You might not be training slow enough

You see, our muscles are made up of two types of muscle fibers:

Fast Twitch

And Slow twitch

And the way to train each of them is very different 

For fast twitch muscles it is all about power, speed and intensity. Think sprints, heavy bench press, and box jumps. Doing low reps with heavy resistance is key. (1-8 rep range)

For slow twitch, it is all about constant activation, and endurance. Think jogging, high rep shrugs, and jump rope. Doing high reps with low resistance is key. (12+ rep range)

Many people neglect this concept and only train one way for all muscles (I used to be the biggest culprit of this).

For example, when I used to train biceps, I would strictly do 10-15 reps and then go to failure pretty much every time. Going to failure is great and I still do it when I train bis, but our biceps are actually more fast twitch than they are slow twitch. So we have to train the fast twitch fibers in the muscle to optimally work them. 

Here’s an easy solution for that. Pick your favorite bicep movement and go a lot heavier for less reps, preferably in the earlier parts of your lift. I usually do strict curls for 3-5 reps for 3-4 sets as my first bicep lift.

Now if you are ever questioning your gains in a certain area, I encourage you to look up what type of muscle you are working. And if you are ever in doubt, just train in the mid range with 8-12 reps. 

Now I could go into the science of how this all works, but that’s a lot more reading for you and more writing for me.

And in reality, as long as you show up and show out, the ‘science’ usually does not matter.

Best,

Luke

P.S.

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