light weights

Tall

Hmmm.....

Muscle toning? You can't really tone a muscle - its either there or it isn't. Do you mean you do hi reps as more of an aerobic fat burning workout ?

Tall

I think we all know I have issues...



But no I wasn't reading up on it lol!

bulldozer

Correct!! Neither can you shape a muscle!!

A muscle rather gets bigger , gets smaller , or stays the same size

Richard

I have recently reduced alot of the weight i lift without increasing the reps too much so that i can concentrate on form and lifting/lowering very slowly. So far it seems to be working well.

You need to change the way you train your muscles every few weeks anyway. I recently changed from a split routine to a HST routine. Maybe you should research that and see what you think?

Tall

Personally I dont think thats quite true.

I agree that your training should vary in order for you to grow - and by vary I mean the weight/volume you lift should increase each week in order to overload the muscles and provide a stimulus for growth.

That could be by doing more reps (i.e. hitting 9 reps per set instead of 8 last week) or by increasing the weight (i.e. 50kgs on the bar instead of last weeks 45kgs)

I like to vary my reps/sets but I stick to the same exercises so I can track my progress. Personally I like to over the course of a month do reps in the high, medium and low rep ranges on some exercises (deadlift, squats and bench being the main ones), I've read from some posts by some fairly experienced guys that this stimulates both red and white muscle fibres and some other technically sciencey stuff which went over my head.

Switching your training routine around every few weeks will mean you aren't able to accurately see whats working for you and making you grow.

Richard

So do you mean to a set of 12, set of 8 and set of 5 on the same workout for an exercise or do you mean 12 reps on one week, 8 the next and so on?