Squats how many reps for size

Deadlifts: 4 sets of 6 reps Bench Press: 4 sets of 10 reps Biceps curls: 3 sets of 12 reps Skullcrushers: 3 sets of 15 reps Lateral raises: 2 sets of 20 reps. This workout uses 2—4 sets of 6—20 reps, doing fewer reps on the bigger compound lifts, more reps on the smaller isolation lifts.

And when the reps are lower, we tend to do slightly more sets. Speaking of reverse pyramid training, another way to do sets in the 6—20 rep range would be to strip some weight off the bar each set, perhaps starting with pounds for 8 repetitions, then pounds for 10 repetitions, and then pounds for 12 repetitions.

So far, when I do weighted chinups for 3 sets, I get 8 reps on the 1st set, 5 reps on the 2nd set, and 4 reps on the 3rd set. This comes from resting 3 minutes between sets. All sets are to failure with good form chest to bar. Does this mean only that only the 1st set stimulated sufficient hypertrophy because it was in the rep range? While the other 2 sets stimulated mostly stimulated strength? If so, am I better off reducing the weight on the 2nd and 3rd set only to make sure I never go below 6 reps?

There are a couple downsides to lower rep ranges for hypertrophy. That can be solved by doing extra sets, though, which is where the second problems comes in: lower-rep sets are more fatiguing and can be harder on our joints. You could try 5-minute rest periods. That way when you do 8 reps, you have 2 reps left in reserve.

Next set, maybe you get 8 reps with 1 in reserve. And then on your third set, you can do 8 reps with 0 in reserve. This is how we normally recommend that people train, leaving some reps in reserve, especially on earlier sets, and especially when so many reps are bleeding out from set to set. The goal is just to keep most of our training in the hypertrophy rep range.

Awesome information about reps. How about sets what has the best results. For example, sets of reps or is sets of reps have better results. That yields a training volume of 9—18 sets per muscle group per week, which is right about perfect for building muscle.

You can do that with 2—3 full-body workouts per week or with body-part splits. Thank you Shane for your response! Going to continue for another three weeks. Started working out since January Also, reading and researching on your articles, so going to follow other routines after that.

Funny that this is published. Since Saturday been training 20 reps with my mate who is To be fair, my shoulders are killing me since Tues.. Probably done over reps in total. Including burn out sets. Done shoulder press 30kg for 3 x 20 reps. Usually would do 60kg for 3 x 4. So it was good for a change. Were see. Good to train slightly differently. Hopefully I can get some new gains from training this way.

Good to mix it up and to be fair, my form seems better. Different methods work best for different people.

Good to have such a wide rep range we can use to build muscle. I searched for what is the ideal rep and set to stick with to build from and you mention a plethora of different studies and my head now is so confused. So what is the general idea or rule of thumb to go off of?

I understand it has to be tweaked but for someone who is just trying to build muscle and size, what do you recommend? That way all the work is done for you, and you can learn what a good workout program looks and feels like.

Otherwise, yeah, it can get a bit tricky. Your limit strength is your base. Increasing your 1RM will help with lifting more weight in the higher rep ranges. The different intensities help you gain more strength and size in the long run. Doing reps from 1 to 20 for example. So powerlifting training is very beneficial for hypertrophy if incorporating higher reps also, as it will make you able to do 20 reps with much higher weights.

I know some people who squat kg x 20 reps. Comparing that do 20 reps with 80kg, big difference. To get the most out of the muscle mass we already have, training in a given rep range is likely the best way to improve our strength in that rep range.

So if we want to get stronger at doing 3-rep sets, then 3-rep sets are a great way to gain that strength. But if we want to get stronger at rep sets, then rep sets are a better way to do that. But if the goal is to improve your strength in moderate rep ranges, then training in moderate rep ranges is perfect for that. Thing is, we can also increase our strength by gaining more muscle mass, and doing at least 5—6 reps per set is better for that.

Perhaps using a variety of rep ranges is indeed better for building muscle. Or maybe gaining strength in lower rep ranges has useful carryover to our strength in higher rep ranges.

But we also have research showing that sticking with 8—12 reps seems to work just as well as varying your rep ranges. Hi I have found this fascinating, thank you! My question is, if I can go heavier but have to drop reps say from 10 to 8 for 3 sets is that better than increasing the number of sets at the same weight? The simplest answer is that 3 sets is a great number of sets per exercise per workout—no need to increase. And going from 10 reps to 8 reps is perfectly fine—both are in the middle of the hypertrophy rep range.

If you increase from 3 sets to 4 sets, the difference may be minimal, but it may still help. And going from 4 to 5, there may be no difference at all. Shane, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me! I really really appreciate it. I came across your site as I was looking specifically at how to gain muscle mass in a situation where the ability to increase weight each time is limited.

But I could increase reps? Add weight or reps AND as sets as needed. Hey Shane, I briefly read through each part of this article and it explained a lot, so thank you! I have a small problem with my bench. I have been doing pyramid type training, like you mentioned in another comment, where I increase the weight with warm up sets then 1 working set as close as possible to failure.

Since I started doing this one set to failure with as much as weight as possible for around reps with perfect form and full range of motion, the weight I am using on the barbell for my squats and bent over rows is going up and I am seeing results! As for my bench though not so much. My bench has been at about pounds for reps for the longest time. So what I used to do is 4 sets of of just pounds. So I thought that since I had done this for so long it was time to increase it by 5 pounds.

So i tried the warm up sets and 1 working set to failure for my bench so it would like this Set 1: 95 pounds 12 reps Set 2: pounds reps Set 3: pounds reps Set 4: pounds reps Set 5: pounds Working Set : reps. So as you can see when I increase the weight my reps are going lower and my form gets somewhat sloppy.

Should I just go back to the 4 sets of for pounds? A good default way of increasing the weight is setting a rep target say 10 reps and then increasing the weight whenever you achieve that target on your final set.

Then work back up to 12 reps on the final set, increase the weight again. Are you eating enough calories to gain weight on the scale each week? Are you eating a gram of protein per pound bodyweight per day? Are you getting enough good sleep every night? Then we can consider, are your bench press workouts too hard or too easy?

And are you using a smart mix of assistance lifts, such as some push-ups and skullcrushers, to give your muscles a bit of extra work?

And how are those lifts progressing? Starting with a well-programmed workout routine is a good place to start, but there will always be some trial and error. Everyone is a little bit different. Hey I really appreciate the reply! I will reconsider what I am doing for my bench and start increasing the weight whenever I am able to get 12 reps.

Would you say I should do sets of the same weight? Not sure if that makes sense, haha. I am naturally a big guy who can gain fat fairly easily. I was at about pounds a couple years ago and now I have cut down to and noticed I have gained some muscle while staying in a deficit. I still have quite a bit of fat holding in my midsection so I believe if I stay in a deficit it will go away over time.

If you want to change the weight between sets, check out Reverse Pyramid Training , as explained in this article. It normally makes more sense to start with the heaviest set, and to keep each set within a couple of reps of failure. So do a heavy set, maybe 6 reps, take some weight off, push hard again, maybe getting 8 reps, take more weight off, and push hard again, maybe getting 10 reps.

That way each set is challenging enough to stimulate muscle growth. I bet you can still eke out some extra muscle growth, though, gain some extra bench press strength. Great article. Research suggests that there is a dose-response relationship between training intensity and strength gain. What a dose response relationship means is that, the higher a dose, the better the outcome up to a certain point.

This means that there is a sweet spot. The more experienced you are, the higher the optimal average intensity you should be working at. The optimal intensity for a more novice lifter is relatively lower compared to an advanced lifter.

Training at lower intensities may look like performing higher repetitions in practice. So if you are somewhere between a novice to intermediate lifter, high repetition squats may work really well at getting your squat strength up.

Research shows a positive relationship between muscle mass and lifting performance across all weight categories in powerlifting. We can say that one of the predictive factors of strength gains long term is muscle size. If you have good and consistent technique, then high rep squats should be used periodically in your training.

Why is this important? This is important because when you practice a repetition, you make that movement pattern or technique more permanent. If you are plateauing in terms of leg size, you may benefit from high repetition squats.

Research shows that there are benefits from using different rep ranges for the purpose of hypertrophy. Performing sets of squats using certain rep ranges tend to trigger muscle hypertrophy but through different mechanisms depending on the rep range. If you have been training through a certain set of repetitions for example low repetitions, your body adapts to the stimulus and eventually resists against the stimulus.

This is why we may reach a plateau. As a way to break through the plateau, we can then use high repetitions to stimulate our leg muscles differently to before and this will still be useful at gaining muscle size. If you are not carrying any lower body injury particularly in the back, hips or knees, then high rep squats can be an option for you.

It is important to understand that high rep squats can be very stressful for the muscles and joints, especially if they are done to lower reps in reserve i.

If you are carrying preexisting pain or injury, performing high rep squats can be damaging in parts of your body that are already vulnerable.

Therefore, it is important that you not pursue high rep squats with pre-existing issues. Here is an example of a high rep squat routine for the purpose of hypertrophy of the leg muscles over 8 weeks.

Percentages are based on your latest 1 Rep Max of your back squat. There is a 7-week progression with a final week deload.

Here are some frequently asked questions that I get when people ask me whether they should do high rep squats:. High rep squats may feel like it is aerobic training as you might find yourself out of breath. You may even find your aerobic fitness increase as a side effect. High rep squats are still considered to be a form of resistance training that primarily uses your anaerobic energy systems i.

If you are not accustomed to performing high rep squats, start with 3 to 6 hard-working sets per week as a starting place. If you are somewhat trained ie. Advanced lifters can go for between 5 to 10 sets. Want to build size, strength, or endurance? Then you need to know how many reps to lift! Here's how to match your goals to the best rep range and weight.

BodyFit is your solution to all things fitness. Join today and unleash the power of BodyFit! Look around any gym, and you'll see people committing various training mistakes—a guy on the bench press bouncing the bar off his chest, someone doing curls with more motion in his hips than his biceps, another person pressing her flyes.

These visual blunders can hamper your training progress, to be sure, but they're not the only thing you need to worry about. What about the mistakes you don't see? None of those mistakes will undermine your training efforts as much as confusing hard training with smart training.

Training hard is easy, but training smart gets you closer to your goals. For example, let's say you want to build muscle. You can choose a light weight and rep it times, or grab a heavier weight and push it maybe 10 times. Both examples are hard, but one method is superior for building muscle.

Effort is important, but it has to be applied correctly. To optimize your effort in the gym, you need to understand which specific rep ranges can best help you reach your goals.

Thankfully, researchers have already weighed in on the topic. Here are the basic rules of choosing the right reps per set for your fitness needs! If you're training for muscle size, choose a weight at which you reach muscle failure in the rep range. In other words, after your warm-up sets—which are never taken to failure—you should select a load with which you can complete at least 8 reps but not more than That means if you can do only reps, the weight is too heavy, so reduce it on subsequent sets.

It also means that if you can do more than 12 reps, but simply stop at 12, that's not a "true" set. A true set is one in which you fail—the point at which you can't do another rep with good form on your own—within the target rep range of If you can easily do more than 12, add weight on your next set so that you're failing in the target range. Choosing the right load for your muscle-building goal effectively targets the fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are more prone to growing bigger and stronger in response to resistance training, with enough volume to stimulate growth.

Of course, the guy who is bouncing the bar off his chest and the one who is using every lower-body muscle group to heave up a set of curls are using bad form. If you're exercising with poor form, the weight is probably too heavy, regardless of when you're failing.

Learn and practice textbook technique. However, these fibers fatigue fairly quickly, which is why you can't lift a very heavy weight very many times. Train like a bodybuilder: If you're looking to maximize muscle size, target reps per set on average and choose multijoint movements like the bench press, squat, overhead press, bent-over row, and deadlift, which recruit more total muscle mass than single-joint moves, thus allowing you to lift heavier weights.

Hit a target muscle from multiple angles with high volume sets and reps to stimulate growth.