How many reps for gaining mass

Simply put, type-2 fibers are where the potential for growth resides, and they respond only to heavy weights at least 75 percent of your one-rep max. High-rep training is, however, an excellent means of increasing muscular endurance.

In weight training, one adage has stood the test of time: To get big, you have to get strong. Taking that to an extreme, many lifters adopt a powerlifting approach, coupling very heavy weights with low reps. However, low-rep training has one significant shortcoming: Muscle-fiber stimulation, and thus growth, is correlated closely to the amount of time a muscle is under tension. The time-under-tension theory leads us to our third suspect: 8—rep sets.

At a cadence of two seconds on the concentric lifting action and two seconds on the eccentric lowering movement, your set will end up right in the middle of the optimum to second range for a given set of exercise. Why is that range critical? Because when the set lasts longer than a few seconds, the body is forced to rely on the glycolytic-energy system, which leads to the formation of lactic acid.

When lactic acid, or lactate, pools in large amounts, it induces a surge in anabolic hormone levels within the body, including the ultrapotent growth hormone and the big daddy of muscle-building, testosterone. The increased time under tension also leads to more muscle damage, imperative if you plan on getting larger any time soon. Theoretically, the longer a muscle is contracted, the greater the potential for damage to the tissue.

The moderate-rep range, when coupled with a challenging weight, will also bring about a much-desired condition: the muscle pump. That tight, full feeling under the skin, caused by blood pooling in the muscle, has value beyond its ego-expanding qualities.

Studies have demonstrated that the physiological conditions which lead to a pump activate protein synthesis and limit protein breakdown. Thus, more of the protein you eat goes toward muscle construction instead of being burned off for energy.

In a scientific twist of good fortune, the fast-twitch fibers appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of this phenomenon. So how many reps should you be doing to build muscle? In the final analysis, substantial evidence argues that training in a moderate-rep range is the best way to build muscle mass.

It increases hormone response, spares protein, and provides the necessary time under tension to spark muscle damage. His focus isn't just on building and strengthening the muscle fibers themselves, but also training the nervous system.

Rest periods between sets for main lifts are fairly long—up to minutes—so that incomplete recovery doesn't inhibit succeeding sets. After the main multijoint exercise, additional movements are included to strengthen weak links in the execution of the main lift.

Your eye may be on getting as big or as strong as possible, but not everyone wants to pursue that goal. The classic example of the marathon runner, who runs at a steady pace for plus miles, is one geared toward improving muscle endurance. In the gym, that translates into using a lighter load for 15 or more of reps. Low-intensity training is typically considered aerobic exercise, since oxygen plays a key role in energy or production.

This allows you to maintain your activity level for a longer period of time. This energy process occurs primarily in slow-twitch muscle fibers, so performing low-intensity, high-repetition training builds up the mechanisms within the muscle cell that make it more aerobically efficient.

This type of training enhances the muscle's endurance without necessarily increasing the size of the muscle. Highly trained aerobic athletes can do lots of reps for long periods of time without fatiguing, but you won't typically see a sprinter's body on a marathon runner. Focusing on muscle endurance means choosing fairly light weights that can be done for reps or more. Train like an endurance athlete: Most endurance sports aren't gym-based, so it's hard to duplicate their motions with weights.

Rest periods should be kept fairly short, since oxygen intake and lactic-acid removal shouldn't be limiting factors as you exercise. Discovering how many reps you should do also tells you how much weight you should lift. The two are inseparably linked.

If you were to plot a graph, you'd discover a near-linear inverse relationship between the two: add more weight and you can do fewer reps; with a lighter weight, you can do more reps. I'm always amazed when I train with a new partner who has been stuck at a certain weight-and-rep scheme—say, dumbbell bench press with 80 pounds for 8 reps.

I'll tell him to grab the 90s, to which he'll respond, "I can't do that! Invariably, he'll handle the 90s, and with that newfound sense of strength even give the 95s and s a try. With time, you'll understand your personal strength curve and the relationship of weight to reps for each exercise you do. Jotting your numbers down in a logbook or on BodySpace will help you keep track of your reps and weights used. This brings up an important point: You don't need to train in one rep range all the time.

You might start a workout with a heavy compound exercise for 5 sets of 5 reps. To focus on building muscle, you could follow that with a few exercises in the range. To finish the workout, you could even tap into your slow-twitch reserves and finish the session with an isolation exercise in the range.

This is important because as you get stronger, you'll want to lift more weight in the same rep range. When building muscle, once you can do more than about 12 reps on a core lift, it's time to increase the resistance by about percent.

The weight you choose along your strength curve should correspond to the number of reps you want to achieve, which matches your training goals.

In that sense, your workouts should never be random, where you just grab any old weight; there is a best weight and optimal number of reps you should be doing. This explains it all very well. Excellent article. I came across it by searching for rep ranges for the deadlift. Nice guidelines David, simplifies things greatly. Will have to keep these rep ranges in mind. I think most people discount the quality of work for the quantity but as you say not every rep is going to be the same and that is going to make a big difference.

Thanks Charles. David, once again, thanks for your advices. After a deload week and getting back on track, I now have a more clear vision of the reps for each kind of exercise which is very important for mass. Hi from colombia, How about velocity? Hi Andres, in general I recommend a slow, controlled negative going down and a fast, explosive concentric going up.

What I miss is what you think about time under tension. IMO that counts more than the number of reps. Plus, how many sets do you recommend? TUT and number of sets are at least equally important as the number of reps. ATM I do 1 set to failure some exercises focusing on exentric, some reducing the weights after 6 reps etc. Quick contractions actually recruit more muscle fibers and motor units than slow reps, so focusing on increasing TUT can even hinder your progress.

We can all tolerate different levels of volume, so the main thing is to gradually increase over time IMO. Should i not do any 5 rep work with dumbbells even though i am only doing it once per week with upper and lower body?

Thank you for your time G Hutchison. Kudos man! Subject appeared boring but on reading I aha-ed over and over! Lot of interesting and helpful details in the article, thanks. Everyone is wired different so experiment will many different set and rep ranges. Yeah progressive overload is very important. I m a skinny guy please help me out. All classmet are joking abt me in class. I m so fustrated please help me……. Bullies can be very cruel.

Hi David,with the help of your advice and bulking videos I have seen results within weeks,thank you. This is a great article, very logical and well thought out.

In support of what you write, recent research suggests that the key variable for hypertrophy is total weight lifted aka, volume-load , that is: reps x sets x weight.

You can use whatever rep range you like as long as this value is increased over time progressive overload. And you are quite correct that different rep ranges have different advantages over others when it comes to rep quality.

Would say that for shouldef flys doing reps is a bit heavy on the shoulders for a lot of people. Seems like you would be keeping your muscles off balance like when using cycles and your using progressive resistance as well as getting the benefits of the entire rep range. What do you think?

I do 10 to 12 reps 5 sets. I am not sure if I am supposes to be taking more rest time. I done workout o n the weekends.