Mark Rippetoe (author of the Starting Strength book recommended by the original article) actually says that an untrained subject will improve their performance by doing any exercise.
That same Rippetoe reccommends high reps if your goal is hypertrophy and you are past the novice stage. Check his book Practical Programming for Strength Training for more.
Higher reps for hypertrophy is around 8-12 I believe, not 50+.
The problem with reps at that level for me personally is that its very difficult to know where your limit is. With failure around 5 reps it's very obvious which is your last possible rep.
Also 50 reps is just much more pain for the same (or less) gain as I see it. I can do 60-70 press ups which would be in that range, but it's significantly harder work than 5 reps near my max bench.
Agreed. The problem with 50+ is that the weight is so low that depending on how you pace yourself, and your pain threshold, and how mentally prepared you are, you might end up at 50 or 200 on different sets, and you pretty much always can force through one more rep...
A while ago someone posted an article on Reddit about a group of 5 people who had tried a 1000 kettlebell swings per day for 10 days challenge, and about the outcomes. The discussion turned to whether it'd be possible to get close to that with squats or various other execises. So I figured I'd see how close I'd get with squats.
I didn't finish a full 10 days, and I didn't reach 1000, but I did ~400 bodyweight squats a day for 5-6 days in sets ranging from 20 to 100 at the time. It'd not be that hard to do more if you have time, after the first few days of soreness.
What I learned (apart from how funny you'll walk the day after 400 squats) was that the difference for me between 20 and a 100 squats was whether or not I drew my focus away from the burn, and how I counted, coupled with pacing. When I counted towards 20 and then at 15 said to myself that I'm halfway to 30, so I might as well continue, and kept going like that, meeting 100 was "easy" and I probably could do more. But I'd slow down substantially towards the end, and I'd get more done in less time by confining myself to sets around 5 0 reps.
But I could just as well reach 20 and feel my legs were on fire and I needed a break, if I didn't pace myself properly or didn't "tricky" myself into moving the goalpost.
I honestly don't know what my actual failure limit is for bodyweight squats. I just know that it's somewhere beyond 50 and likely beyond 100 depending on what restrictions I were to set on pace. I thus also don't know, without experimentation, how many reps I'd need to see growth that way... Too much hassle to try to find out.
That is pretty much the same technique I would use to get through long pieces on the Erg (rowing machine). Continually breaking down what I had done, how far through I was, % left, how many strokes left at 24 rating etc.
If I remember right he specifically mentions the insane hypertrophy bike riders get in their quads due to going well-beyond 50 'reps' in pedalling sprints, etc.
One academic study of 18 untrained athletes.
Mark Rippetoe (author of the Starting Strength book recommended by the original article) actually says that an untrained subject will improve their performance by doing any exercise.