High or Low Reps for Cutting

Bodybuilders have been arguing for ages about the importance of doing
high or low reps when you are busy cutting your fat down. After years
of debate and clinical study it seems that the true answer is going
to be specific to your genes and your structure.

We all have a different ratio of red muscle (slow twitch) fibers and
white (fast twitch) muscle fibers and when reducing your fat this
could make a big difference. We also have a genetic metabolism speed
that we are born with. This is something that will also make a big
difference to your ability to start cutting up and how to train.

The truth is that when "cutting" it is more to do with what you eat
than your specific weight training routine that you use. However
there are bodybuilders that swear by doing high reps when starting
to cut up for a competition, but there is no rule.

In fact one would find professional bodybuilders that will swear
to increased intensity when cutting up and also slowing down on the
amount of reps. These types of bodybuilders will more than likely
have a naturally fast metabolism along with a large percentage of
fast twitch muscle fibers.

Any exercise that takes longer than 40 seconds to complete is going
to be using red (slow twitch) muscle fibers. This is because it has
used up the muscle glycogen that is stored in the muscle and then
relies on the oxygenated blood to supply the extra nutrients to
complete the movement.

One can say that anything less than 8 reps will be using only the
muscle glycogen that is stored in the muscle to execute the movement.
But anything over 8 or 10 reps will then need aerobically driven
muscles fibers to complete the movement.

This is extremely non-specific as it will change from person to
person but generally this will be the case. This means that when a
bodybuilder trains they usually are including both types of muscle
fibers. This is a good thing as it means that all the fibers in
that muscle group will be stimulated.

I suggest making use of all rep ranges (low, medium and high) for
building maximum muscle mass and definition.

Try this your next workout:

For each exercise (after your warm up) do 1 heavy set of 6 reps,
then a moderate set of 12 reps then finish with a light set of
25 reps.