Hypertrophy Methods: Myo Reps (#59)

Get Jacked With Myo Reps

Change is the name of the game when it comes to periodization. Most of us get prescribed 3 sets of 10 for everything when we first start off in the gym, and that’s fine. However, 3 sets of 10 is going to get boring and stop working really quick. If you do the same workotus every week, expect to not only stay the same, but to eventually start going backwards (the law of accommodation). While this may seem obvious to some, it clearly isn’t if you’re doing the same thing in the gym most of the time.

*cough* most people *cough*

Muscle confusion is often the term thrown around when we talk about training variability, it’s a pretty stupid term at face value because we’re not seeking confsuion as much as novelty. Muscles don’t get confused. The degree of novelty doesn’t need to be “confusing” either. Simply changing rep schemes or an angle by 15 degrees can be all the variation you need to avoid accommodation (plateaus).

“when the body regularly experiences the same exercises and physical stressors the training effect will be reduced. This is what is known as the law of accommodation.”

Westside Barbell - The law of Accommodation

Intensity Methods

There are a variety of intensity methods you can deploy to give your vanilla training some swirl. Drop sets, pre-exhaust, and rest pause are just some methods you can use to add variety to your training and see continous progress. This article will primarily focus on Myo reps. If you want a video explanation, you can find it at the bottom of this article.

Myo = Muscle

Reps = The thing you do to lift the weight up

The cornerstone idea behind myo reps is getting more effective reps. If you are curling a 12 rep max, the 3rd rep is less effective than the 11th rep at stimulating hypertrophy. With myo reps you’ll hit an activation set of 8-15 repetitions (ideally closer to 12), rest 15 seconds, then hit 3-5 reps. Keep repeating the rest and 3-5 reps until you hit 5 sets of can no longer perform at least 3 reps.

Example:

Activation Set Incline DB Bench 60 x 13

Rest 15 sec

Incline DB Bench 60 x 5

Rest 15 sec

Incline DB Bench 60 x 4

Rest 15 sec

Incline DB Bench 60 x 4

Rest 15 sec

Incline DB Bench 60 x 3

Rest 15 sec

Incline DB Bench 60 x 2

You’re done

Benefits of myo reps

Greater motor units are recruited meaning more muscle fibers are innverated, increasing the potential for greater muscle damage. There is also greater metabolic stress compared to something like a single set of 12 reps to failure. Myo reps are also a great way to increase volume on accessory work on lagging body parts.

Myo reps are also great if you have limited time to train. You really only need about 10 minutes to warmup to an activation set and bang out the myo sets. If you’re strapped for time and looking for a great way to pack on some slabs of beef, myo reps could be key.

How to Implement Myo Reps

I would perform only a single series of myo reps per muscle group on any given day. If you typically do 3 tricep exercises, I would not perform myo sets for all 3 exercises. It probably won’t kill you to do so but it’s a bit overkill to do more than one myo set per muscle group per day if you’re doing it right. Either cut it down to 2 exercises and perform 3-5 sets of 8-15 reps for one of them and a myo set for the other, or just do a single all out effort on a myo set for one movement.

Myo reps are best used for isolation movements or dumbbells. Although you could use myo reps for powerlifts (squat, bench, deadlift) your form will most likely deterioriate before true muscular failure and your risk of injury will be greater as a result. If you’re able to get a spotter I would highly recommend it, getting a forced rep or two could amp up the intenfity further.

I would use myo reps as a 3 week cycle before switching to either a new progression or different training style. I’ve written an indepth article about how you can write your own training titled “Novice & Intermmediate Training Planning”. You can find out more about exercise planning (the nerds call it periodization) by clicking here.

Myo Reps and Myo Sets

Watch the video above for a brief description

Want more cool training content? Y’all loved Mike Mentzer Heavy Duty style training, read about it here.

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