Normally I don't recommend high rep exercises for most novice and intermediate lifters. However, there does come a time when you are more a little bit more advanced and have developed a pretty decent amount of strength when high reps can of great benefit in helping you pack on new muscle. I don't advocate the use of high reps for most beginners because normally they don't have the strength, coordination or stabilization needed to maintain perfect form throughout a high rep set and are therefore more likely to sustain an injury. Furthermore, most beginners usually can't use a significant amount of weight for much more than eight to ten reps on most exercises.

Using high reps to build muscle only works with a few muscle groups and exercises and shouldn't be used all the time. It should also be noted that the high rep set should always follow a heavy set or two. Therefore you would do one or two sets of 5-8 reps first and then follow it up with a set of 15-20.

Compound lower body exercises such as squats are phenomenal muscle builders when done for high reps with heavy weights. My favorite set and rep scheme that I use with myself and all my advanced clients on leg days is one or two heavy sets of 4-8 reps on some kind of squat followed by a brutally hard high rep set of 12-20 reps. If your legs don't grow from that they never will.

Deadlifts are also great when done for high reps but you need to be careful to keep your back perfectly arched throughout. I recommend keeping the reps at twelve or lower on deadlifts to be safe. Rack deadlifts are a little bit safer and easier to maintain perfect form on so you may be able to push the reps to 15 on these. Again, you should be fairly advanced before you start trying high rep deads.

Another great exercise to do high reps with is a one arm dumbbell row done with a slight cheat. I am a big fan of this exercise and am constantly trying to set new PR's at certain rep ranges. When you can row a 130 pound dumbbell for twenty reps you will probably be bigger and stronger than just about everyone else in your gym.

Whatever compound, multi joint exercise you can use a heavy weight with for high reps will be effective; just be sure that you have been training properly for at least two or three years and are quite strong before trying this. And when I say strong, I mean that you can bench press at least 1.5 times your body weight, you can squat double body weight and can deadlift 2.5 times your body weight (or at least be in the ballpark of those numbers).

High rep contests can always be fun with training partners also. Whenever I train with a friend or old training partner that I haven't seen in a while I always like to have a heavy weight challenge and then a high rep challenge to finish the workout. We usually pick a weight that we know we can do at least 12-15 reps with and in the heat of competition end up doing nearly twice that number. For example we may choose the heaviest dumbbells the gym has for a set of one arm dumbbell rows and do anywhere from 15-30 reps for one all out, gut busting set. It's a blast and really brings out the best in you. Not to mention that it helps pack on insane amounts of size.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men's Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/