Theoretically, the longer a muscle is contracted, the greater the potential for damage to the tissue. The moderate-rep range, when coupled with a challenging weight, will also bring about a much-desired condition: the muscle pump.
That tight, full feeling under the skin, caused by blood pooling in the muscle, has value beyond its ego-expanding qualities. Studies have demonstrated that the physiological conditions which lead to a pump activate protein synthesis and limit protein breakdown.
Thus, more of the protein you eat goes toward muscle construction instead of being burned off for energy. In a scientific twist of good fortune, the fast-twitch fibers appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of this phenomenon. So how many reps should you be doing to build muscle? In the final analysis, substantial evidence argues that training in a moderate-rep range is the best way to build muscle mass.
It increases hormone response, spares protein, and provides the necessary time under tension to spark muscle damage. These benefits work in unison to get you from pencil neck to powerhouse in no time. But does this mean you should store your low-rep and high-rep regimens away in the closet, underneath your parachute pants and Thriller album?
Certainly not. Cycle periods of low-rep training and high-rep training into your overall program, while progressively trying to increase your strength and perfect your exercise form every time you lift. If your haphazard training has been producing mixed results for a while now, consider periodizing your training. Periodization is a system of training that organizes your workout into distinct cycles. Because each cycle has specific objectives, the number of reps for each varies sharply.
Phase 1 : Preparatory, consisting of extremely high volume 15 or more reps, three to five sets and low resistance. Phase 2 : Hypertrophy, or growth, consisting of high volume eight to 12 reps, three to five sets and moderate resistance 50 percent to 75 percent of one-rep max.
Phase 3 : Strength, consisting of moderate volume five or six reps, three to five sets and heavy resistance 80 percent to 88 percent of one-rep max. Phase 4 : Power, consisting of low volume two to four reps, three to five sets and very heavy resistance 90 percent to 95 percent of one-rep max. Only the muscle fibers that work and generate force will grow.
If they contract hard enough for a sufficient number of times, the growth process is started. The more muscle fibers you stimulate, the more that muscle will grow. Two common pitfalls can inhibit muscle growth when it comes to the number of reps and choice of weight are:. Effective training for building muscle requires you to use a sufficiently heavy weight, and train sufficiently close to failure with it.
As we mentioned in the introduction, and as will be seen from the research we will soon take a closer look at, a weight where you can do about 5—40 reps per set seems appropriate for building muscle. For practical reasons, about 8—15 reps per set may be better to aim for. It does not require as much energy and pain as a set of 40 reps, and it may be a little easier to tire out your muscles more thoroughly with a slightly lighter weight than one you can only do five reps with.
When it comes to training for strength, the importance of tiring out every single, little fatigue-resistant muscle fiber decreases. Instead, the importance of training the biggest and strongest muscle fibers which may not be so fatigue-resistant increases. And above all, it becomes important to train your neuromuscular system which ensures that not only all muscle fibers but also all interacting muscles in the exercise are contracted as powerfully and coordinated as possible.
Lighter than that, and the strength gains diminish. Note that this applies per set. Each individual set might not be as effective, but all sets taken together still gives you a better result than the heavy single. This will give you a better understanding of how big the difference in results is when training with a low or high number of reps.
The diagram below shows the muscle growth in the biceps and quadriceps after 12 weeks of training at different reps numbers. Another study compared two classic approaches with each other: 19 participants got to train either:. More precisely, they should fall between 2—4 and 8—12 reps in their sets, respectively. After eight weeks, both groups had increased their muscle mass and strength. However, the group that did 2—4 reps per set gained slightly more strength, and the group that did 8—12 reps per set gained slightly more muscle mass.
In another study, 18 participants got to train three full-body sessions per week for eight weeks, with seven exercises per session and three sets per exercise. Muscle thickness was measured in the biceps , triceps , and quadriceps , and 1RM was tested in the squat and bench press. After eight weeks of training, both groups had gained similar amounts of muscle, but the group training with 8—12 reps increased their strength more than those training with 25—35 reps per set.
To get a broader perspective, we can turn to a so-called meta-analysis from Awesome information about reps. How about sets what has the best results. For example, sets of reps or is sets of reps have better results. That yields a training volume of 9—18 sets per muscle group per week, which is right about perfect for building muscle.
You can do that with 2—3 full-body workouts per week or with body-part splits. Thank you Shane for your response! Going to continue for another three weeks. Started working out since January Also, reading and researching on your articles, so going to follow other routines after that. Funny that this is published. Since Saturday been training 20 reps with my mate who is To be fair, my shoulders are killing me since Tues..
Probably done over reps in total. Including burn out sets. Done shoulder press 30kg for 3 x 20 reps. Usually would do 60kg for 3 x 4.
So it was good for a change. Were see. Good to train slightly differently. Hopefully I can get some new gains from training this way.
Good to mix it up and to be fair, my form seems better. Different methods work best for different people. Good to have such a wide rep range we can use to build muscle. I searched for what is the ideal rep and set to stick with to build from and you mention a plethora of different studies and my head now is so confused. So what is the general idea or rule of thumb to go off of?
I understand it has to be tweaked but for someone who is just trying to build muscle and size, what do you recommend? That way all the work is done for you, and you can learn what a good workout program looks and feels like. Otherwise, yeah, it can get a bit tricky.
Your limit strength is your base. Increasing your 1RM will help with lifting more weight in the higher rep ranges. The different intensities help you gain more strength and size in the long run. Doing reps from 1 to 20 for example.
So powerlifting training is very beneficial for hypertrophy if incorporating higher reps also, as it will make you able to do 20 reps with much higher weights.
I know some people who squat kg x 20 reps. Comparing that do 20 reps with 80kg, big difference. To get the most out of the muscle mass we already have, training in a given rep range is likely the best way to improve our strength in that rep range. So if we want to get stronger at doing 3-rep sets, then 3-rep sets are a great way to gain that strength. But if we want to get stronger at rep sets, then rep sets are a better way to do that.
But if the goal is to improve your strength in moderate rep ranges, then training in moderate rep ranges is perfect for that. Thing is, we can also increase our strength by gaining more muscle mass, and doing at least 5—6 reps per set is better for that. Perhaps using a variety of rep ranges is indeed better for building muscle. Or maybe gaining strength in lower rep ranges has useful carryover to our strength in higher rep ranges. But we also have research showing that sticking with 8—12 reps seems to work just as well as varying your rep ranges.
Hi I have found this fascinating, thank you! My question is, if I can go heavier but have to drop reps say from 10 to 8 for 3 sets is that better than increasing the number of sets at the same weight? The simplest answer is that 3 sets is a great number of sets per exercise per workout—no need to increase. And going from 10 reps to 8 reps is perfectly fine—both are in the middle of the hypertrophy rep range.
If you increase from 3 sets to 4 sets, the difference may be minimal, but it may still help. And going from 4 to 5, there may be no difference at all. Shane, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me! I really really appreciate it. I came across your site as I was looking specifically at how to gain muscle mass in a situation where the ability to increase weight each time is limited.
But I could increase reps? Add weight or reps AND as sets as needed. Hey Shane, I briefly read through each part of this article and it explained a lot, so thank you! I have a small problem with my bench. I have been doing pyramid type training, like you mentioned in another comment, where I increase the weight with warm up sets then 1 working set as close as possible to failure.
Since I started doing this one set to failure with as much as weight as possible for around reps with perfect form and full range of motion, the weight I am using on the barbell for my squats and bent over rows is going up and I am seeing results!
As for my bench though not so much. My bench has been at about pounds for reps for the longest time. So what I used to do is 4 sets of of just pounds. So I thought that since I had done this for so long it was time to increase it by 5 pounds. So i tried the warm up sets and 1 working set to failure for my bench so it would like this Set 1: 95 pounds 12 reps Set 2: pounds reps Set 3: pounds reps Set 4: pounds reps Set 5: pounds Working Set : reps.
So as you can see when I increase the weight my reps are going lower and my form gets somewhat sloppy. Should I just go back to the 4 sets of for pounds? A good default way of increasing the weight is setting a rep target say 10 reps and then increasing the weight whenever you achieve that target on your final set. Then work back up to 12 reps on the final set, increase the weight again.
Are you eating enough calories to gain weight on the scale each week? Are you eating a gram of protein per pound bodyweight per day? Are you getting enough good sleep every night? Then we can consider, are your bench press workouts too hard or too easy? And are you using a smart mix of assistance lifts, such as some push-ups and skullcrushers, to give your muscles a bit of extra work?
And how are those lifts progressing? Starting with a well-programmed workout routine is a good place to start, but there will always be some trial and error. Everyone is a little bit different.
Hey I really appreciate the reply! I will reconsider what I am doing for my bench and start increasing the weight whenever I am able to get 12 reps. Would you say I should do sets of the same weight? Not sure if that makes sense, haha. I am naturally a big guy who can gain fat fairly easily.
I was at about pounds a couple years ago and now I have cut down to and noticed I have gained some muscle while staying in a deficit. I still have quite a bit of fat holding in my midsection so I believe if I stay in a deficit it will go away over time. If you want to change the weight between sets, check out Reverse Pyramid Training , as explained in this article. It normally makes more sense to start with the heaviest set, and to keep each set within a couple of reps of failure.
So do a heavy set, maybe 6 reps, take some weight off, push hard again, maybe getting 8 reps, take more weight off, and push hard again, maybe getting 10 reps. That way each set is challenging enough to stimulate muscle growth.
I bet you can still eke out some extra muscle growth, though, gain some extra bench press strength. Great article. Great article! I just want to add that some claim that taller lifters should stick with lower reps, because their bodies do more work because of the their length.
I hear your logic. If every repetition means moving the weight a longer distance, then we get more stimulus out of every rep. And there may be some truth to that, especially on lifts with a flat strength curve. Thanks for the answer, man! Yeah, for sure. As taller guys, we have a dilemma—to stay with less muscle mass and be lighter or to gain some muscles but be heavier this is more for the bodyweight exercises.
The range of motion is indeed longer and harder for us, which is in some support of the logic for doing fewer reps. And according to some research, it should work better for the other tall guys, too, because taller people have more slow-twitch muscle fibres. And finally, when thinking about doing higher reps per set, the first tall people who come to my mind are you guys.
I know you are tall and are doing quite well with higher reps. The idea of the low rep range for taller guys and I think we should include the bigger guys—fat, with a wide frame and lots of muscles is to decrease the total travel path of the weights because it is believed that the weak link in the chain is the cardiovascular system.
I personally tend to agree that some exercises like squats and deadlifts are leaving you out of breath, but this is should be true for the smaller individuals, too.
For a year or two, I was a strong believer in doing 3 sets of 6 reps, but now I am starting to change my mind. Also, the form is very questionable.
And finally, if you train with heavy weight, you exhaust yourself faster compared with the lighter weights, not because you are so tired, but because the weight is so heavy. With lighter weights, you can go closer to the sweet spot of the hypertrophy range.
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