What’s the best rep range for bulking ectomorphs?

[losboogie]

Hello everyone.

I’m an ectomorph and I’m fairly new to bodybuilding. I’ve been working out for almost a year now, but I’ve only been reading and trying to understand the science behind it for about a month.

I’m having trouble making up my mind about how heavy I should be lifting, and how long I should be waiting between sets.

Much of what I’ve read on this site says that I should be lifting like a powerlifter, 3-5 reps, and resting 2-3 minutes between sets, so that I can stimulate my muscles deeply, and regenerate enough power to lift heavy again. I haven’t been able to find any explanation as to why this should work.

I’ve been reading more stuff that explains that lifting in the 3-5 range increases strength, but not size. This makes more sense to me. Your muscle gives out before it’s fully stimulated, so it learns to be more efficient, instead of growing. Most of the writers on this site seem to agree that hypertrophy happens in the 6-12 range. I also read that powerlifters rest for 3 minutes because they don’t want to increase size, although this wasn’t explained further.

If anyone has a deeper understanding of why an ectomorph should lift like a powerlifter, please explain it to me. Until then I’ll stick with 6-12.

Thanks

LB

[Stout1]

all rep ranges work, use just ONE rep range and you'll fail, utilize them all, singles the way up to 20 rep squats

[iron addict]

Originally Posted by losboogie

Hello everyone.


If anyone has a deeper understanding of why an ectomorph should lift like a powerlifter, please explain it to me. Until then I’ll stick with 6-12.

Thanks

LB

Because low reps build strength at the fastest possible pace. That strength is directly transferable to your higher rep lifting. Failure to do low rep training is one of the biggest reasons it takes most bodybuilders 2-4 times as long as a powerlifter to develop a reasonable strength base. You can take the fast road, or the slow road. Your choice.

IA

[Diesel46]

Is there some crazy law where you live that forbids using more than one rep range in a workout? If not then do both.