subject: Rep Range for Muscle Mass [print this page] Rep Range for Muscle Mass Rep Range for Muscle Mass
The most important factor in your workout in regards to meeting your own personal fitness goals, is knowing how many reps it takes to build muscle. You see, rep range is what determines what type of growth we trigger. Rep range is the deciding factor no matter what your goals are, getting stronger or bigger, more solid or a mixture of each.
Let's just get this huge misunderstanding cleared up now
Low repetitions and heavy weights make you bigger and lower weights and higher repetitions make you more defined. I bet this sounds familiar. This is so far from reality. Realistically, the opposite is the truth.
So how many reps to build muscle mass? If you are solely interested in building mass, you must trigger sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This type of hypertrophy increases muscle cell size and is triggered by higher reps. If your main goal is to pack on size, then going against the common theory of lifting heavy with low reps is the way to go.
If I concentrate on low reps, what kind of growth and I triggering? You are mainly focusing on increasing strength if you are training low reps with heavy weight. Heavy weights with low reps will do nothing for size. However, it could also increase muscle density for a more solid look.
How Many Reps to Build Muscle Mass, Strength, and Density?
1-3 Strength
4-6 Strength and Density
7-10 Size, Strength, and Density (x)
11-15 Size
Now that you understand the importance of knowing how many reps to build muscle mass, strength, and/or density, base your workout plan around the correct rep range for your specific goals. If you are interested in mixing things up, I recommend training different rep ranges during different phases. I trained about 11-15 reps for about 6 weeks because my first goal was to pack on as much mass as possible. Then I trained 4-6 reps for 6 weeks in order to get stronger and more solid and was able to mold the look I was looking for.
