Different Rep Ranges | Light, Medium, and Heavy Workout Routines

Different Rep Ranges

Weight Training Advice

If you follow a weight training routine you probably know that doing more repetitions per set is good for more endurance and pumping your muscles up and doing less repetitions per set is good for strength gains. Because of this most weight trainers figure that they get the best of both worlds by performing medium rep ranges, usually between 6 and 12, on most of their sets. You will get size and strength gains following the normal 6 to 12 reps per set for a while, but eventually your muscles will get used to always doing the same amount of reps for every set and you'll hit a plateau. To continually make improvements in muscle size and strength you must keep your body guessing. One of the best ways to keep your body guessing and avoid a weight training plateau is to switch your rep range for every workout.

To effectively use a different rep range during every muscle workout you should do a light day, a medium day, and a heavy day for each workout in your weight training split routine. If you follow a 3 day split routine you would do your 'light' workouts for each day of your routine, followed by your 'medium' workouts for each day, followed by your 'heavy' workouts for each day. You would then start the cycle over. Doing a routine like this won't allow your body to get used to the same rep range all of the time, and you will hit both your fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers.

A light workout doesn't mean an easy workout, and may in fact be the toughest to complete if you're used to doing lower rep ranges per set. Try to do between 15 and 20 or 12 and 15 reps for every set. If you go to failure on every set you'll get an incredibly intense workout and a big pump. You may want to do less sets during your light workouts because 15 or more reps per set will take a lot out of you. Doing lighter weight for more reps also means you can do more explosive reps. Once you get to the last few reps of your sets your muscles will be burning, but don't stop short of failure. Doing these high rep sets will allow you hit the fast-twitch muscle fibers you may have neglected with heavier training.

A medium workout is one done with the average rep ranges - between 10 and 15 or 8 and 12. Go to failure on every non warm up set and you'll get an intense workout. You'll probably want to do some more sets during your medium workouts than you do during your light workouts because you're unlikely to get the same amount of lactic acid build-up in the muscles during each set.

Your heavy workouts should have you performing either between 5 and 10 reps or 3 and 7 reps. Doing workouts with reps this low and very heavy weights are great for increasing strength in your muscles and your joints. You may even want to test your 1 rep max for major exercises like bench presses, squats, and deadlifts on your heavy day.

The reason there are 2 different rep ranges suggested for each kind of workout is that for certain muscle groups, especially the arms and calves, you'll want to do more reps overall. A set of 3 reps for bicep curls isn't really going to do much. The very low rep sets should be reserved for major compound exercises, not isolation exercises. For instance, for your heavy chest workout you may do some 3 rep sets for bench press, but for flyes you'll want to stay in the 7 to 10 range.

Of course, you should experiment with your rep ranges to see what works best for you.