Tip How to Look Like You Lift Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip How to Look Like You Lift It doesn' t matter how heavy you can go If you' re missing THIS in your training you' re not going to build much muscle by Clay Hyght, DC July 6, 2016August 19, 2022 Tags Tips, Training The Pump vs The Grind Those people in the gym who like to "feel the burn" and get a pump tend to neglect heavy, low-rep sets. That's a mistake. But the reverse is true too. There's been renewed interest in training to get strong, which is great, but if you want to look like you lift, you need to also go light and crank out the reps. Do an endurance/volumization exercise for each body part you're wanting to build. Sure doing sets of more than 10 or 12 reps is great for increasing endurance, but you probably don't care about that. What you DO care about is the visual effect that occurs as a result of doing higher rep, burning and aching sets. Training in this higher rep range obviously prolongs the time under tension (TUT), and it's this longer TUT that stimulates muscle growth. Since this hypertrophy resulting from high-rep sets isn't primarily coming from an increase in the size of the contractile component of the muscle (actin and myosin filaments), it's often called non-functional hypertrophy, but that's a very misleading term. Semantics aside, when we're talking specifically about the enlargement of a muscle think of it as "volumization" – an increase in the cross-sectional area of a muscle via an increase in size and/or number of mitochondria, capillaries, enlargement of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, etc. Generally speaking, doing sets of 12-20 reps is perfect for stimulating muscle volumization. The cosmetic result tends to be rounder, fuller-looking muscles. Keep in mind, when your goal is larger muscles, you want to enlarge ALL components of the muscle. Failing to do so is like leaving money on the table. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training 20 Training Tips From John Romaniello Break out the tape measure and get ready to hit the gym. Roman's got some tips to make this your best training year ever. Bodybuilding, Training Nate Green July 5 Training 9 Training Strategies for Knee Pain Got bum knees? Make gains anyway. Here’s how. It Hurts Fix It, Legs, Training Ben Bruno May 17 Training Be Unstoppable 5 Workout Strategies for Resilience The best way to keep making gains? Don't get injured. These workout strategies will not only make you stronger but also more resilient. It Hurts. Fix It. Athletic Performance Dr Tim DiFrancesco January 27 Training Waterbury Rules At first glance, it might seem that the title of this article is a double entendre (you know, like "Kid Rock Rules!"). I assure you, it's not. My linguistic reference of choice is not a music-challenged snowboarder but the Oxford English Dictionary, or for all you acronym lovers: OED. Training Chad Waterbury December 18