Curiousity about 30 day shred and it's seemingly high reps...anyone?

So I just did the 30 day shred for the first time today, and yes I was very tired during it, it's a lot in 20 minutes. My question is, it seems to have a lot of high reps since during strength you are going for a few minutes...now reading everything here I thought it was supposed to be low rep that was effective and changed body composition...AND i just read on a recent post that a lot of high reps on legs makes them bulky (according to what Melkor just posted in a response)....so, I know people say this is effective and all...but doesn't it go against what a lot of people say? And it doesn't have you rest each day? I'm just curious, if anyone can explain it, that'd be awesome and appreciated...thanks!!

Jilian Michaels is way better at marketing than training.

From what i understand, you want to get lean, so you WANT to do high reps but low sets. Most men, on the other hand, will do low reps and high sets to bulk up their muscles. To tone, do 15-20 reps and 3 sets, or at least thats the norm. 

As for rest, you're right. When it comes to weights, you need to rest the muscle group you worked out for 48 hours before doing it over again.

I'm not familiar with the 30 day shred, but from what you say if it's high reps and low weights every day, it might be more of a cardio workout than anything mixed with a bit of strength training. Does it make you do any heavy lifting?

Original Post by devious_eyes:

From what i understand, you want to get lean, so you WANT to do high reps but low sets. Most men, on the other hand, will do low reps and high sets to bulk up their muscles. To tone, do 15-20 reps and 3 sets, or at least thats the norm.

Myogenic muscle tone (tone of muscles at rest) is best improved by lifting heavy weights.

Neurogenic muscle tone (tone of contracted muscles) is best improved though lower rep training.

The whole 'low-rep for muscle tone' recommendation is a bunch of garbage.

Jillian Michael's DVDs aren't meant for building muscle, they're just meant to get you moving, get your heart rate up, and burn calories. Lifting low weight with a lot of reps will improve your endurance, but will not make you "bulky" or "toned". 

how many reps are "many?"

I noticed doing about 15 per exercise. This doesn't seem to be too many (?)

OK that makes sense, that it's more for just getting moving etc...and not for getting stronger and all that...yeah i was just curious since I had learned from people here that low reps high weight is what you want and that the whole hgih rep thing was basically bs...thanks!

It's a cardio circuit training dvd. It's not a weight lifting dvd. 

 It's calisthenics, and calisthenics has a long and illustrious history of helping people with their general conditioning work.

 On my bookshelf, I have a military conditioning manual from 1892, and you could easily do the calisthenics exercises it prescribes as your conditioning workout and get into pretty decent shape.

 I don't see a problem with doing Jillians' iteration of basic calisthenics instead; while it won't do much for strength it will help with general work capacity and the conditioning part of a balanced workout program.

 If you're looking for DVDs of strength training, some of CathE's "Gym Style" - and , I think Jari Loves' in a similar hard-liftin' vein - aren't terrible; though I'd still prefer both New rules of Lifting for Women and Starting Strength to either of those.

Ok that makes sense, I was just curious, since people on this site seem to really love the dvd I downloaded it and figured I'd try it to see...I remember we used to do calisthenics all the time when training for crew and they were great during the off season...and thanks for the reccomendations 

is doing something like that ok to do every day in addition to some strength that would be done a few times a week and then some cardio (both steady, normal interval, and hiit) 4 days a week or so? or does it not let the muscles rest enough from strength?