I haven’t touched a bar much since January. I’m in a season of centering my training/hypertrophy/mobility (I highly recommend having seasons in your training!). I work exclusively with dumbbells and my cable machine. I’m chasing the pump. I love it.
My strength coach Matt Reynolds he continues to build my programming and one of the things he has incorporated into my hypertrophy workouts is muscle reps. I had never made them before, but after a few months of making them, I love them. They save time but are extremely effective. I can knock out a full upper body workout in about 30 minutes, get a solid pump and put on muscle, and start looking stressed.
If you’re short on time but want to build muscle, muscle reps might be worth a try. At least they’ll shake up what can feel like a boring, regular workout finish.
Let me explain what they are and how to program them.
What is Myo-Rep?
Myo-reps were developed in the mid-2000s by Norwegian strength coach Børge Fagerli. It’s a rest-pause technique, meaning you combine what would normally be several separate sets into one extended set with very short rest breaks interspersed between that extended set.
Here’s how it works:
Choose a weight at 60–80% of your one-rep max. something you could lift for 10-15 reps. Do a “power-up set” of 10-12 reps, stopping one or two reps to failure (Perceived Exertion Rate 8 or 9). Then rest for about 10-20 seconds. Fagerli recommends taking 3-5 deep breaths. I just count “one mississippi, two mississippi, three mississippi” until I get to twelve mississippi.
Then you do a “mini-set” of 4 to 5 reps with the same weight.
Rest another 10-20 seconds.
Another mini set.
Rest another 10-20 seconds.
Keep repeating these mini-sets and short breaks until you can’t get 4 reps in a mini-set. If you’ve set the weight to the right amount, you’ll usually be able to complete 4-5 of these mini-sets.
So one activation set plus 3-5 mini sets. You’ve essentially done what would be 4-5 traditional sets compressed into a few minutes.
The Theory Behind Myo-Reps
Muscle growth is driven by two main mechanisms: mechanical tension and metabolic stress.
Mechanical stress is the main driver. It’s the force your muscle fibers create when they contract against resistance. When a fiber is loaded hard enough, specialized mechanosensors in the cell activate the signaling pathway that tells your body to build new muscle.
Intensity has nothing to do with how heavy the weight feels to you. It has to do with how hard each individual fiber works. A moderate weight can create a high tension in a particular fiber if that fiber is doing all the work.
That’s where the “effective reps” model comes in. In a traditional set of 12, the first 6-8 reps don’t contribute as much to development. You primarily heat the high-threshold fast-twitch fibers (those most responsible for hypertrophy) by exhausting the smaller slow-twitch fibers first. The last 4-6 reps, when fatigue forces your body to recruit those large fast-twitch fibers, is where the magic happens.
Myo-reps allow you to skip the warm-up phase after that first power-up set. After you fatigue the slow-twitch fibers, the fast-twitch fibers must handle each subsequent repetition. They operate at maximum capacity, even though the weight is relatively light, causing the kind of high-tension contractions that lead to growth. Almost every rep in your mini sets is effective. That’s the idea, at least.
Short rest periods also create metabolic stress, which can (theoretically) sensitize muscles to anabolic signaling. This is why muscle-reps feel so dynamic. You create a hypoxic environment similar to this blood flow restriction training it does, but without the bands.
Why do Myo-Reps?
The biggest reason to do myo-reps is that they save time. Eliminate the equivalent of a few traditional sets in minutes. It was nice to get through my workouts in about half an hour.
But there are other benefits. Because you’re working at 60-80% of your one-rep max instead of grinding heavy weight, muscle-reps are easier on your joints. Limited rest time forces you to train to near failure. Most guys leave too much in the tank for accessories. It’s hard to do that when you’re doing mini sets with 12 seconds of rest. Myo-reps break up the monotony of the traditional three sets of ten. And you have a great pump, which is nice.
Basically, muscle-reps will get you results that are close to what you get with straight sets with long breaks in between, in less time. However, they are not completely optimal for building strength, as short rests make it more difficult to move more weight and achieve progressive overload. That’s why they work better as a utility tool and something to use every now and then to mix up your programming, rather than a wholesale replacement for a traditional set/rest program.
What exercises to use Myo-Reps
Muscle reps aren’t for every lift. Because you’re nearing failure with very short rests, you need exercises where the breakdown of form caused by fatigue won’t hurt you.
So don’t use muscle reps on heavy barbell squats, presses, deadlifts, or bench. Stabilization demands are very high, and getting stuck under a loaded bar during your fourth mini-set is a good way to end up in the ER. Skip the Olympic lifts altogether. The clean and grab are explosive movements that need to be done fresh. And if you’re doing Bulgarian split squats, skip muscle-reps. It requires too much stability.
For muscle-reps, continue with machines, cables and dumbbell movements.
Great muscle-rep exercises include machine chest presses, lat pulldowns, cable rows, dumbbell shoulder presses, leg presses, leg extensions, leg squats, leg curls, dumbbell lateral raises, bicep curls, and tricep push-ups. Anything weight path guided or movement is simple enough that you can grind out the last few reps without your form collapsing. You could also use muscle-reps with bodyweight exercises like push-ups and air squats.
How to Schedule Myo-Reps
If you’re doing a traditional barbell/strength focused program, keep the heavy compound lifts as traditional straight sets. You want fresh energy and full recovery when you squat or bench close to max.
Save the muscle-reps for the back half of your workout when you accessorize.
Here’s a simple approach: choose two to three accessory exercises per workout to do as muscle-reps.
So on an upper body day where the bench is your main lift, do dumbbell shoulder presses, lateral raises, and dumbbell curls as muscle-reps. On the lower body day where the barbell squat is your main lift, do leg extensions and leg curls as muscle-reps.
Your activation set should look like an RPE of 8 or 9. That’s about one or two reps without failure. Track your reps on the mini sets. If you consistently do 4 sets of 5 reps, increase the weight next session.
In terms of frequency, you can hit a muscle group with muscle-reps 2-3 times a week. Just remember that these are a tension technique. Don’t turn every set of every lift into a muscle-rep set. This is just a recipe for burnout.
Give Myo-Reps a try
If you’re like me and trying to build muscle without spending 90 minutes in the gym every day, give muscle-reps a shot. They cut down on your training time, can make your workouts feel fresh, and can help you pack on some serious muscle.
