The number of reps you should do per exercise can be a somewhat confusing topic when you start researching information online. This is particularly relevant if you are new to lifting weights and simply want to put on some muscle and get a bit stronger. In this article, I’m going to outline three categories of rep ranges, the types of exercises they are best suited to and how they can be relevant to a training programme of someone who’s relatively new to weight training.
High rep range 15+
High rep range essentially means lifting lighter weights for at least 15 repetitions. In this range, you should be working at approximately 60% of the maximum weight you can lift. High reps can work well with either compound or isolation exercises.
When to do high reps?
If you are only starting your resistance training, prefer home workouts and only have a few resistance bands available – using higher reps is a good way to start challenging your muscles. High reps would be also appropriate if you are recovering from an injury.
You can also succesfully use high rep range for isolating certain muscles. For example, for optimal glute development, you want to target all 3 gluteal muscles (the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus). This would require working them from different angles and rep ranges. Higher reps are great for exercises such as banded abductions, frog pumps, clamshells, kickbacks.
High reps are quite common during fitness classes. A lot of gyms seem to attract people to those types of classes by claiming you can potentially burn large amounts of calories. However, in reality, you won’t burn nearly as many calories as you think. While those classes can certainly help you gain a bit of muscle and strength, performing steady-state cardio for the same amount of time is likely to burn more calories.
Building muscle and strength in a high rep range
You can build muscle and strength but only to an extent. Muscle building by using higher reps will be achieved through metabolic stress. This essentially means the type of training when you experience “the burn” or “the pump”. Furthermore, if you have never lifted weights before, lifting even a very light weight will be a new stimulus to your body resulting in an increase in muscle and strength. However, eventually, you would want to include other rep ranges to achieve progressive overload.
High reps are excellent for beginners, home workouts, rehab, as well as to isolate muscles at the end of a workout. Even if you are an experienced lifter there is a place for higher reps in your programme.
Moderate rep range 6-12
The moderate rep range is traditionally known as the optimal place for hypertrophy, aka muscle building. At this range, the intensity of your lifts would be about 60-85% of the heaviest weight you can lift. Similarly to a high rep range, it works well with compound and isolation exercises. However, you would require access to heavier weights and this might be harder to perform in a home workout scenario.
When to do moderate reps?
If you feel comfortable with lifting technique, if you don’t have any serious joint issues and if you have experience doing higher rep exercises (either in classes or at home) you can move on to lifting a little heavier for fewer reps. If building muscle is one of your main fitness goals then you definitely should work in moderate rep range along with high rep range.
Building muscle and strength in a moderate rep range
As mentioned earlier, moderate rep range is the place for muscle building but you will also build some strength. In this rep range, your muscles will be built through muscle damage and subsequent growth. Muscle damage occurs through the concentric and eccentric (lowering) phase of a lift. Most muscle damage happens during the eccentric phase. That’s why it’s so important to lower your weights slowly and under control.
All in all, if you’ve been lifting light weights for a while and feel comfortable enough with movement patterns you can start increasing the intensity by doing 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps. As you get stronger you can move towards the 6-8 rep region for most compound exercises.
Low rep range 1-5
Lower rep ranges would be used when focusing on building serious strength. This is where you would be working at 85%+ of the maximum weight you can lift. Low rep range is suitable for such compound exercises as barbell squats, deadlifts, bench press. When it comes to strength training you need to ensure you actually have the prerequisites required to safely lift such heavy amounts of weight. This means mobility, core strength, balanced muscular development, excellent mind-muscle connection and control of your body.
When to do low reps?
Without a doubt, you want to include reasonably low rep ranges (4-5 reps) along the line. However, as mentioned above you need to make sure your body is actually ready before increasing the load to the point where you can only perform a low number of reps. Ideally, you would want to do that under the guidance of a qualified trainer.
There are exceptions though when it comes to low range reps. These are challenging bodyweight exercises (at least for us, ladies) such as pull-ups (chin-ups) and push-ups. One of the good ways to learn those challenging exercises is doing negatives. This would mean to only do the lowering part of an exercise and then returning to the starting position. Normally, you would only need to do 3-5 negative reps per set. And when you can do a full push-up/pull-up it’s totally fine to do very low rep sets, especially with pull-ups.
Building muscle and strength in a low rep range
Lower rep ranges are designed for building strength but you will certainly build muscle too. Lifting heavy weights builds your muscle through mechanical tension. Mechanical tension occurs during the time your muscles spend under load. To get the best out of mechanical tension it is important to perform exercises with full range of motion and under control.
Implementing lower rep ranges is definitely a great tool to maximize your results. However, if you are relatively new to exercise this isn’t something you need to worry about too much. With the exception of push-ups and pull-ups, I personally successfully trained for several years within an 8-15 rep range. It was much later when I felt like my body was ready for heavier weights without causing myself an injury.
When it comes to rep ranges there is a lot of contradicting information online. But it only makes sense that as a beginner you start easy. This means using the lightest intensity which applies to the high rep range. Then, as you get more comfortable performing the movement you can gradually increase the intensity.
In the long run, you do want to have a variety of reps, just like you want to change up your routine when your body gets too used to it. If you keep consistently lifting weights, improving your technique, working towards progressive overload, getting adequate nutrition and recovery for your muscles to actually grow, you will build muscle and strength.