Why 2 Reps Per Set Won’t Cut It

by Mark McManus on February 9, 2011

Quick Tip!

So you’re approaching the end of a THT cycle and you are beginning to plateau on a few lifts.

You decide to drop the rep range to 4-6 reps to failure to help BLAST through it as recommended.

Why not all the way down to 2 reps?

Why can’t you stimulate all the growth you want by lifting 2 reps to failure, or even just your 1 Rep Max?

Good question.

For sure, the muscular contractions of these lifts are INTENSE - I’ll give you that.

But when training specifically for larger muscles, there is another major consideration to be taken into account.

But firstly, would a 2-rep-set recruit all muscle fibers? Yes it would.

The load is heavy enough to signal the brain to say, “Hey, I need all available fibers contributing to this lift”. That’s good.

NOTE: For your information, the load you lift needs to be over around 60% of your 1 rep max weight to force all the fibers to come into play. Obviously then, lifting 1 or 2 reps to failure fulfils this requirement.

But I said there was another factor. This is “Rate Coding“.

When reaching failure in a higher rep range, the muscle fibers will really start to fatigue in those last few reps, it is then that rate coding increases to help you keep producing the necessary force.

“Rate coding” is simply the FREQUENCY of the signal that is sent to the motor units to contract. Increased coding means a higher frequency of signals. A higher frequency allows the muscle to generate more force. Simple.

Training at very low rep ranges, or a very low ‘Time Under Load’, doesn’t give this a chance to happen.

On the other end of the spectrum, training below 60% of your 1 rep max, which is usually greater than 15-reps-to-failure-per-set, won’t recruit your much needed fast-twitch “growth fibers” until the very end, perhaps just for a few seconds.

This type of work is more of an endurance or metabolic fatigue-type workout. It has its place, but shouldn’t play a major role in a hypertrophy-specific program like THT.

For more on rep ranges you may want to check out my article, “How many reps to build muscle?“.

Take Care & Train with INTENSITY!

Mark

{ 8 comments }

1 Andrew Mast February 9, 2011 at 9:10 pm: Mark, your bicep is nice and ripped in that picture, thumbs up!
2 Mark McManus February 9, 2011 at 9:15 pm: Thanks, man. All-year leanness, it’s the only way to be!
3 mike February 9, 2011 at 9:36 pm: Hey Mark, I had asked you about DHEA ,what do you think of it? Keep all the awsome articles comming, were working hard. Mike in Wisconsin.
4 John A Davis February 9, 2011 at 10:29 pm: Whew. I’m safe. 10th week did at least 6.
5 Mark McManus February 10, 2011 at 11:51 am: @Mike. It’s not a supplement that I’ve given a lot of thought to, Mike. I know of one study that showed an increase in circulating IGF-1 levels in men after six months at 100mg per day. But these were men over 50, the increase I believe was about 15%. So it *may* have a positive impact on body composition in older gentlemen (this wasn’t true for women) but perhaps no impact on younger people.
6 Adam Weichel February 10, 2011 at 12:11 pm: Great article MarK! I’d always wondered about 1-2 reps, as I’ve always heard that 3-4 for muscle strength and 5-6 for power lifting – possibly from you.

I think it’s safe to say I won’t be going there anytime soon.
7 Tony February 11, 2011 at 4:16 am: I’ve always wondered about the 1-2 rep also. Mostly seeing those massively huge guys doing 1 or 2 reps with retarded amount of weight. Naturally I thought “it must work…look at the size of that beast”. Thanks for the info Mark.
8 David February 11, 2011 at 6:06 am: There’s also the fact that with only 2 reps, you’re not even exhausting your creatine phospate stores (assuming 5 seconds a rep). It takes 5-15s seconds to deplete those stores (estimates vary), which at 5 seconds a rep is enough for 3 good reps. That’s why the 4-6 range is ideal; you need the CP system to fall off in order to force your body to do something to keep the intensity up. Hence, rate coding.