So what kind of repetitions & sets you should do for each exercise & muscle group to build that strong muscle & shape you have been aiming for? When I started building muscles after attaining my transformation , I used to ask myself the same question. Most of us think that the best rep range is 8 to 12 reps for each set. How about other repetition ranges?
- 1 to 6 repetition range with heavy weights often called as strength repetition range.
- 6 to 12 repetition range with medium to heavy weights often used by bodybuilders.
- 10 to 15 repetitions with light weights to medium weights for folks indulged in sports.
We shall discuss about how each category of repetition range helps you to build muscle.
Effective repetitions
Most of fitness freaks think that picking up heavy weights is the key to building muscles. If this is true, then what about other folks doing sports & indulging in workout to maintain their fitness level. How do they build their muscles? This is where effective repetitions comes into play. When you go for failure set, your threshold motor units becomes active. This essentially means that when you are performing those last 2 to 3 reps, when your bar is going slow, your muscles fibers have to exert extra force to perform those movements & this is what leads to your muscle growth. This will make you adaptable for next workout. This will do the following:
- Make your muscle fibers bigger
- Increase the number of muscle fibers that can be activated for the moment
- Increase the force exerted by each muscle fiber to increase its size.
Progressive Overload
When your muscle group adapts to such volume, the next time you perform the workout with same weights & repetitions, it becomes easy since your body is used to it & your muscles have grown. If this is the case, then you should increase your training volume if you want to keep building your muscles. Training volume is a function of no of repetition, no of sets & weights(rep*no of sets*weights). So you can increase the volume by changing( increasing) either of the parameters. Sometimes, you will achieve a weight plateau with the same training volume for a number of weeks. You may deload the weight or increase your rest days.
So what is the effective rep range to build muscles?
Effective rep range for every fitness aspirant would be different based upon their fitness goal. If you are a sports enthusiast, you should do all rep ranges in the following proportion:
Strength (1 to 6 reps): 25%
Hypertrophy( 6 to 12 reps): 50%
Endurance ( 10 to 15 reps) : 25%.
Weight Lifters focus on strength range while those wanting to build endurance would indulge in Endurance rep range.
So next time you are evaluating on what should be rep range to meet your muscle building goals, this is a good starting point to structure your rep range schedule.
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