“Hey man you got big arms what is the best exercise to get that long head of the tricep like yours?”

“Wow you lost a lot of weight can you tell me exactly what you have for breakfast lunch and dinner everyday? I’ll just copy those recipes.”

“What is the best rep range to build muscle?”

If you have spent sometime in the gym or online fitness community I am sure you have heard these questions asked a million times. They come from a place of innocence and excitement. Most people tend to think there is a “magic trick” or there is “the program”. Unfortunately there is no such thing. It is natural to gravitate towards the biggest guy in the gym and assume he can just give you a black and white or yes and no answer that solves all your problems and puts you on the fast track to unlimited progress.

The true issue is that the person asking the question really has no idea what they are asking. None of the answers they get to these questions will solve their issue or be the end be all to what they want. The answer is generally “it depends”.

Are there exercises that better target the long head of the tricep? Certainly, however the guy with the big arms did not get there from that one particular exercise or rep range. The real answer would be something along the lines of “do a lot of pressing/pulling exercises with around 10 direct sets for biceps and 10 direct sets of triceps weekly on top of that. On these sets/exercises make sure to have a sufficient level of effort, implement some form of progression and do it for the next 5+ years while eating in a caloric surplus close to 75 percent of that time. (Keep in mind these are general guidelines) The problem is that this is not what the person asking the question wants to hear.

If I lost 25 pounds in a manner that was suited to my lifestyle, preferences and caloric budget it would be irresponsible to just tell you exactly what I ate as if it actually solved your problem. How many meals I ate per day, grams of carbs I had per day and what particular protein source I had at lunch has nothing to do with what you want to do. In reality it does not matter how I got there. What matters is that you can adopt a system that allows you to stay in a consistent energy deficit.

If today I was doing 4×12 on shoulder presses and 4×15 on lateral raises that would not mean those are the magical rep or set schemes for these exercises. All it means is that is my prescribed volume on that particular day for that phase of my training plan. The manipulation of various training variables is a never ending process that will take a lot of time, trial and error and simply messing up (even with a coach guiding you). You may even come across the guy who has been lifting for 15 years and has amazing shoulder development, however says he avoids shoulder presses. A lot of times a new lifter will hear this and decide to ditch any variation of shoulder press. This could be a drastic mistake, especially if the experienced lifter got most of his early development from lots over shoulder pressing and only recently dropped them due to an injury.

The moral of the story here is that if you are relatively new to weight training do not seek black and white answers. If you ask someone a specific question like this and get a specific answer it is going to be a red flag in most cases (context is obviously of high importance here). On the flip side, if you are somebody being asked a question do not be afraid to give the “unsexy” answer or take some time to educate the individual. If you truly do not know be sure to tell them that and do your best to refer them to a source that can help them. It is important to understand that if you intend to help, coach or guide other people and put yourself out there this way education is key. Educating individuals to understand principles rather than just blindly following some made up rules is essential in my opinion.

For those of you who are tempted to ask these kinds of questions, think about what you are really asking before you go seeking such specific answers. Will the persons answer even apply to your particular situation? On top of that, are they even really the right person to ask? In most cases the answer is NO.