: why are repetitions integral to a workout? Why can’t we lift max weight for one rep and call it a day?
In: Biology
Not an expert by any means but lifting max weight 1 for a workout is probably going to fuck your body up pretty quickly. Doing more reps with not maximum weight is safer for your body and probably end up working your muscles more anyway.
As muscles perform work they degrade slightly. I believe the theory or last time I read was that as the fibers slide, pull, and stretch they accumulate damage. This damage triggers a response from the body to start various things: new blood vessels are formed that bring both material and more fuel for muscle activity. The other thing that happens is the body starts to rebuild any damage and changes to the muscle fibers. I can’t remember if they grow in size or quantity or both. I think it’s the size/diameter.
More work ie repetitions is just one way to initiate this damage which begins the adaptive response. Other ways include intensity (how hard or heavy) frequency (how often) and volume (a combination of of all 3 over a period of some time such as a week or month)
The important thing is finding the balance between the damage caused by training and the body’s ability to react, heal, and adapt to it. All of this exists on a spectrum genetically too so some people respond really well to just doing 1 rep and some people may not respond much at all.
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