not balanced. That fact creates problems for many long-term rowers who don't do something to balance rowing's upper body pull/lower body push, with some non-rowing things that balance the opposing muscle groups. So, follow a good program.

You don't need to worry about developing "too much" muscularity for your appearance preferences. For one, building muscle is generally challenging for women. For two, it's slow for everyone. If you reach a point where you like the look, you can switch up your routine to maintaining vs. gaining.

Plus one! Agree completely. I find my shoulders seem to get hurt if I'm only doing either push or pull but not both.

And I balance myself out with 300 plus pushups a week (again, very light weight, high volume but it adds mass on me -- it wouldn't on a woman typically, just would look more toned).

What low rep, high weight stuff does is add peak strength, which I don't have that much of because I'm not all that concerned with it. Volume, though, is a great starting point for doing higher weights, less reps. If you were to choose, I'd choose higher volume to prepare your body for the stress (something I don't do well with, more because my cruddy knee and back) of lifting heavier.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

I don't lift heavy weights any more but I do a rowing machine daily for around an hour. My lats were pretty hum drum most of my life. They are ridiculously large now. Six years of rowing did that. Extremely low weight per pull, just massive reps.

I don't lift much any more either. Actually not at all for about 6 months since I developed a debilitating injury in my right elbow that prevents upper body lifting; long story.

However, I can still row w/o affecting my elbow because I find the most of my power rowing comes from pushing w/my legs, not pulling w/my arms.

I've rowed over 6 million meters in the past 4 years and it has really toned/strengthened my legs but, while I've always had a strong back, I still don't have huge lats after rowing over 6 million meters on my C2 in the past 4 years.

So, you must "pull" a lot harder rowing than I do.

As for the wt vs reps question posed by the OP, when I was lifting, I favored the heavy wt/low rep approach which worked for me in developing increased strength and, in the end, all I did were the 4 main lifts - SQT, DL, BP and OHP - at about 80% of my 1x max.

Doing BP & OHP are no longer an option for me because of my elbow problem but I still occasionally do SQT & DL and can still do certain crossfit exercises that work the upper body, like battle ropes, Farmer carries, sledge hammer strikes and tire flipping but don't aggravate my elbow.

However, for a full body exercise, to single device or exercise beats a rower.

Personally, I like to vary my reps. Right now I'm not trying to put on any more muscle or get any stronger. But if I were to try to put on muscle, high volume always seemed to work for me and many of my clients. 16-24 sets in the rep range of 8-12 seemed to be where I got the best results. Although with legs, it was 15-25 reps. But you're you and everyone seems to respond differently to training. Ultimately, you may try a few programs and see what you respond to best.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I don’t have anything to add, I was just reading along. But I want to thank everyone for jumping in with useful advice.