As a fitness coach I am always asked the question “What exercises should I be doing to get (insert movement here)?”

I used to take the approach of prescribing different exercises for clients and tell them how many sets and reps. This approach was the common and the easy way to go.   

I have since changed this approach and now prescribe rep ranges instead of movements. I find this approach arms people with the knowledge they need to get what they want when trying to get stronger, build more muscle or tone up…

We already coach our clients on all the movements so all that needs changing is the amount of reps they do for each movement for their specific goals…   

So what are the rep ranges?

1-5 reps:

Strength and Power. Contrary to popular belief lifting the biggest weights doesn’t actually make you massive. You cannot perform enough reps at these weights for this to happen. The biggest change you will get from this rep range is neurological. You see the body needs to recruit all the muscle fibres it can and then coordinate the effort in order to lift the weight.

6-12 reps

Hypertrophy. This rep range is most commonly used by bodybuilders to increase muscle size.  It is responsible for building the most muscle as it is the perfect balance of enough reps to tear muscles and heavy enough weight to make this happen.

13+ reps

Muscle endurance is what is built here. You cannot lift heavy enough weights to build much strength and power with this many reps and because you can move it easily. Unlike Hypertrophy the muscles are not stressed too hard and will not tear as the reps go this high.

These reps ranges are not just random figures pulled from the air, they are based on science and plenty of research.  

So armed with this information how many reps are you going to use for each exercise to get your desired outcomes.