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Best Rep Range for Bodybuilding

Most People Fail To Work 50% of Their Muscle Tissue!

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It doesn't take rocket science to build bigger muscles. However, it does take a certain knowledge and application of that knowledge in the gym and in your diet.

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Bodybuilding and Fitness Newsletter 12/11/2019

Here's How to Find YOUR Best Rep Range

Whether you follow high-intensity training (HIT) or some other protocol, one of the big questions for any lifter is how many reps you should be performing in your sets.

It’s always been a topic of debate among gym-goers, and the truth is that the best rep range will vary based on your goals, training experience, age, and other factors.

The good news is that there are at least a couple of methods you can use to come up with general guidelines for each of your muscle groups if hypertrophy (muscle growth) is your goal.

Dr. Darden’s Max-Load Method

Dr. Ellington Darden, one of the pioneers of HIT, developed a method for determining your optimal rep range back in the 1970s that relied on first finding your one-repetition maximum weight for each exercise. The basic steps involved are:

Do 1 rep with 10% more than you normally use when working out.
Rest 3 minutes.
Increase the weight slightly.
Repeat the first two steps until you have determined your one-rep maximum load for that exercise.
Rest 5 minutes.
Do as many reps as you can with 75% of your max weight.
Add and subtract two reps from the number you performed in the previous step to determine your range. If you did eight reps with 75% of your max, then your rep range if six-to-10.

Note that this method can take awhile and can be extremely demanding, which may have an effect on the results since you’ll be tired by the time you do your testing set.

You also need to take GREAT care when using this method since you’ll working with max poundages. Move slowly and always keep your reps in control.

The Time-Under-Tension Method

One theory of muscle-building holds that the time your muscles spend working with a given load is more important the number of reps you do. While some argue with this, it’s a worthy concept when it comes to determining your ideal rep range.

Most estimates put the ideal time under tension between 30 and 90 seconds pers set if hypertrophy is your goal. It can be tedious to time all your sets, though, so the time-under-tension method for determining optimal reps looks like this:

Pick a weight that you would normally use to work out with.
Do a set of the exercise to failure, keeping your reps smooth and controlled, and timing the set — either watch a clock with a second hand or use a stopwatch.
If your set falls outside the 30-90-second range, adjust the weight, rest five minutes, and try again.
Repeat the above two steps until you fall in 30-90-second range.
If you fail close to the 30-second mark, use that number of reps as your lower end and add four to get your top end. So, if you got 6 reps in 30 seconds, your range would be 6-10.
If you fail close to the 90-second mark, use that number of reps as your upper end and subtract four to get your bottom end. So, if you got 10 reps in 90 seconds, your range would be 6-10.
If you fail in the middle of the time range, add and subtract two to the reps you performed to find your range. So, if you got 8 reps in 50 seconds, your range would be 6-10.

Don’t Write It In Stone!

You can use one or both of these methods as a test of each body part to find optimum rep ranges for your workouts, but even these personalized rep ranges are just guidelines. They’re probably close to where you should be working MOST of the time, but don’t be afraid to break the mold and go higher or lower on occasion.