How many repetitions should i do

Taking that to an extreme, many lifters adopt a powerlifting approach, coupling very heavy weights with low reps. However, low-rep training has one significant shortcoming: Muscle-fiber stimulation, and thus growth, is correlated closely to the amount of time a muscle is under tension.

The time-under-tension theory leads us to our third suspect: 8—rep sets. At a cadence of two seconds on the concentric lifting action and two seconds on the eccentric lowering movement, your set will end up right in the middle of the optimum to second range for a given set of exercise.

Why is that range critical? Because when the set lasts longer than a few seconds, the body is forced to rely on the glycolytic-energy system, which leads to the formation of lactic acid.

When lactic acid, or lactate, pools in large amounts, it induces a surge in anabolic hormone levels within the body, including the ultrapotent growth hormone and the big daddy of muscle-building, testosterone. The increased time under tension also leads to more muscle damage, imperative if you plan on getting larger any time soon.

Theoretically, the longer a muscle is contracted, the greater the potential for damage to the tissue. The moderate-rep range, when coupled with a challenging weight, will also bring about a much-desired condition: the muscle pump. That tight, full feeling under the skin, caused by blood pooling in the muscle, has value beyond its ego-expanding qualities. Studies have demonstrated that the physiological conditions which lead to a pump activate protein synthesis and limit protein breakdown.

Thus, more of the protein you eat goes toward muscle construction instead of being burned off for energy. In a scientific twist of good fortune, the fast-twitch fibers appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of this phenomenon.

So how many reps should you be doing to build muscle? The list below offers some examples. Choose at least one exercise per muscle group to start. For the larger muscles, like the chest, back, and legs, you can usually do more than one exercise.

Or try these ready-made workouts. Get exercise tips to make your workouts less work and more fun. American Council on Exercise. Weight Lifting for Weight Loss. American Cancer Society. The effect of abdominal exercise on abdominal fat. J Strength Cond Res. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellFit. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. What Is Weight Training? The Benefits of Weight Training. The Principles of Weight Training. Where to Weight Train. Create Your Strength-Training Program. Tips for Better Workouts. Where to Get Help. Sample Workouts. Muscular endurance refers to how long your muscles can keep moving under a given load. This differs from cardiovascular endurance and offers its own set of benefits, particularly increased stamina, which allows you to easily perform repetitive activities such as gardening or washing your car.

Having good muscular endurance also opens you up to a world of recreational opportunities like hiking and kayaking. To improve muscular endurance through weight lifting, lift 15 or more reps for each set. Weight training for endurance usually incorporates short rest periods in addition to high rep ranges, so you should expect to use much less weight than you would use when trying to build muscle or strength.

Working to fatigue or failure isn't necessary if your goal is to build endurance. Keep your focus on improving aerobic efficiency and you'll be good to go. Read more: Does lifting weights make women bulky? Here's a fun fact: You need not slave away at the treadmill to lose weight.

Lifting weights can also help you lose weight and keep it off. When lifting weights for weight loss , the rep range isn't nearly as important as just doing the work, especially if you're a beginner. High-volume resistance training elicits more of a cardio-like response, and it may burn more calories per session than low-volume resistance training.

Weight training for strength, muscle mass and endurance can all benefit your weight loss efforts. Read more: The most effective workouts for getting in shape fast. The strength trainer also targets the fast-twitch fibers. His focus isn't just on building and strengthening the muscle fibers themselves, but also training the nervous system. Rest periods between sets for main lifts are fairly long—up to minutes—so that incomplete recovery doesn't inhibit succeeding sets.

After the main multijoint exercise, additional movements are included to strengthen weak links in the execution of the main lift. Your eye may be on getting as big or as strong as possible, but not everyone wants to pursue that goal. The classic example of the marathon runner, who runs at a steady pace for plus miles, is one geared toward improving muscle endurance. In the gym, that translates into using a lighter load for 15 or more of reps.

Low-intensity training is typically considered aerobic exercise, since oxygen plays a key role in energy or production. This allows you to maintain your activity level for a longer period of time. This energy process occurs primarily in slow-twitch muscle fibers, so performing low-intensity, high-repetition training builds up the mechanisms within the muscle cell that make it more aerobically efficient.

This type of training enhances the muscle's endurance without necessarily increasing the size of the muscle. Highly trained aerobic athletes can do lots of reps for long periods of time without fatiguing, but you won't typically see a sprinter's body on a marathon runner. Focusing on muscle endurance means choosing fairly light weights that can be done for reps or more. Train like an endurance athlete: Most endurance sports aren't gym-based, so it's hard to duplicate their motions with weights.

Rest periods should be kept fairly short, since oxygen intake and lactic-acid removal shouldn't be limiting factors as you exercise. Discovering how many reps you should do also tells you how much weight you should lift. The two are inseparably linked. If you were to plot a graph, you'd discover a near-linear inverse relationship between the two: add more weight and you can do fewer reps; with a lighter weight, you can do more reps.

I'm always amazed when I train with a new partner who has been stuck at a certain weight-and-rep scheme—say, dumbbell bench press with 80 pounds for 8 reps.

I'll tell him to grab the 90s, to which he'll respond, "I can't do that! 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.