Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

I was talking with Ellington Darden the other day. I told him I was a naturally skinny guy and asked if I should modify any of my training because of that. He told me that ectomorphs have more slow twitch muscle fibers, and that I will see my best gains training with very high reps in the 15-25 range. I was hoping you could give me an opinion on this.

Mr. Darden is a lot more informed technically and scientifically than I am, and I would not disagree. But the proof is in the application and observation of the results. I never advocate the high-rep training across the board, only certain muscles with certain exercises for prescribed sets during a workout.

I mix the reps — 6 to 12 commonly, as low as singles and doubles on back, chest and thighs, as high as 25 on triceps or quads or calves, never high-high on bis and back and delts.

We can never really certain of our body type, a bit of my non-factual body evaluation. We’re all mutts, mixed breeds, muscleheads. I treat the animal according to his instincts.

Train hard, eat right, be strong… Dave