1 set at 100% weight, or?..

[HST_Rihad]

Which would yield more hypertrophic response: 1 working set at 100% intensity, or 2 sets at 95%? In other words, if one can bench press 200 lbs x 5 (real 5RM) short of failure, in terms of the forthcoming hypertrophy would that be better or worse than doing 190x5 in two sets, resting in between long enough to feel ready to go (normally a few minutes)? I know it's a hard question, but if it's enough to always stop at 95% of TRUE RM and not inhibit muscle or strength growth, I might as well spare my CNS.

 

[Lol]

Without a doubt, 2 x 5 x 95% 5RM is going to elicit the greatest hypertrophic response IF you are not already well conditioned to such a load. The work done over two sets at 95% is a good deal higher than for one set at 100%. Also, the TUT will be double, assuming consistent form.

If you were well conditioned to a 95% load then one set at 100% probably isn't going to do much for you anyway. Better to get more reps at your 100% 5RM load by clustering reps: eg. 4, 3, 3 would get you 10 reps at the higher loading.

 

[HST_Rihad]

Thank you, Lol,

Better to get more reps at your 100% 5RM load by clustering reps: eg. 4, 3, 3 would get you 10 reps at the higher loading.

Good idea. Without knowing I've already started doing this kind of thing lately when zig-zagging, i.e. when going from 10RM to 5's I would do 3 sets of 5's with my 10RM weight so the total number of reps would be higher. I'll definitely hold on to clustering reps iff more reps with a given 5-rep load per workout means more gains, be it more sets, and/or rep-outs.