Rep Ranges & How to Get the Most Out of Them
You sneak past a sweaty dude grunting and spitting to stare at the rows and rows of dumbbells. You stare, wondering what weights to pick up. You hear the dude behind you stop grunting and start to panic, knowing you have to get out of his way in 2 seconds so you grab a pair of 10s. Probably safe, right? Who knows…
That’s why I’m here. I want to take the confusion out of the use of rep ranges for you.
If you’ve got a program in your hands that has intentionally chosen exercises that you’re committed to doing consistently enough to provide specific adaptations for your body over time… I want to explain the most important things about rep ranges and what you need to know to use them to your greatest advantage.
Rep Ranges are they are the KEY to your success in reaching your goals in a workout program. But ONLY if you use them properly.
Who knew that counting could be so complicated?
In case you forgot, “Reps” are the number of times you lift a given weight during a given exercise. For example, you can hold a pair of 10 lb weights and squat 10 times. That is 10 reps. If you squat for 10 reps, rest for 30 seconds, and then squat 10 more reps? That is 2 “sets” of 10 “reps”. Now that that’s cleared up, here’s the thing.
Depending on what our goals are, your rep ranges should be chosen accordingly. So here’s the most important thing about “rep ranges”:
Your assigned REP RANGE is actually your guide that tells you about how much WEIGHT you should be using. So you actually don’t choose your weight first. You choose your REP RANGE first! The rep range assigned will help you gauge which weights you choose.
Don’t worry. I’ll explain.
For example, if you are assigned bicep curls with a rep range of 8-12 reps. You are going to choose weights that you think you can complete at least 8 reps and no more than 12. Now let’s say you pick up 10 lb weights and actually complete 13 reps of bicep curls when you’re assigned 8-12? and you know you could have done 14 with good form? GREAT! That means you’re stronger than you thought!
For your next SET of bicep curls, then, you are going to pick up heavier weights appropriate for that “at least 8 and no more than 12” rep range.
Caveat 1:
Sometimes this means that you will pick up heavier weights several times until you find the appropriate weight for the rep range – and that is okay. If you pick up 12.5 lb weights and complete 13 reps? Pick up 15’s! This is why it’s important to write down your weights so you know where you should start next time! (In the app I use with my clients, they can go to “exercise history” and see what weights they previously used to help them pick up a more appropriate weight every time!)
Caveat 2:
Let’s say you accidentally pick a weight that’s TOO heavy for your 8-12 rep range. Lets say you choose 20’s and you find that by rep number 3 you’re “dying”. Put those weights down and size down to a weight that you can lift finish your 8-12 reps. This is actually called a “drop set”. So, feel free and confident to PUSH yourself to lift heavier, and don’t be afraid to pick up heavier weights! That’s how you grow!
Different rep ranges encourage different primary adaptations.
Here’s what different rep ranges accomplish:
Higher rep ranges 15-20 reps or more help to develop muscular endurance (the ability for a muscle to perform a lot of work without stopping).
Medium rep ranges 8-12 reps help to increase muscle size.
Lower rep ranges 1-5 reps help to develop muscular strength and power production (the ability to quickly lift heavier things).
BUT, these rep ranges only “work” if you choose the correct weights.
So, make sure that you are choosing weights appropriate for the rep range assigned to you.
Also applicable to the “rep range” conversation is lifting to “failure.”
There are two kinds of “failure.”
1. Loss of FORM
2. Loss of FUNCTION
When you are a novice lifter, in all likelihood, you’re going to lose FORM WAY BEFORE you lose function. That’s why I usually assign my clients higher rep ranges to begin. We have muscles that help us stabilize our joints and keep them in proper alignment. So we want to make sure that these stability muscles have lots of endurance to sustain higher intensity exercise before we push our bodies to lift really heavy things or lift anything really quickly.
With practice and proper implementation of a functional fitness program that’s tailored to your body and designed to help correct your postural insufficiencies (like the ones I create for my clients), you will be able to lift to loss of FUNCTION and have good form the whole time.
What I mean by Loss of Form is that you’re losing your symmetrical alignment. From the side, check a mirror and make sure you have ear-shoulder-hip-knee-ankle alignment from the front you can hold hip-knee-toe alignment.
Here are some examples of loss of “failure”.
You’re performing an assisted pull-up and as you continue to perform that exercise you notice that your shoulders are elevating to your ears and you can’t keep your shoulders back and down anymore. That would be loss of form.
You’re doing a bicep curl and you check your form from the side and you notice that your shoulder is rolling forward? That is loss of form.
Or you’re squatting and notice that your knees start caving in? That is loss of form.
When this happens, you can try to correct your form for the next rep, but if you can’t sustain the correction with that weight, stop your current set, record your reps, take your rest period, and then start on the next set with new intention to prevent that loss of form. If you can’t correct your form for the entire rep range, you need to reduce your weight.
You also need to talk to a trainer who can help you choose additional exercises and stretches into your program to help you maintain good alignment while lifting to failure. More often than not, the solution to a form issue is not just doing more of that one thing. It usually involves practice and additional strengthening protocols to help you sustain healthy movement through your entire movement pattern.
If you are a client of mine, please leave me a note in the “notes” section to let me know where you’re losing your form and what is happening when you lose form. Please also free to send me a video of that movement so I can help you correct your form and keep you in good alignment.
Usually, loss of form it’s a sign of muscle weakness or muscle tightness which we are likely working through in your program already, but just in case there’s something additional going on, please tell me so I can make sure you’re getting what you need!
Loss of function, however, is a little more straightforward.
For more intermediate lifters, you’ll go to loss of function more often than loss of form. Loss of function means you literally cannot lift that weight another time.
Here’s an example. Let’s say I’m squatting in the 1-5 rep range at my absolute heaviest, by my last rep I can’t stand back up again – if I don’t have a spotter, I actually leave my bar on the bar catches and scootch myself out of there! I love to fail. Failure is good. When I say 1-5 rep range, by the way, I want to actually SHOOT for 3-5 because the risk of doing a 1 rep max in my opinion is not worth the lack of benefit derived from doing 1 rep instead of 3.
However, if I lose form at any point or get any pain in my back or knee (for example), I’ll stop, re-set and try again with new intention of holding my good form the entire time.
Sometimes you just get into your head and out of your body and you stop thinking about the steps necessary to perform a heavy lift with good form. Sometimes simply being more intentional about correcting your form is sufficient to help you do so if you’re an intermediate exerciser.
If the pain or loss of form doesn’t go away with that intentionality, the next step is to develop a plan to address the problem, lower the weight for that exercise and make sure I can sustain that exercise with good form until I have built the ancillary strength to accomplish my heavy weights within the 1-5 rep range.
If you are not sure if you are losing form, please send me a video of the movement so I can help you address your movement quality!
Looking forward to maximizing the use of rep ranges with you so we can keep seeing progress toward your goals!
What are your questions? Tell me below!
Be well,
Julia
CPT, CVC, CNC
