Old-school bodybuilding is often associated with marathon workouts, high training volumes and endless sets. Arthur Jones, however, took a very different approach.
For the uninitiated, Jones invented the Nautilus training machines and pioneered High Intensity Training (HIT), advocating brief, brutally hard workouts rather than spending hours in the gym.
But when it came to training legs, Jones was willing to make an exception. He believed there could be benefits to taking your reps considerably higher – in some cases, all the way up to 100.
‘Upper body, the muscles are built for short, heavy work, not for endurance,’ Jones explained during a seminar. ‘Your legs are built for endurance. These are facts.’
Jones was more cautious when explaining why this might make higher-rep training particularly effective for the lower body.
‘I suspect that that’s probably the case. I can’t justify it. That’s just conjecture.’
His prescription was simple.
‘If you want to produce the best possible results on a squat or a leg press, I would take just a little bit less weight,’ he said. ‘Not much. 5 to 10% less than you’ve been using. And increase the repetitions enormously.’
Jones suggested working towards ’50 with each leg, or 100 total’, before increasing the load and beginning the process again.
Should You Try Arthur Jones’s 100-Rep Method?
Even Jones didn’t pretend this was a particularly practical prescription for everyone.
‘I don’t recommend that you try to do this with the average person in a health club. They’re not going to do it. Too painful. Secondly, it takes too long.’
And you certainly don’t need 100-rep sets to build bigger legs.
But there is a useful principle buried inside Jones’s extreme approach: don’t assume productive muscle-building work has to happen exclusively in lower rep ranges.
If you want to experiment with higher-rep training, his method also provides a straightforward way to incorporate progressive overload: reduce your usual weight slightly, increase your reps and, once you can consistently hit your target, add more load.
You don’t have to start with 100, either. A significantly more manageable high-rep target can still provide a very different challenge from your usual heavy sets.
‘I think you’ll be surprised at the results you get,’ said Jones.
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