Best Rep Range For Building Muscle, Strength, and Endurance

Bodybuilding is an art and a science. You must do everything to perfection to achieve a masterpiece. Just like you must press the right note, at the right time, for the right duration for the perfect tune while playing the piano, you must lift the right weights for optimal reps to get the best results. 

Unlike most things in bodybuilding, the correct rep range for building muscle mass doesn’t depend on your genetics. Many studies have shown that staying in the 8-12 rep range is optimal for most people for inducing muscle hypertrophy. This proves the science behind bodybuilding and the results of following a proven training protocol are similar for most people. [1]

Building muscle, strength, and endurance requires dedication, discipline, and persistence. Using an incorrect rep range will put you on the wrong path and lead to unsatisfactory results, resulting in a loss of motivation and burnout. 

Swinging weights aimlessly in the gym will get you nowhere. If you have been training for a long time but have no results to show for it, chances are that you are following an incorrect range according to your training objectives. It might sound trivial, but it is one of the biggest reasons people quit their transformation journey without achieving their training goal. 

In this article, we go over the importance of using the right rep range, the science behind building muscle, the role of using the correct weights and training intensity, and reveal the best rep range for building muscle, strength, and endurance. This information will open locks for you that you didn’t know existed. 

What is a Rep Range?

A rep range refers to the number of reps performed in a set of an exercise. As a lifter, you’ll often hear about the best exercise for building a particular muscle group. However, it is the quality of each rep of that exercise that determines its effectiveness. Meaning the efficacy of your workouts ultimately depends on the quality of each repetition. 

Plus, the number of reps in each exercise can determine the extent of muscle stimulation. For example, performing three reps of biceps dumbbell curls with a 20-pound dumbbell will affect your muscles differently than doing 10 reps with the same weight. 

Hence, you must refrain from winging the number of reps you perform in each exercise. Enter each workout with a specific plan (sets, reps, intensity, and rest between sets) and execute it to perfection for the best results. You could modify your rep range to build strength, muscle mass, endurance, or lose weight.

Importance of Using the Right Rep Range

Given below are the benefits of using the right rep range in your training regimen:

Better Results

Have you ever tried chopping a tree with a knife? That would be silly, right? Using the right tool for the job is crucial in achieving your desired results. 

However, most people throw this logic out of the window during their workouts. You must use the correct rep range, as the reps you perform in a set stimulate the target muscles and ultimately determine your training results. You can achieve your training objectives much faster by using the right rep range from the get-go. 

Reduce the Risk of Injury

Using the incorrect rep range according to your training goals significantly increases your risk of injury. Going too heavy for a moderate or high-rep set is a recipe for disaster.  For example, you have no business lifting 80-90% of your 1RM for 8-12 reps if you want to build muscle mass. 

Using a suboptimal rep range boosts your risk of overtraining and hitting a strength and muscle plateau. Sticking to a pre-determined rep range also helps you pick the right weight for the job, which allows you to maintain good form throughout the set. 

Master your lifting technique, improve your mobility, flexibility, and core strength, and warm up using a mix of static and dynamic exercises to limit your risk of injury while training. 

More Control of Your Training Program

Knowing the optimal rep range for your training objectives puts you in the driver’s seat. It allows you to modify your workout regimen to add variety and follow a holistic approach to resistance training. With the rep range knowledge, you could design a 12-week training routine with four weeks each allocated to strength, hypertrophy, and endurance-focused work. 

Role of Weights 

Using the right weights and rep range is a must for achieving your training objective. For example, training for building strength involves staying in the lower rep range. Now, you cannot expect to grow exponentially stronger performing 1-5 reps using the same weights you use in the 8-12 rep range. You must get all your variables right to optimize your strength and muscle gains. 

Similarly, you shouldn’t expect to build muscle endurance or lose weight while doing 1-6 reps with 80-100% of your one-rep max. You must fine-tune your training intensity, volume, and frequency to get your desired results. 

For the scope of this article, we will use one-rep max derivatives to convey how much weight you should use in each rep. Contrary to what most people think, you don’t have to use super heavy weights and put yourself at risk of injury to determine your 1RM. You can use this fast and reliable calculator to determine your 1RM. It will take out the guesswork from your training, giving you the exact weights you should be lifting for a particular number of reps. 

Best Rep Range For Building Muscle, Strength, and Endurance

Here are the best rep ranges for gaining strength, muscle mass, and endurance:

Best Rep Range For Building Muscle

To build muscle mass, you must perform 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps of an exercise with 60-80% of your 1RM. 

Training for hypertrophy has multiple benefits, including improving your physique aesthetics by building muscle mass, boosting your strength, promoting greater mobility and flexibility, helping burn fat, decreasing your risk of falls, and improving your heart and bone health. [2]

While training for muscle mass, you must limit your rest duration to 60-120 seconds between sets to maintain a high training intensity. 

Most lifters overdo their workout intensity while training for hypertrophy. In contrast to popular opinion, you do not need to hit muscle failure in each rep. Training to failure in each exercise can lead to overexertion, which, if done for a prolonged period, can result in overtraining and lead to a muscle and strength plateau and possible health issues. 

Best Rep Range For Building Strength

Training for strength involves performing fewer reps than training for building muscle; however, the rest duration between sets is significantly longer. You are allowed a three to five-minute rest between sets to ensure you have enough juice to crush your next set. 

Perform 4-6 sets of 1-5 reps of an exercise with 80-100% of your 1RM to build muscle mass. You must always have a spotter while training close to your one-rep max for safety. [3]

Irrespective of your ultimate training objective, use progressive overload techniques to ensure consistent progress. You could progressively overload your muscles by increasing your training intensity, volume, and duration, reducing the rest time between sets, or using advanced training principles, such as super sets, drop sets, and intraset stretching. 

Furthermore, a study took 32 untrained men and had them lift for eight weeks, splitting them up into three groups. The first group followed a low-rep range of 3-5 with three-minute rest periods, the second group followed an intermediate rep range of 9-11 with two-minute rest periods, and the final group followed a high-rep range between 20-28 with one-minute rest periods. [4]

At the end of the study, the low-rep group improved maximum strength significantly over the other two groups. The maximum number of reps at 60% of 1RM improved the most in the high-rep group. However, when it came to hypertrophy, the low-rep and intermediate-rep groups made significant progress, while the high-rep group did not.

This study proves that performing 1-5 reps with heavy weight not only helps build strength but it also helps you add muscle mass. 

Best Rep Range For Building Muscle Endurance

Muscle endurance allows you to perform a task for longer. Training for muscular endurance improves your overall functionality, boosting your physical performance at everyday tasks. Furthermore, this type of strength training is perfect for athletes and folks that love outdoor activities. 

Do 3-5 sets and 15 or more reps of an exercise with loads below 60% of 1RM to improve your muscular endurance and stamina. You must limit your rest between sets to 60 seconds while training for endurance. 

HIIT workouts, such as Tabata, EMOM, AMRAP, ladders, and complexes, are a great way to improve your endurance. Combine strength and cardiovascular exercises in your HIIT workouts to get the best bang for your buck.

Best Rep Range For Losing Weight

Believe it or not, lifting weights can help you get rid of the spare tire. Although the results will not be as good as those from cardio training, it will set you in the right direction. You must follow the same rep and intensity scheme as people training for endurance to prioritize weight loss. Perform 3-5 sets of 15 or more reps using 60% or less of your 1RM to lose weight. 

The Science Behind Muscle Growth

Understanding the science behind muscle growth, also known as hypertrophy, can help you achieve your desired results in a record time. The muscle growth process generally consists of six steps; however, we have broken them down into two sections to emphasize the role of rep range in building muscle, strength, and endurance. The first section includes mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage, whereas the second section involves hormonal factors, nutritional considerations, and recovery and adaptation. 

Mechanical Tension

Resistance training creates tension within the muscle fibers, which act as a stimulus, signaling your body to adapt and grow stronger. The strength training-style workouts with heavy weights and low reps are particularly effective in generating mechanical tension, promoting strength gains and neuromuscular adaptations.

Metabolic Stress

During a set, metabolic byproducts such as lactate and hydrogen ions accumulate in your muscles. This metabolic stress ignites a burning sensation and muscle pumps. This sensation also signals an increased metabolic demand, which is vital for muscle growth and adaptations.

Muscle Damage

There is no muscle growth without muscle fiber damage. A demanding exercise creates microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. This damage kickstarts the muscle recovery process, which results in hypertrophy. So, all muscle damage is not bad. 

How Do Different Rep Ranges Affect Muscle Growth?

Different rep ranges manipulate these three factors to varying degrees. 

• A low rep range using heavy weights emphasizes mechanical tension and neural adaptations, making them incredibly effective for strength gains.
• The moderate rep range balances mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage, emphasizing muscle growth.
• A high rep range focuses on metabolic stress and endurance, boosting muscular stamina and cardiovascular fitness.

Hormonal Factors

Hormones such as testosterone, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), and insulin play a crucial role in boosting muscle hypertrophy. These hormones are also responsible for strength and endurance gains. Notably, strength and muscle gains can occur without significant hormonal changes, which highlights the importance of mechanical tension and metabolic stress. 

Nutritional Considerations

Whether your goal is to build muscle, strength, or endurance or lose weight, you must supplement your training regimen with an effective diet and recovery regimen to streamline your progress. Determine a daily calorie goal and use an appropriate macronutrient split to achieve your dream physique. 

Recovery and Adaptation

You must give your muscles enough time to rest and recuperate after your workouts. Remember, you break down muscle tissue in the gym, and they grow bigger and stronger when outside the weight room. Sleep at least seven to eight hours a night to allow your body optimal time for recovery. 

Wrapping Up

You must choose your rep range according to your training objectives. Stay in the 1-6 rep range to build strength, the 8-12 range for optimal muscle hypertrophy, and 15 and more reps to build muscle endurance and stamina. 

However, you don’t have to stick to one rep routine forever. You can switch your rep structure to add more variety to your training regimen. Changing gears will also keep your muscles guessing and ensure you don’t hit a strength or muscle plateau. 

References

1. Krzysztofik M, Wilk M, Wojdała G, Gołaś A. Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Dec 4;16(24):4897. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16244897. PMID: 31817252; PMCID: PMC6950543.
2. Campos GE, Luecke TJ, Wendeln HK, Toma K, Hagerman FC, Murray TF, Ragg KE, Ratamess NA, Kraemer WJ, Staron RS. Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: specificity of repetition maximum training zones. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Nov;88(1-2):50-60. doi: 10.1007/s00421-002-0681-6. Epub 2002 Aug 15. PMID: 12436270.
3. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Van Every DW, Plotkin DL. Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports (Basel). 2021 Feb 22;9(2):32. doi: 10.3390/sports9020032. PMID: 33671664; PMCID: PMC7927075.
4. Mcleod JC, Stokes T, Phillips SM. Resistance Exercise Training as a Primary Countermeasure to Age-Related Chronic Disease. Front Physiol. 2019 Jun 6;10:645. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00645. PMID: 31244666; PMCID: PMC6563593.

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