Rep ranges: What’s Best For Your Training Goals?

Whatever range you’re working in, your final 1-2 reps must be challenging and close to muscular failure if you want to see results. This ensures your body is receiving enough stimulus to adapt.

If this isn’t the case, your resistance is not sufficient for your chosen rep range.

Strength training

Want to hulk out? Well, if your goal is to improve muscular strength, you'll want to remain in a lower rep range between 1 and 5 reps per set.

This improves the efficiency of your nervous system, as you are able to recruit more motor neurons and muscle fibres quickly to generate force during heavy lifts.

Hypertrophy 1 (myofibrillar)

Bridging the gap between strength and size.

At approximately 6-8 reps there is an increase in the number of myofibrils within each muscle. These are what allow muscles to move and generate force. This increases overall strength and size.

If your goal is exclusively muscle growth however, you will want to pair training in this range with the next one on our list.

Hypertrophy 2 (sarcoplasmic)

Does size matter? If so, this is probably a good focus for your training.

This rep range is the upper end of the hypertrophy spectrum, at between 8-12 repetitions per set. Lifting in this range increases in the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cells, giving you a ‘pump’ and increasing overall muscle size.

Endurance

Keep the tank running!

Anywhere from approximately 12-20 reps will train slow twitch muscle fibres and your aerobic energy system (working in the presence of oxygen). This allows you to keep working at a high level over longer periods.

Which is right for your training programme?

You will need to use the right combination of these rep ranges in each of your sessions and weekly progressions to maximise your results. The balance will depend on your fitness goals.

To find out more about a personalised training programme, get in touch with one of our coaches.