We all tend to find comfortable grooves in life. We wake up in the morning, and fall into our regular groove of brushing our teeth and grabbing a protein shake before running out the door to work. When mealtime arrives, we’re often on auto-pilot. We throw a chicken breast on the Foreman grill, and prep our carbs at the same time. After washing it down with a Diet Dr. Pepper or some Crystal Lite, we get back to work in anticipation of our journey to the gym that evening. When the time comes for training, it’s often the same way. We train at the same time each day, and we know what to expect. Our machines will be there for us. We’ll use about the same weight each time, save for small incremental increases. We’ll almost always use the same rep range. It will usually be 6 to 10 repetitions, sometimes flirting with 12 on the early sets of an exercise.

This kind of auto-pilot mentality makes training easy, but it can make it less productive. Let’s take a body part such as chest. The pectoral muscles are made up of a fine blend of slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Whenever we lift a very heavy weight for a low amount of repetitions (1 to 7 repetitions), we are using our fast-twitch muscle fibers. Whenever you lift using higher repetitions (8 to 20 repetitions), we are using our slower-twitch muscle fibers.

Each person in the gym has a different ratio of fast to slow-twitch muscle fibers, but it’s very true that we all have some of each. Therefore it is imperative that in order to make the most gains in pectorals as well as all muscle groups, we should use repetition ranges which hit both. You may be surprised how well your pectorals will grow when you employ a new rep scheme. There’s a very good chance you’ve found a comfortable repetition range after years of training. You may be very strong, and you may have a very well-developed chest. Still, there are fibers which are neglected if you stay within you standard range, preventing you from reaching your true potential. Here is a sample workout consisting of 18 sets which allows you to guarantee you are hitting both fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers.

Flat Dumbbell Press

• 1 set of 15 repetitions
• 1 set of 12 repetitions
• 1 set of 10 repetitions
• 1 set of 8 repetitions
• 1 set of 5-6 repetitions

Incline Bench Press

• 1 set of 18 repetitions
• 1 set of 15 repetitions
• 1 set of 10 repetitions
• 1 set of 8 repetitions
• 1 set of 5-6 repetitions

Incline Dumbbell Flyes

• 1 set of 20 repetitions
• 1 set of 15 repetitions
• 1 set of 10 repetitions
• 1 set of 8 repetitions

Cable Crossovers

• 1 set of 20 repetitions
• 1 set of 15 repetitions
• 1 set of 10 repetitions
• 1 set of 8 repetitions

Give this workout a shot the next time chest day rolls around. You’ll need to go lighter than usual on the high-repetition sets, and heavier than usual on the low-repetition sets. But the results might just surprise you!

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