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Comment by raverbashing | Hacker News Reader

Humm this sounds too much like "one weird trick" and I would not be surprised if the researchers fumbled this a bit

For one, doing 30 reps in the same day (with no details about if/how this was split into sets) is different than 6 reps in the same day (in terms of weight/intensity)

This is TFA https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sms.14220

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You can follow the link to the actual journal article to get details, and then criticise based on information.

The protocol was 1 session of 5x6 reps (1d5s6r), versus 5 sessions of 1x6 (5d1s6r), with control 1d1s6r.

Plenty of workout routines have days per week devoted to focusing on particular muscle groups ("leg day" etc), the study seems aimed at looking at their effectiveness.

Its a study where they controlled variables to learn how the body responds to different types of stimulus, not a workout plan. It can inform the design of a workout plan but someone just naievely adopting this study design is

Yes, it is possible that the study helps in that sense (and yes, I'm skeptical of "leg day" workouts), I feel it is more productive to work out a muscle at least 2x week

Yeah, it seems fishy. If 6 reps of something is difficult enough to do such that it has in impact on muscle growth, I can't see how they could manage 30 reps of the same thing. I wonder if the 6 reps 5 days people were untrained, while the 1 set of 30 people could manage it because they were trained enough so that it was possible (and therefore too easy)? Or maybe the 1 set of 30 was with a lighter weight to make it possible?

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