More Weight Or More Reps?

Progressive overload is the key to getting fitter, stronger, or more muscular, but many people need help implementing it. As a veteran personal trainer, a common question I get is: ‘Should I lift heavier weights or do more reps?’  The truth is, it depends on your goals.

A 2022 study concluded that “progressions of repetitions and load appear to be viable strategies for enhancing muscular adaptations,” meaning you can do both and still get good results. (1)

However, “both will work” is not an answer that will satisfy those looking for “the best” or “most optimal” approach. So, let’s get specific.

Should You Add More Weight or Do More Reps? — A Full Guide

Choosing reps over weight or vice versa mostly depends on your goals. Neither is inherently better.

To figure out whether you should lift heavier or pump out more reps to achieve your goal, look at the table below:

With the basics out of the way, let me explain why the approach above works.

Build Lean Muscle — More Weight and Reps

Building muscle tissue becomes progressively harder as you get bigger and bigger. The effort-to-growth ratio essentially flatlines after a few years, so if you want to keep moving forward, you must lift heavy and increase your training volume.

Early in your training, you will likely be able to increase the load by 5-10% each week. After just one or two sessions, you should be able to go from a 100-pound deadlift to a 105- or 110-pound deadlift. This kind of linear weight progression should serve you well for two to three months.

However, adding extra weight every week will eventually become impossible. Your muscles won’t be able to adapt to the additional load that quickly, at which point you’ll have to add reps.

In other words, instead of increasing the weight by 10%, you’ll add one or two extra reps per set. Do this for three to four weeks, and should be able to increase the weight by 10% again. Then, you just repeat the cycle.

As a general guideline, you should lift 70-80% of your one-rep max (1RM) in the 8–12 or 12–15 rep range, as that appears to be ideal for hypertrophy. However, there’s no reason why you can’t experiment with lower or higher rep ranges, too. Studies have shown that training with lighter loads in the 25–30 rep range delivers similar hypertrophic results to training in the 8–12 range. (2)

But here’s the catch:

Unless there’s enough weekly volume (number of sets times reps), it won’t really matter if you up the weight or reps, but that’s a discussion for another time. You must do 12–20 weekly sets per muscle group to maximize hypertrophy.

Also, it’s worth noting that you should train close to failure (2–3 reps in reserve) if you want to drive hypertrophy and still have enough time to recover.

Lose Weight — Either More Weight or More Reps

Considering the main driving force behind weight loss is eating in a caloric deficit, it doesn’t matter whether you choose to lift heavier weights or do more reps.

As long as you stay physically active, you will burn extra calories, which will improve the rate at which you lose extra pounds.

We could get into specifics about which training approach is best for maximizing calorie expenditure to optimize weight loss, but when it comes to resistance training, per se, whether you up the weight or reps won’t have a profound effect on the calories burned.

Become Stronger — More Weight

Building strength requires lifting heavier weights. However, this doesn’t mean that your training should revolve around setting personal records every time you hit the gym. There isn’t conclusive evidence proving that one-rep maxes are the most effective way to build strength.

While general advice is to increase the weight to fuel strength gains, that isn’t sustainable long-term. After some time, you physically won’t be able to lift more. At that point, you must employ other progressive overload principles like increasing the number of reps or using advanced training techniques like supersets and dropsets until you can increase the weight again.

Unlike hypertrophy-oriented progressions, for strength gains, you will have to lift heavier loads and perform fewer reps on average. Instead of lifting 70-80% of your 1RM for 8–15 reps, you will lift 85-90% of your 1RM in the 4–8 range. According to research, lifting in the 2-4 rep range can also help build strength. (3)

This is what Dr. Mike Isreatel (Ph.D. in sports physiology) had to say when discussing rep ranges for strength training:

“Sets of one to three are okay for general strength gains. You can do them all the time, and they make you generally stronger. Like, your strength builds over time. However, it doesn’t maximize your strength for one simple reason — it’s such low repetitions per set. The stimulus to the muscle is relatively low because you’re just not under the bar for very long. The force transduction is amazing, but it turns on for a bit and then turns off, and your muscles are like, “Yeah, I guess we got kind of a message to get stronger, but it wasn’t that big of a message.””

Stay Fit — Either More Weight or More Reps

To stay fit, you must stay consistent with your training and push closer to failure once every two to three weeks.

As I said earlier, the progression curve turns into a flat line after you’ve been in the gym for several years. Early on, it’s super easy to get bigger and stronger. As time passes, gains become harder and harder to come by, and you peak after some time. At that point, it’s just maintenance.

If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, the curve might appear once again, only this time, it’ll go in the opposite direction. In other words, if you don’t keep pushing and trying to progress, you won’t be able to maintain your fitness levels.

So, every two to three weeks, give a full-send effort in the gym. Push your sets to muscular failure (and beyond). Do some long-length partials, up the weight, squeeze in the extra rep or two, and you should be golden. Don’t compromise your form, though.

Increase Endurance — More Reps

The endurance we’re talking about here is muscular endurance — not cardiovascular. For cardiovascular endurance, do cardio. It’s more effective than resistance training. Now, back to the point.

Training to enhance muscular endurance requires training in the higher rep ranges. After all, to endure means to last.

I suggest training in the 20-30 rep range to effectively work on your muscular endurance, but anything above 15 is probably good enough, too. To make things simpler (and arguably more effective), train with 50% of your one-rep max and push to about 1–3 reps in reserve.

Like with strength training, the key here is to stimulate specific muscle fibers — Type I or slow-twitch fibers. These fibers aren’t really powerful but can withstand tension for a long time.

To avoid confusion, these aren’t separate muscles. The split between fast- and slow-twitch fibers in your muscles is pretty much 50:50, so it’s just a matter of utilization at different times. For example, fast-twitch fibers in your lower back help with deadlifts, and slow-twitch ones keep you standing upright.

Save Time — More Weight

This one might seem silly, but if you’re pressed for time and can’t squeeze a 90-minute training session into your schedule, lift heavier weights. Not everyone wants to become stronger, leaner, or bigger. Some just want to get their body moving and stay healthy, and that shouldn’t take long.

The math here is simple: 10 reps take twice as long as five. If you lift heavy, you can finish an entire workout in about 30–45 minutes, depending on the number of exercises you do. For instance, a 12-set leg workout shouldn’t take more than 30–35 minutes.

Which Exercises Are Best For Adding Weight?

Since compound lifts utilize more than one muscle group, they are much easier to overload than isolation exercises. However, this isn’t the case for every compound exercise.

For instance, face pulls are a compound exercise, and those are incredibly hard to overload. The following exercises are ideal for progression:

• Squat
• Rows
• Bench Press

Squats

Squats work the entire lower body and core, but you will feel most of their effects in the glutes, quads, and hamstrings.

Considering you’re utilizing some of your body’s most powerful muscles, squats are an excellent exercise to go heavier on.

Rows

Adding weight to rowing exercises, whether we’re talking about dumbbell, cable, or bent-over rows, is often overlooked. During rowing exercises, a lifter’s grip usually gives out before their back.

You can use lifting straps if your grip is limiting your ability to pull heavy weights. Straps help strengthen your grip, allowing you to hold onto heavier weights and focus on your back, which could result in a 10-20% increase in working weight.

Bench Press

Bench pressing requires a lot of power and explosiveness, so you will hit mechanical failure relatively quickly. As building muscular endurance isn’t the goal here, you are better off increasing the load and controlling the eccentric phase of the lift rather than adding a few extra reps.

However, you don’t have to add a lot of weight right away. You probably won’t hop from 225 to 235 pounds in a week. But if your gym has the one-pound plates — add them to the bar. In a few weeks, those will add up, and you’ll be lifting 235.

Which Exercises Are Best For Adding Reps?

Apart from a few exceptions like leg extensions, you’ll typically find it easier to progress in isolation exercises by increasing the reps rather than adding weight.

The following three are prime examples of this:

• Lateral Raise
• Bicep Curl
• Cable Chest Fly

Lateral Raises

Lateral raises are some of the most challenging exercises to perform using heavy weights. While delts are the largest upper body muscle by volume, they are rarely (read: never) the strongest.

From what I’ve seen in my coaching career, it takes years to double the working weight on lateral raises (without compromising form, of course).

Bicep Curls

Bicep curls are deceptively hard to overload without cheating and using momentum. So, instead of adding weight and curling with your hips — add some reps.

Even a modest increase in reps will significantly fatigue your biceps, as they are a small muscle group. Also, you must prioritize impeccable form. This maximizes bicep activation and leads to long-term progress, even if weekly rep increases are minimal.

Cable Chest Flyes

The cable chest fly is one of the best chest isolation exercises and also one of the hardest. The constant pull of the cables while using excessively heavy weights will mess up your form, and you may not feel your chest working until you perfect your form.

But even when you perfect your form, adding weight is still challenging. So, reps it is.

Conclusion

As is usually the case, there is no one-size-fits-all answer in fitness. Sometimes, you’ll have to increase the weight to progress; other times, you’ll have to perform more reps. Both can be incredibly useful as long as they align with your goals.

However, don’t get too hung up on “the best way to train.” There’s no such thing. You could qualify for the Mr. Olympia while training your legs twice a month. Case in point: Tom Platz. So, don’t overthink it.

Stay consistent, progress gradually, and push as hard as you can while limiting injury risk.

References:

1. Plotkin D, Coleman M, Van Every D, Maldonado J, Oberlin D, Israetel M, Feather J, Alto A, Vigotsky AD, Schoenfeld BJ. Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ. 2022 Sep 30;10:e14142. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14142. PMID: 36199287; PMCID: PMC9528903.
2. Schoenfeld BJ, Peterson MD, Ogborn D, Contreras B, Sonmez GT. Effects of Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy in Well-Trained Men. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Oct;29(10):2954-63. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000958. PMID: 25853914.
3. Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Vigotsky AD, Peterson M. Differential Effects of Heavy Versus Moderate Loads on Measures of Strength and Hypertrophy in Resistance-Trained Men. J Sports Sci Med. 2016 Dec 1;15(4):715-722. PMID: 27928218; PMCID: PMC5131226.

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