Here’s How Many Reps You Should Do Based on Your Fitness Goals

When you lift a weight, how many times should you lift it? Supposedly, there is a correct “repetition range” that can be used to build strength, and a different rep range to build muscle mass, or endurance, or “tone.” But how much of this oft-repeated wisdom is true? Not as much as you might think.

What are reps and sets?

So we’re on the same page: if you pick up a dumbbell and do eight curls before lowering the weight, you’ve just done one set of eight reps . (Rep is short for repetition.)

Typically, a workout involves several sets of each exercise, separated by a rest period or another exercise. Typical circuits include three sets of 10, four sets of eight to 12, or five sets of five. These are often written in the format [sets]x[reps], so 5×5 would be five sets of five reps each, and 3×10 would be three sets of 10 reps.

There are many factors that you can consider (or that an experienced trainer can include when writing your program) when deciding how many reps you should do, but often people try to stick to the “repetition range” that they are told suits their goals. .

What are traditional rep ranges?

Here’s what you’ll hear from many coaches, influencers, and online resources. Keep in mind that you need to take them with a grain of salt, and I’ll explain why in a minute:

• Fewer repetitions, such as one to five, count for strength.

• Average numbers, such as 6 to 12, are said to be for building muscle.

• If you’re a woman and want to “ton up,” you might be told that 8 to 12 or maybe 10 to 15 will give you definition without allowing your muscles to grow too much.

• Rep ranges of 15 or more are generally considered a measure of muscular endurance.

The exact numbers will vary depending on who you ask, but no matter how you break them down, something doesn’t add up. If you do 10 reps, are you building muscle or maintaining muscle? It can’t be both – unless 10 reps can do the trick for either goal, in which case the number of reps is not what determines the outcome. (Hm…)

It is also a mistake to think that strength and muscle growth are completely separate from each other and different methods are used to build them. So let’s look at some practical tips for deciding what rep range you should actually be working with.

Muscle strength and size do not (always) require different training.

Newbies to the gym often spend a lot of effort trying to find the “optimal” workout routine to achieve their goals. But, as I said, optimality is not mandatory . Getting the details right is not as important as getting the big picture right.

And the big picture for most beginner and intermediate lifters is that almost everything contributes to the development of strength and muscle size . You can lift weights in the “strength” range and still build muscle. You can lift weights within a “size” and gain strength.

You can read a detailed description of this idea here . The author, powerlifter and coach Greg Nuckols, concludes that lower reps (eg 1-5) increase strength, while higher reps (15+) increase muscular endurance.

But almost anything will do to increase muscle size. He summarizes: “A hypertrophy [size building] range of about six to 15 reps per set may produce slightly better results per unit of time spent than working with low and high reps. However, in general, the benefit you get from working in the hypertrophy range is not as great as people think; maybe ~10-15% benefit per unit of effort at most.”

He recommends training with different rep ranges if you want to increase or define muscle, rather than using the same narrow range every time. At least that’s the consensus among good trainers: the most effective training programs involve a mix of high- and low-rep exercises. This is because each rep range has its own pros and cons when it comes to specific exercises and goals, not just a person’s general goals.

When to use low reps (1-5)

This is a traditional strength range, and frankly, it’s a good rep range to work on strength. Here I use the word “strength” to mean increasing the amount of weight you can lift, even if you can only lift it once.

For strength

If you want to show off to your friends by benching more than them, or if you want to compete in a weightlifting competition and place well, or if you want to do your first pull-up , you need to work on your strength.

This means you need to train with heavy weights. A weight you can lift 10 times in a row will be fairly light compared to your abilities, and it won’t teach your body everything it needs to know to lift weights. So you’ll have to work with low reps (at least sometimes!) if you’re aiming for a strength goal.

To learn the technique

Low repetitions will also help you focus and avoid fatigue. You may get tired or sloppy by the 10th rep of a set, but in a set of three reps this is unlikely to happen. Olympic weightlifters typically perform their difficult competition lifts in sets of one to three.

Beginners learning new exercises, such as squats or barbell presses, should also work in this range. Do a few reps, take a break, and then come back fresh.

For muscle size, along with other rep ranges

Heavy weights place a lot of mechanical tension on your muscles and help you get stronger. These factors mean that low-rep sets can still help your muscles grow, even if they’re not the traditional rep range for muscle growth. After all, the stronger you are, the heavier weights you can handle, which means you can work even harder on moderate to high rep sets.

When to Use Moderate Reps (6-12)

This is a good middle ground that will build strength and size while also giving you plenty of practice moving the weight. Almost everyone can benefit from working in this rep range, at least some of the time.

For strength and muscle size

This is a range that is probably ideal for gaining muscle mass and will greatly help in your strength building efforts.

Even athletes who focus on strength will work hard in this rep range with the goal of building additional muscle mass. After doing three sets of squats, you can go and do sets of 10 on lunges, leg extensions, or leg presses.

For beginners and general fitness

While low reps are best for learning exercises that are difficult or new to you, beginners are often encouraged to work in the mid rep range once they get comfortable with it, and this makes a lot of sense.

Doing eight or ten repetitions of the same exercise gives you plenty of practice (30 reps in three sets of 10) without having to strain to handle a heavy weight that you haven’t yet mastered.

For “tinting”

Toning is not a specific strength training goal and therefore does not have its own specific rep range. Being “fit” is, for the most part, just appearance: it means that you have certain muscles but are relatively thin .

That’s why the same exercises that build muscle for people who want to “bulk” are also good for people who want to “tone.” Or, to put it another way: any resistance training aimed at building muscle mass will do both things.

So what is the difference between a “bulky” body and a “fit” one? Partly it’s nutrition (the more you eat, the bigger your muscles can become) and partly it’s just how long you’ve been training and how hard you’ve worked. It takes a long time to build a lot of muscle.

I might even say it’s a mindset component: People who realize how important muscles are to their health and fitness goals tend to view their new muscles as part of a healthy, toned appearance—not necessarily as “bulky.”

When to Use More Reps (15+)

Traditionally this is called the “muscular endurance” range, but this is a misnomer. High reps aren’t great for building strength and may not be the best option for building muscle, so pretty much all they have to offer is that they can help you perform high reps.

For muscular endurance, along with lower rep ranges

The point is, if you’re looking to build muscular endurance—say, you want to do 100 pushups in a row—you’ll also benefit from using lower rep ranges to build strength. The stronger you are, the easier each push-up will be for you and the longer you can continue.

Research has shown that you don’t have to stick to the 15+ rep range to develop muscular endurance: ranges of three to five and six to eight may work even better than spending training time on high reps.

If your end goal is to do 100 push-ups, I wouldn’t advise you to only do high-rep sets; those with low repetitions are also useful. But I still expect you to practice high reps to build the skill, fitness, and mental toughness you’ll need to achieve your goal.

For muscle size (and “tone”) if you only carry light weights

To perform heavy or moderate reps, you need appropriate weights. So if you’re working with limited equipment, you may have no choice but to make the most of what you have.

Fortunately, research has shown that muscles can still increase in size if you use light weights and high reps, as long as you perform each set to failure. So if it takes 20 or even 30 reps to fatigue your arms when performing a bench press with a set of light dumbbells, it’s still doable.

However, if you can do more than 30 reps, we begin to leave the realm of strength training and enter territory that is more like cardio. At this point, you should really look for more challenging exercises or find a way to pick up heavier dumbbells.

Bottom line: Variety in rep ranges is good.

Ultimately, you don’t have to choose one rep range for your entire workout. You won’t see powerlifters working only in the strength range or bodybuilders working only in the size range. The guy in your neighborhood who can do 25 pull-ups at the local park probably isn’t doing 25 of everything in his training program.

So when you go to the gym, you’ll probably want to use low reps for one or two strength exercises, moderate reps for most of your other work, and sometimes high rep work for variety or to keep you going. get by with lighter exercises. equipment.

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