I Could Have Done 5 More
Understanding rep ranges to enhance your training
How many repetitions you perform on a given exercise completely changes how your body adapts over time. I like to break weight training into 4 possible rep ranges. This makes it easy for the average person to pick a rep range, and then understand the nuances of why they chose that rep range and how it will effect their body.
1-3 Reps
This is the rep range that is used to build STRENGTH. As the rep range drops, the weight should rise. Therefore, this should be the heaviest rep range that you work in. Working with heavy weights (heavy being a relative term, i.e. 90% of the maximum that you could do for a single rep) causes massive change in your body's neuromuscular system. Your body begins to contract more of the available muscle which enables that muscle to exert more force. This is the reason why athletes commonly train in this range. Besides the neuromuscular changes, this type of high intensity lifting causes many hormonal changes that lead to increased lean muscle production and fat loss. It is a misconception that training with heavy weights makes you bigger. As a matter of fact, if you keep your body in a very slight calorie deficit, "powerlifting" can be a very effective way to become stronger and lose weight.
4-7 Reps
This is the rep range that is a melding of STRENGTH AND HYPERTROPHY. We love this rep range (especially 5 sets of 5 reps). When you train in this intermediate intensity rep range you are building some neuromuscular strength as well as tearing the muscle fibers. This leads to gaining strength from your nervous system and hypertrophy (muscles growing in size).
Don't worry ladies, unless your diet is oriented around bulking the minimal amount of testosterone and anabolic hormones in your body will not allow you to gain any substantial amount of size. More often than not this will actually "tone" your muscle better than any other rep ranges. We love this rep range because it gives you both aesthetics and strength.
8-15 Reps
This is the rep range that is focused on HYPERTROPHY. When you resistance train, your muscles tear (on a very small level). As your body recovers from the days training, it rebuilds those microtears, causing the muscle to grow larger over time. This is hypertrophy. In general this leads to a more aesthetic look. For men, muscles grow larger and more defined. The same goes for women, although with very little naturally occurring testosterone females can not grow a huge amount of muscle mass.
16+ Reps
This is where things get a little absurd. This high of a rep range can be used for EXTREME hypertrophy (many old school bodybuilders used this in incredibly high volume workout programs) and also for muscular endurance. Muscular endurance is the ability to perform a movement many times before fatigue. Some scientific studies have supported the argument that this rep range is completely ineffective when training. While i do agree that this rep does absolutely nothing for most athletes, try telling Arnold Schwarzenegger you should never perform sets of 16+ reps to build muscle and aesthetics. I also believe that this rep range can be valuable in a rehab setting, where someone is rebuilding basic movement patterns.
My personal pet peeve with this rep range is that MANY exercise classes have their students performing 20-100 reps of each exercise. THIS WILL NOT LEAD TO "TONING" OF THE MUSCLE. As a matter of fact extreme volume like this is a good way to get overuse injuries.
"I could have done 5 more..."
This is why most people never get the strength and aesthetic gains that they are looking for. The point of 10 reps is that the 10th rep should be a struggle. As in, you could not do 5 more... or 3 more... or NOT EVEN 1 MORE! If the stimuli is something that barely effects your body, then your body is BARELY going to respond. If the stimuli crushes your muscles, they are burning and you can barely move, then your body will understand it MUST change.
"He did it, I can do it too..."
Ego lifting is the downfall of many athletes and weekend warriors alike. How many times have you tried to keep the weight the same as your training partner when you know you cannot hit the rep range. Or a teammate hits a 405lb deadlift for 3 reps, so you jump in and only get 1. REPS COME FIRST. When you change the rep range, you change the entire stimuli. You could end up doing a workout that hasn't brought you closer to your goals at all!