Is a few heavy reps better than a lot of light reps when working out?

Question

I have been working out for a while and I have always done 3 heavy reps and then 2 heavier one and finally the last one is maxed out. But my girlfriend said she read it was better to do more reps. I dont want to be toned. I want to body build and bulk up in muscle mass. Not just be toned. I ONLY want answers from people who actually know something about working out and body building. Thank you

Answer 1

More reps and lower weight tones your muscles.

Less reps and more weight builds your muscles, and makes them bigger.

The first one is better, because you don't want to walk around like those gym monkeys who can't scratch their backs, plus bigger muscles are not attractive to females,

Bigger muscles don't necessarily mean strength, people with toned muscles have way more speed and agility then people with a lot of muscle mass, even when it comes to fighting, look at the idiots in the cage like in MMA, and look at boxing stars like Ali, Golden Boy, etc..

Try to do running also, you can't just focus on your arms, but if you do focus on your arms, switch up your work outs every other week, because the muscles get adapt to the work outs, and if the work out stays the same for a long time, it has little effect on the body.

Answer 2

if you are a starter, then just go slowly with light reps, and you can increase them gradually (increase the number of reps and the weights) ...

heavy reps will give you bigger muscles, light reps will give stronger and shaped muscles (but not big as heavy reps) ..

Answer 3

personally i think you should go between 6-8 reps.  start with 6, then work your way to 8.  when you get all your sets at 8 reps then increase the weight til you can only barely do 6 again.  repeat repeat repeat...

also, it's a good idea to cycle your training - by that i mean lift heavy for a part of the year, then lift lighter for reps for part of the year to give your joints a rest and also to attack your muscles from another approach.  the body is remarkable in that it adapts to stress easily so, in order to keep growing, you need to keep your body guessing.

good luck.