Yupp
You see, the problem with this "magic" rep range, is it doen't work, like at all. The reason: intensity is too low. Not only is the intensity (weight) absurdly low, but the 8-12 rep range is also sarcoplasm specific. Theres no problem with sarcoplasm, but it is completly useless without a myofibular foundation. Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of my self. Lets go over exactly what sarcoplasamic and myofibular muscle building is.
Sarcoplasmic
Everyone knows that one guy in their gym that looks really big, but looks oddly puffy. While the guy is probably on twenty different steriods, he's also the victim of puffy muscle syndrom. Puffy muscle syndrom is caused by a severe lack of heavy lifting. You see, within each muscle are muscle cells. When one works in the high rep range, a fluid, called sarcoplasm, fills the muscle cell, giving one that "puffy" look. Sarcoplasm doesn't have a lot of use, so as soon as one stops lifting, most of the sarcoplasm leaves. So you may look a little bigger than you did a few months ago, but not much. Also, sarcoplasm is mostly water, so if you ever try to cut weight, all that "muscle" will dissappear.
Myofibular
If you've ever watched MMA, you know what I'm talking about. These guys are ripped to the bone and strong as f$@k! To get this dense look, one has to work in a much lower rep range. We're talking 1-5 reps. This will build a crazy amount of strenght and muscle. Not just sarcoplasm, but actual muscle! You see, myofibular muslce building is the actual building of new muscle fibers. Every time you lift heavy weights, the muscle fibers are being torn. When you recover and eat properly, the body overcompensates by building new muscle fibers along with the torn muscle fibers. The only downside, the muscle will not look as large. Think of it like a balloon. The air in the ballooon is the sarcoplasm, and the thickness of the balloon is the muscle strands. If the ballon is too thin, the balloon will pop before it gets any size. No, I'm not saying you're going to explode, but you are limited by your muscle fibers. If you do not have adequate muscle fibers, you'll never grow in size.
So what?
Now that you have all this info, you're probably wondering how to apply it all. Well, its actualky quite simple. If you have the time, I'd suggest two different sessions every training day. In the morning, I would do a sarcoplasmic muscle building circuit. This circuit can consist of any two or three movements, but I'd suggest gymnastics movements. Why? Well, have you ever seen a male gymnast? For some reason, the upper body responds much better to stabalization than the bottom half. So, basically you'd do 8 reps of one gymnastic movement and 8 reps of another for 10-15 mintues. This gives the body substantial time to adapt to the stimulus. If you can get more than 8 rounds in the time allotted, raise the diffulculty of the movements.
In the afternoon, the focus should be on strength. When you focus on pure strength, the muscle will follow. This session can be much longer: anyweher from 45-90 minutes. There should be much longer rest periods between each movement, upwards of 3 minutes. If you have more than 3 movements, you're not doing enough sets of each exercise. I strongly suggest multi-joint movements such as squats, deadlifts, snatches, cleans, jerks, push presses, etc.
For those who don't have the luxury of time, I would suggest a 60 minute training session every training day. In each session, the first 45 minutes should be focused on strength, with the last 15 minutes on sarcoplasmic training. This will be much like the two a days, just all at one time.
So there you have it, the quentessintial guide to muscle building.
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