When you lift a weight, how many times should you lift it?
But how much of the oft-repeated wisdom is true?
Not as much as youd think.
What are reps and sets?
(Rep is short for repetition.)
Typically a workout will call for several sets of each exercise, separated by arest periodor by another exercise.
What are the traditional rep ranges?
Heres what youll hear from many trainers, influencers, and online resources.
Medium numbers, like six to 12, are said to be for building muscle size.
A rep range of 15 or more is usually held to be for muscular endurance.
If you do 10 reps, are you building muscle size, or are you keeping your muscles toned?
So lets go over some practical advice for deciding what rep ranges you should actually work with.
But as Ive said before,optimal is optional.
Getting the details right is not nearly as important as getting the big picture right.
you’ve got the option to lift in the strength range and still build muscle.
you’re able to lift in the size range and find yourself gaining strength.
You canread a deep dive on this idea here.
But for growing muscles in size, just about anything works.
This means you gotta practice with heavy weights.
So youll need to work with low reps (at least sometimes!)
if youre aiming for a strength goal.
To learn technique
Low reps also help you to focus and avoid fatigue.
Olympic weightlifters typically do their tricky competition lifts in sets of just one to three.
Do a few reps, take a break, then come back fresh.
Pretty much everybody can benefit from working in this rep range, at least some of the time.
Being toned is mostly just a look: it meansyou have some muscle definition while being relatively slim.
Or to put it another way: any resistance training that builds muscle will be appropriate for both goals.
So what makes a bulky body different from a toned one?
It takes a lot of time to build a lot of muscle.
You wont see powerliftersonlyworking in the strength range, or bodybuildersonlyworking in the size range.
