Building muscle and getting stronger, no doubt a goal for many of us, but rummaging the internet
for the best ways to go about it can be super confusing.
Fitness, in general, is chock-full of infinitely interchanging advice.
Muscle and strength, no exception.
But, a good portion of the muscle and strength talks routinely focuses around a few key parameters,
one of which is a thing called repetitions.
In this video, we’re going to dive into repetition, or reps, in our training and look
into the critical debate of whether certain rep ranges are better than others.
Hi, I’m PictureFit, I make health and fitness content.
Fun fact, I also collected dozens of sneakers.
Eventually I sold them all for a few extra dollars to pay for college rent and cheeseburgers,
and now 10 years later, about half of them are worth $10,000 each.
Good times.
For those new to reps in exercise: Reps, in the mostest simplest terms, are the
amount of times an exercise is repeated.
For example, if you’re instructed to do three sets of eight reps for bicep curls,
you will then do eight consecutive curls, rest, then do another eight curls, rest again,
and then do your final eight curls to fully complete that exercise.
Reps are important in the regard of providing sufficient skeletal muscle stimuli.
Stimuli that kick start the physiological processes of muscle adaptation.
Reps, one hundred percent important!
But, just knowing to this extent isn’t enough information to get you started on your Goku
endeavors.
Yes, reps are important, but what number of reps is actually best?
The answer of course is: it depends, and here’s why.
First, understand that reps are just one variable in the muscle equation.
Not only that, reps are heavily influenced by the equally important factor called intensity,
or simply, the amount of weight you lift.
Naturally, the heavier weights you lift, the fewer reps you can physically do.
And, vice versa, the lighter the weight, the more reps you can do.
This balance between intensity and reps is very important, especially for two primary
muscle goals.
Research has consistently shown that lifting heavy weights that allows you to perform about
one to six reps max in one set, results in the greatest muscular strength development.
On the other end, research has shown that lifting light weights where you can perform
about 25 or more reps, leads to the greatest levels of muscular endurance development.
In short, lifting heavier helps you lift heavier, and lifting lighter helps you lift morerer.
Muscle strength and endurance, not all that complicated.
But of course, we do have the other muscle aspect that probably rouses you the most.
The aspect also responsible for shirtless gym bros taking selfies in the restroom, and
that is muscle growth.
Also known as muscle hypertrophy, muscle growth is where the answer to the best rep range
can wildly vary on the internet.
But, by the end of this video, you’ll see that it’s actually quite simple.
To summarize the general online consensus, the so-called “best” way to build muscle
is to lift moderately heavy weights aiming somewhere between 6 to 15 reps per set.
This is commonly referred to as the exalted “hypertrophy range.”
Proponents of this range have quite a tremendous amount of explanations as to why this range
is best.
Some explain it through mechanistic conditions, where the 6-to-15 rep range produces optimal
stress and tension, resulting in optimal adaptation.
Some explain it through physiological conditions, where 6 to 15 reps elicit the greatest stimulation
of sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy, the two different types of muscle growth.
Other explanations include things like the hypertrophy range increasing muscle pump,
improving mind-muscle connection, increasing time under tension, and among many others.
But, as fun as theorizing potential mechanisms can be, none of it means much if this rep
range does not produce the greatest gains.
And, when we look back at the muscle research, there does seem to be a consistent result,
just not what the hypertrophy rangers hoped for.
Over the years, we have seen a multitude of studies observing similar muscle growth across
a much wider rep and intensity range.
And we’re talking about a range that goes as low as only 3 reps, which means very heavy
weights, all the way to 30 or more reps with very light weights.
Some data even observed significant growth with over 100 reps!
However, the data for this is quite limited.
Wherever we seem to look though, the data makes it abundantly clear that there is no
clear physiological hypertrophy advantage to any specific rep range.
Instead, while we were putting emphasis on repetitions, the research found something
else was making headways.
Throughout the research, an increase in muscle hypertrophy over time was observed with an
increase in something called total work volume.
And, volume is simply the product of the amount of weight lifted, the number of sets performed,
and the number of REPS performed for any given exercise.
Reps times sets times weight.
That’s the gist of volume.
The results aren’t linear though, and there are diminishing returns and even negative
outcomes if volume accumulates too quickly.
Also, most research on volume require high effort sets.
Each set of reps should come close to your maximum capabilities and sometimes even pushing
to the point you can no longer physically do more reps, or known as training to failure.
So, keep these in mind.
Still, knowing this, you can see how simple and flexible things really are.
You can achieve the same volume in many ways, using different set schemes, different weights,
and yes, even different rep ranges.
All with similar growth.
Thus, the hypertrophy rep range simply does not matter… or does it?
Well, you see, discussions so far about rep ranges have been from a physiological standpoint.
But what we haven’t discussed is… practicality.
Yes, muscle development can be physiologically achieved in many ways, but they’re not all
equally practical.
Would it make practical safety sense for a beginner to do 5 sets of 3 very heavy reps
with very little training experience?
Would it make practical time sense to do 3 sets of 30 reps that requires 10-plus minute
breaks between sets to catch your breath?
And in the practical adherence sense, it doesn’t make sense for a person to perform a rep scheme
they do not enjoy or even causes them to feel sick and vomit, which we have seen happen
in studies.
This is where the hypertrophy range makes its triumphant return.
Yes, it is not the only range to build muscle, but its practicality generally makes the most
sense.
After all, it is a fairly wide range yet still not too low where the weights might be too
heavy, especially for beginners, nor is it too high where the sets feel too time-consuming,
fun-reducing, and excessively exhausting.
Just like how the soup is not too cold or too hot…
the hypertrophy range is juuuuust right, at least for Brodilocks.
I think one of the best summaries of this is from someone far more established and smarter
than me, Greg Nuckols, as stated from his amazing article on this very topic:
“In the 6-15 rep range, the weights are generally manageable enough that you can maintain
good technique, not cheat the range of motion, get pretty close to failure safely, not “burn
out your CNS” after just a couple of sets, and not be left with creaky joints.
On the other hand, the weights are generally heavy enough that you’re still putting a
fair amount of tension on the muscle, you’re more likely to be limited in each set by muscular
fatigue than systemic anaerobic fatigue, and you’re not doing so many reps that you’re
metabolically crushed after your first couple of sets.”
I highly recommend giving Greg’s article a read, link’s in the description.
It aligns a lot with what we’ve discovered in this video but goes much more in-depth
and 100% will help you better choose your personal rep range.
To be clear, practicality does vary from one person to the next, and your preferences might
align with the hypertrophy range.
In the end, what matters most in the pyramid of fitness is choosing a plan that suits your
personal goals, and choosing a plan that you can stick to with the fewest obstacles and
spontaneous mirror flexes in your way.
The hypertrophy rep range might be a part of that, and if not, luckily you have quite
a voluminous amount of options.
If you enjoyed this video, please give it a hypertrophic thumbs up and share it with
your volume loving friends.
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As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to get your PROTEIN!
And there is a protein range by the way but that’s a story for another day.