BEST REP RANGE FOR BUILDING MUSCLE

BY COACH JAMES CANNING

The best reps to build muscle is most likely the rep range you are not doing at this current time or haven’t done for a long time.

The facts are that all rep ranges have the potential to help you build muscle. Unfortunately most men believe that there is a specific rep range to build muscle usually around 8-12 reps is the magic number for 90% of men training in gyms.

Unfortunately, this is why most men’s muscle building progress will plateau in the gym as they are not providing a different stimulus to the muscle by varying rep ranges or exercises or even order of exercises

At this point, let's be very clear:

YOU CAN'T CONFUSE MUSCLES. THEY DON’T HAVE BRAINS. THEY ONLY KNOW TENSION AND WILL RESPOND TO THE STIMULUS AND DEMANDS PLACED ON THEM.

 I’ve spoken to men in the past who have never trained with more than 10 reps as they believe anything above this rep range does not contribute to muscle building. If you are that guy in the gym who only does chest on Mondays and does the barbell bench press, the incline chest, then decline chest, then does all the cable exercises all 8-12 reps. I’ll show you a man who has stagnated in his body shape and overall progress.

They say that knowledge is power but applied knowledge is actually where the real power is. So hopefully with a little knowledge of exercise science and what happens to the muscle at different rep ranges you will maybe consider changing up your rep ranges and see new progress in the gym.

FAST AND SLOW TWITCH MUSCLE FIBERS

Let’s start with FAST and SLOW twitch muscle fibers. We will stick to these two terms to hopefully illustrate why you should lift for higher rep ranges let’s say 15-20 and also train at lower rep ranges 6-12 and then anything in between.

Research indicates that all muscle fibers appear to lie on a continuum which extends between slow contracting, slow fatiguing fibers at one extreme and and the fast contracting , fast fatiguing fibers at the other. Within this continuum we could attach the rep ranges to show what muscle fibers you are activating along that continuum. 

So when we train at higher rep ranges we are targeting the slow twitch, slow fatiguing fibers. We have more potential to target and make these fibers grow when we use rep ranges of 15 and above. There are other techniques that can be used but let’s keep it simple. Add this to the fact that each muscle has a different ratio of the two muscle fiber types. Also, genetics play a huge part in whether you  have more fast twitch or slow twitch muscle fibers.

Then when we train in those lower rep ranges of 6-12 we have more potential to target the fast twitch muscle fibers because we are lifting heavier weights which has potential to stimulate and grow these muscle fibers.

Now do you not think it makes sense to train in different phases or blocks where you vary the rep ranges to provide the muscles with a new stimulus?

Now, this is a very simplistic view. But simple is always better. When we train clients at Elite Fitness their programs are 4 weeks long. After 4 weeks we change the rep ranges to provide the muscle with a new stimulus and challenge.

USING DIFFERENT REP RANGES AND STILL NOT MAKING PROGRESS?

Now, you can still change rep ranges and still not make progress. When this happens it’s usually because the person is not lifting heavy enough for that specific rep range, therefore not fatiguing or challenging the muscle enough for it to change. At Elite Fitness our clients are fortunate that they have unlimited personal training and a team of expert coaches who are always assessing to see if that client can potentially lift more weight.

I hope this gives you a little understanding of the importance of changing up your rep ranges to build new muscle and keep progressing within the gym.