A big and often-asked question in the bodybuilding and fitness industry is how many reps you should do per set. But the answer depends on what your goals are.
If your goals are strong, then your reps will be fewer than those of people who want to train for endurance or hypertrophy.
Now that you have decided what your fitness goal is, we will debunk all of the types of training methods and what rep range is most suitable for you.
The best rep range for muscle growth.
Some people will say that the best muscle growth happens around the range of 8 to 12 reps per set. But that is not a mandatory number that must be achieved to accomplish your hypertrophy goals.
I would prefer you to do 8 reps, but if the reps are to failure or at least close to failure, The most growth is accomplished at the last couple of reps, where you push your muscles to the absolute limits.
But keep in mind that if you do too many reps, you could hinder your muscle gain and even lose some of your muscle gains. Hypertrophy is the sweet spot between not too few reps and not too many reps, so remember to keep it simple and not overcomplicate it.
What happens if you do too many reps?
Well, nothing much happens if you do a few more reps in your sets, but it really isn’t beneficial for you to do too many reps when your goal is simple hypertrophy.
Higher rep ranges are mostly used by endurance athletes that want to make their muscles have more stamina, which will benefit their sport. Usually marathon runners and such train in this way so that they can run for longer without getting winded.
What happens if you don’t do enough reps?
Well, if you don’t do enough reps, you will be missing out on muscle gains that you could have been getting while getting enough reps. But there is also a benefit to this side: you will get much stronger than doing your regular hypertrophy training, considering you use weights that will lead you to achieve failure.
This type of low-rep range training is used by strong athletes like powerlifters and strong men who do not want that much muscle gain, like bodybuilders and such.
How do I know if I am doing my reps correctly?
If you are very fatigued by the end of your sessions and you feel sore after the exercise, usually thats a great sign of you working out properly and achieving muscular failure and muscular growth.
Remember that the muscle grows the most when you are resting, but for it to grow, you need to work it till failure or close to failure.
That way, your body will know that it needs to get the particular muscle stronger and bigger to lift the weight that you are trying to lift.