How many repetitions to gain muscle

With research indicating that multiple performance benefits can be obtained across the different number of repetitions and ranges. A meta-analysis comparing low load vs high load resistance training found that both low load and high load resistance training could increase hypertrophy. With a trend being seeing for better strength and hypertrophy gains in the high load training group. A systematic review comparing low load vs high load resistance training found that both training styles could increase strength and hypertrophy.

Although there were significantly greater strength gains in the high load training group. The subjects were in one of three groups: a 4 reps per set, 8 reps per set, and 12 reps per set. The researchers noted that all three rep ranges were effective for increasing hypertrophy, but the rep group saw a smaller relative increase in 1RM strength compared to the other two groups.

Hypertrophy is a training style focused on building muscle. This style of training is popular with bodybuilders and other types of athletes looking to pack on muscle mass. A systematic review on the effect of resistance training for hypertrophy concluded that individuals interested in muscle growth needed to do a minimum of sets per exercise, with sets per exercise potentially yielding greater results, but excessively high sets 16 per exercise could be detrimental.

Tip: Vary your training by using both high and low rep ranges to increase muscle size. Training for increasing strength can refer to absolute strength the max amount of external load that can be lifted or relative strength total amount of weight lifted relative to bodyweight. This style of training is popular with strongman and powerlifters looking to increase their absolute strength. Other types of athletes will also commonly incorporate a strength phase in their training routine as well to improve their relative strength.

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. It just depends on which goal you want to prioritize! Bill Geiger, MA, has served as a senior content editor for Bodybuilding.

View all articles by this author. Workout 1. Incline dumbbell bench press. What comes with BodyFit? Instructional Videos Don't risk doing a workout improperly! How-to Images View our enormous library of workout photos and see exactly how each exercise should be done before you give it a shot. Step-by-Step Instructions Quickly read through our step-by-step directions to ensure you're doing each workout correctly the first time, every time.

Workout 2. Workout 3. Smith Machine Incline Bench Press. Now — depending on how heavy you lift and how many reps you do, your muscles will be activated differently.

There are thousands of small muscle fibers in your muscles. These are recruited as needed and in increasing size: the small ones are activated first when the need for muscle power is small. But as you lift heavier loads, more and larger muscle fibers are activated. Only the muscle fibers that work and generate force will grow. If they contract hard enough for a sufficient number of times, the growth process is started. The more muscle fibers you stimulate, the more that muscle will grow.

Two common pitfalls can inhibit muscle growth when it comes to the number of reps and choice of weight are:. Effective training for building muscle requires you to use a sufficiently heavy weight, and train sufficiently close to failure with it.

As we mentioned in the introduction, and as will be seen from the research we will soon take a closer look at, a weight where you can do about 5—40 reps per set seems appropriate for building muscle. For practical reasons, about 8—15 reps per set may be better to aim for.

It does not require as much energy and pain as a set of 40 reps, and it may be a little easier to tire out your muscles more thoroughly with a slightly lighter weight than one you can only do five reps with. When it comes to training for strength, the importance of tiring out every single, little fatigue-resistant muscle fiber decreases. Instead, the importance of training the biggest and strongest muscle fibers which may not be so fatigue-resistant increases.

And above all, it becomes important to train your neuromuscular system which ensures that not only all muscle fibers but also all interacting muscles in the exercise are contracted as powerfully and coordinated as possible. Lighter than that, and the strength gains diminish. Note that this applies per set. Each individual set might not be as effective, but all sets taken together still gives you a better result than the heavy single.

Thing is, we can also increase our strength by gaining more muscle mass, and doing at least 5—6 reps per set is better for that. Perhaps using a variety of rep ranges is indeed better for building muscle. Or maybe gaining strength in lower rep ranges has useful carryover to our strength in higher rep ranges.

But we also have research showing that sticking with 8—12 reps seems to work just as well as varying your rep ranges. Hi I have found this fascinating, thank you! My question is, if I can go heavier but have to drop reps say from 10 to 8 for 3 sets is that better than increasing the number of sets at the same weight? The simplest answer is that 3 sets is a great number of sets per exercise per workout—no need to increase. And going from 10 reps to 8 reps is perfectly fine—both are in the middle of the hypertrophy rep range.

If you increase from 3 sets to 4 sets, the difference may be minimal, but it may still help. And going from 4 to 5, there may be no difference at all. Shane, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me! I really really appreciate it. I came across your site as I was looking specifically at how to gain muscle mass in a situation where the ability to increase weight each time is limited. But I could increase reps?

Add weight or reps AND as sets as needed. Hey Shane, I briefly read through each part of this article and it explained a lot, so thank you! I have a small problem with my bench. I have been doing pyramid type training, like you mentioned in another comment, where I increase the weight with warm up sets then 1 working set as close as possible to failure. Since I started doing this one set to failure with as much as weight as possible for around reps with perfect form and full range of motion, the weight I am using on the barbell for my squats and bent over rows is going up and I am seeing results!

As for my bench though not so much. My bench has been at about pounds for reps for the longest time. So what I used to do is 4 sets of of just pounds. So I thought that since I had done this for so long it was time to increase it by 5 pounds. So i tried the warm up sets and 1 working set to failure for my bench so it would like this Set 1: 95 pounds 12 reps Set 2: pounds reps Set 3: pounds reps Set 4: pounds reps Set 5: pounds Working Set : reps.

So as you can see when I increase the weight my reps are going lower and my form gets somewhat sloppy. Should I just go back to the 4 sets of for pounds? A good default way of increasing the weight is setting a rep target say 10 reps and then increasing the weight whenever you achieve that target on your final set.

Then work back up to 12 reps on the final set, increase the weight again. Are you eating enough calories to gain weight on the scale each week? Are you eating a gram of protein per pound bodyweight per day? Are you getting enough good sleep every night? Then we can consider, are your bench press workouts too hard or too easy? And are you using a smart mix of assistance lifts, such as some push-ups and skullcrushers, to give your muscles a bit of extra work?

And how are those lifts progressing? Starting with a well-programmed workout routine is a good place to start, but there will always be some trial and error. Everyone is a little bit different. Hey I really appreciate the reply! I will reconsider what I am doing for my bench and start increasing the weight whenever I am able to get 12 reps. Would you say I should do sets of the same weight? Not sure if that makes sense, haha. I am naturally a big guy who can gain fat fairly easily.

I was at about pounds a couple years ago and now I have cut down to and noticed I have gained some muscle while staying in a deficit. I still have quite a bit of fat holding in my midsection so I believe if I stay in a deficit it will go away over time. If you want to change the weight between sets, check out Reverse Pyramid Training , as explained in this article.

It normally makes more sense to start with the heaviest set, and to keep each set within a couple of reps of failure. So do a heavy set, maybe 6 reps, take some weight off, push hard again, maybe getting 8 reps, take more weight off, and push hard again, maybe getting 10 reps. That way each set is challenging enough to stimulate muscle growth. I bet you can still eke out some extra muscle growth, though, gain some extra bench press strength.

Great article. Great article! I just want to add that some claim that taller lifters should stick with lower reps, because their bodies do more work because of the their length. I hear your logic. If every repetition means moving the weight a longer distance, then we get more stimulus out of every rep.

And there may be some truth to that, especially on lifts with a flat strength curve. Thanks for the answer, man! Yeah, for sure. As taller guys, we have a dilemma—to stay with less muscle mass and be lighter or to gain some muscles but be heavier this is more for the bodyweight exercises. The range of motion is indeed longer and harder for us, which is in some support of the logic for doing fewer reps.

And according to some research, it should work better for the other tall guys, too, because taller people have more slow-twitch muscle fibres. And finally, when thinking about doing higher reps per set, the first tall people who come to my mind are you guys. I know you are tall and are doing quite well with higher reps.

The idea of the low rep range for taller guys and I think we should include the bigger guys—fat, with a wide frame and lots of muscles is to decrease the total travel path of the weights because it is believed that the weak link in the chain is the cardiovascular system. I personally tend to agree that some exercises like squats and deadlifts are leaving you out of breath, but this is should be true for the smaller individuals, too. For a year or two, I was a strong believer in doing 3 sets of 6 reps, but now I am starting to change my mind.

Also, the form is very questionable. And finally, if you train with heavy weight, you exhaust yourself faster compared with the lighter weights, not because you are so tired, but because the weight is so heavy. With lighter weights, you can go closer to the sweet spot of the hypertrophy range. Congratulations on this site. It is amazing the amount of quality information you have been able to distill and share with us here. Thank you so much! One quick question that comes to mind is the speed at which we should contract and extend the muscles for optimal muscle growth.

There is a lot of information out there pointing to different things such as 4 second extension with explosive contraction, or just do everything very slow, or keep a steady pace of about 2 seconds on each direction… Also, most to the ones that point out to very slow movements seem to be focused on very low reps and sets because of the exhaustion it can create. Any thoughts? Long story short, a good default is to lift the weight explosively, trying to accelerate it up, and then to lower it back down under control.

Depending on how challenging the weight is, that can take different amounts of time. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. So, is there a hypertrophy rep range?

And if so, what is it? Table of Contents.