avatarZachary Walston, PT, DPT, OCS

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Why Myo Reps May Be the Best Way To Efficiently Build Muscle and Strength

Searching for the best rep schemes for gym success

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How much time is needed to build muscle and strength?

Social media gurus, personal trainers, my colleagues in physical therapy, and gym rats will give you a variety of answers. Many, unfortunately, ignore research and focus on personal experience.

Personal experience can be helpful, but it hardly provides universal recommendations that will work.

When it comes to gym volume, many people assume a high volume is needed to build muscle and strength. Fortunately, that is not true.

I can share personal anecdotes of my training history as a 165-pound lifter who has benched 285, squatted 435, and deadlifted 500 lbs. My weight has fluctuated from 155–190 since college with a wide variety of lean mass. I have 10 years of experience as a physical therapist who has helped people ages 13–93 build muscle and strength.

All of those experiences have provided me with insights into different training programs and varying levels of effectiveness. But as I said, anecdotes have limited value. I use personal experience to refine and personalize research.

But research should always be the foundation.

This brings me back to the original question about the time needed to build muscle and strength.

For this article, I will focus on individual sessions, rather than full training plans. Do you need hours in the gym to stimulate muscle growth?

No.

You can if you want to spend that much time. As a father of two young kids and employee #1 of a startup, I don’t want to dedicate all my free time to exercise.

That’s why I use myo-reps.

What are Myo-reps?

Myo-reps represents a training approach centered on optimizing muscle growth and strength development by incorporating high-intensity sets and rest-pause techniques. The objective is to efficiently stimulate muscles while minimizing workout duration and fatigue.

Research indicates that one myo-rep set yields equivalent muscle growth to three conventional sets, requiring as little as 30% of the time. The core principle of myo-reps entails executing a cluster of brief mini-sets, termed “myo-reps sets” following the activation set.

What a myo-rep protocol looks like

Execute a set using a weight that enables approximately 8 to 15 repetitions, adapting to the specific exercise and individual capacity. It is recommended to maintain 1 rep in reserve (RIR) to effectively handle fatigue. This set serves as the activation phase.

This is the subtle difference between traditional rest-pause, which brings each set to failure (RIR 0). Studies show lifting to failure does not promote superior muscle growth compared to RIR 1–3. It may, however, impair recovery which will lower overall training volume.

Back to the protocol.

After completing the activation set, rack the weight and take a 5–15 second rest. This rest allows for some ATP restoration to facilitate continued but not nearly enough to repeat the same volume as the activation set. If you want to repeat a set of 8 to 15 reps, you will need 3 to 8 minutes of rest (depending on the exercise and point of your workout). There is a benefit to forgoing the additional rest, though.

Initiating a new set with under 15 seconds of rest helps sustain muscle fatigue at a level that stimulates high muscle activation. Studies indicate that training near failure is crucial for fostering muscle growth and strength improvements.

The complete myo-rep protocol comprises a sequence of 3 to 5 mini-sets. Following the activation set, each subsequent set should be taken to a 1 rep in reserve (RIR), typically amounting to 2 to 5 reps.

The goal is to reach a rep total you would normally achieve with a heavy resistance training rep scheme, usually 16–35 reps (e.g., 5x5, 6x4, 4x12, etc.). So, your total training volume would be the same as traditional training but the time commitment is much lower.

Here’s an example of a recent training session I completed that exclusively used myo-reps:

  • Bench Press: 205lbs x 8, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1 (18 total reps)
  • Weighted Pullups: 167BW + 25lbs weight x 9, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1 (21 total reps)
  • Overhead Press: 105lbs x 10, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1 (21 total reps)
  • Seated Rows: 210 lbs x 10, 4, 3, 3, 2 (22 total reps)
  • Incline Press: 55lbs kettlebells x 12, 6, 4, 3, 2 (27 total reps)

I warmed up for 5 minutes at the beginning of the program by gradually increasing the bench press weight. I just did one warm-up set for each other exercise.

All sets used 15 seconds of rest. I rested about 3 minutes between exercises which was primarily used to set up the exercise and complete one warm-up set of 3 reps at 50–60% of the training load.

The total exercise time was 35 minutes. If I used traditional 3–4 minutes of rest for these 25 sets of exercises, I would have easily surpassed an hour of gym time.

Myo-reps is one of many strategies

Gradually elevate the weight used in the activation set or strive to complete more overall repetitions within the myo-reps sets as time progresses. Progressive overload is essential to provoke muscle adaptation and sustained growth.

Myo-reps can be implemented across a range of resistance training exercises, addressing diverse muscle groups. Just be sure the intensity is high. Your activation set should not exceed 15 reps once you reach a 1RIR. If you aren’t close to failure by rep 15, the load is too light.

Supersetting and drop sets are additional methods for promoting muscle growth in a condensed amount of time. Try all three for variety in your workout routine.

I prefer myo-reps for heavy compound movements and super-sets for isolated movements (e.g., hamstring curls of lateral raises).

There are many ways to find success in the gym. Find what you enjoy and are willing and able to adhere to.

For more health and fitness content, check out the Clinical Gap Podcast and subscribe to zacharywalston.com

Muscle Building
Strength
Exercise
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