What’s the Best Repetition Range for Exercises
The question about what rep range to exercise in is a subject that has lots of rumours and also a fair amount of scientific evidence surrounding it. In most cases, a distinction is made between three different repetition ranges: low, medium and high. In this article, I want to give a quick rundown of each of the rep ranges and their particular benefits and drawbacks.
Low Repetitions
This range is anything from 1 to 6 or 7 repetitions. Training in a low rep range means using a high weight-load. In this repetition range, the weights will feel heavy, even during the first rep of the first set.
Low repetitions with lots of weight are ideal for building strength. Note that I wrote “strength” and not “muscle size”, though. If muscle size is what you’re after, then low repetitions aren’t the ideal choice.
Of course, doing fewer repetitions takes less time than doing more repetitions. This can be a positive or a negative aspect: While it saves time for your overall workout, this also means that your muscles are under stress for a quicker period of time. This, in turn, can mean less growth stimulation.
Another downside of a low repetition range is that with the kinds of massive weight-loads you’ll be using, there’s a higher chance of injury. Obviously, you have to be especially careful when hauling around these kinds of weights (especially when doing free-weights exercises).
Medium Rep Range
Doing between eight and twelve repetitions is considered a medium rep range. This is every bodybuilder’s favourite repetition range, since it’s been shown repeatedly that doing 8-12 reps is best for hypertophy (increase in muscle size). You won’t see the strength gains you get from doing lower reps with higher weights, but you’ll certainly look like, you’re growing more powerful.
Positive and negative aspects of this rep range are quite obvious: If your goal is to grow larger muslces, then 8-12 is your perfect repetition range. If functional strength and greater muscle-performance are more important to you, then lower repetitions are better suited.
High Repetition Range
Anything above 12 or 15 repetitions is in the high rep range Performing more than around twelve repetitions of an exercise will generally take longer than half a minute. 30 seconds is about the outer threshold of what can be called strength training. If an exercise lasts longer than that, you’re already entering “cardio” territory, from a biological perspective, at least.
This is not to say that high repetitions are useless, though. If you are using low weights and doing more repetitions, your body simply has to recruit different resources to keep you going.
There’s one very commong, and plain wrong, rumour about high repetitions: It is often claimed that higher repetitions will build lean muscles while lower repetitions will build “bulky” muscles.. This is simply wrong, as the shape of your muscles is mainly genetically determined. Higher repetition ranges simply stimulate less growth than lower repetitions with higher weight-loads.
In conclusion, for most people, low to medium repetition ranges are ideal. Having said that, it’s actually also a good idea to switch between different repetition ranges from time to time, as diversity in training is very good for your overall fitness.
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