Previously we talked about training to failure and whether you should do it and how often. After looking at a lot of evidence I came up with my opinion based on the data we have available. If you missed it be sure to check it out, after reading this article of course. Moving forward with this muscle-building series we are now going to shift focus to rep ranges and what should be used depending on what your goals are.
Best Rep Range for Mass?
Okay, let’s get the simple stuff out-of-the-way first. You’ve probably heard this before, but in case you haven’t let’s go over it. There are generally three different rep ranges that produce three different adaptations. Low reps, generally 5 and under, produce greater strength adaptations. Medium reps generally considered between 6-12 reps produce greater muscular hypertrophy and high rep sets over or sets over 12 reps produce better muscle endurance adaptations.
While it’s pretty well true and though I could argue with some of this that is not why I’m here today. In fact today we will assume that these are in fact true and try to make a determination which rep ranges you should use and when depending on your weight lifting goals.
Before we dive too deep into that I’d like to take a look at research done by Campos et al. (1) In this study they took 32 untrained men and had them lift for 8 weeks splitting them up into four groups. One which did a low rep range of 3-5 with 3 minute rest periods, one an intermediate rep range of 9-11 with 2 minute rest periods, and a high rep group which kept reps between 20-28 with 1 minute rest periods and a control group.
At the end of the study, the low rep group improved maximum strength significantly over the other two groups. Maximum number of reps at 60% 1 rep max improved the most in the high rep group. So far just as we’d expect results to go. However, when it came to hypertrophy both the low rep and intermediate rep groups made significant progress while the high rep group did not.
Basically low reps significantly increased both strength and hypertrophy, intermediate significantly increased hypertrophy and high reps significantly increased adaptations for prolonged contractions and time to exhaustion AKA muscle-endurance.
So this falls in line pretty well with what you’ve probably heard before, that when it comes to building muscle you need a heavy enough weight to cause the right adaptation. However, if you are the type of person who doesn’t care about how much you lift and only how big you can get, does it make sense to stick with the intermediate weight ranges? You don’t care about how much you can lift you just want to be big. You don’t care how many reps you can perform, you just want to get jacked! If that’s your goal shouldn’t you stick to rep ranges between 6-12 since that’s supposedly best for building muscle? Not so fast.
We’ve talked about this before but I think it’s important to continue to bring up. For the best results, you need a plan that includes all rep ranges. If low reps build more strength and you are than able to lift more weight with your intermediate rep lifts you are set up to build more muscle. If high reps build more endurance and you have a greater work capacity you’ll be able to perform in the gym better and longer and be more productive. Not to mention if you always work the same rep ranges your body will adapt to that fast and results will be harder to come by.
How To Incorporate All Rep Ranges In Your Workouts?
With that comes the real question – how do you incorporate all the rep ranges in your training? The first thing you want to think of is what’s your main goal? If size is your main goal it makes sense to include more of the intermediate rep range than the others, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include the others. If strength is your main goal certainly low rep ranges should be your main focus, but again not the only thing you do. You want to set up a program that effectively includes the best of all worlds, and that’s exactly what we will talk about next time.
I hope you’ll come back!
- The Muscle-Building Series
- Muscular Development – Progressive Overload
- How Often Should You Train To Failure?
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