Note from Kyle: Today we have a guest post from my protégé so to speak Nick Smoot. He has written for HF in the past but its been a while since you have seen any of his work. This is a sick article I know you will really enjoy! Enter Nick…
Nick Smoot
Smoot Fitness
If you’re like me, you have a particular rep range you tend to gravitate towards in your training.
Personally, I like 1-5 reps.
It’s fun.
My main goal is to improve strength and power.
There are very few things less enjoyable to me than a high rep set of back squats that makes me feel like my hearts gonna explode.
For others, they like 6-12 reps. They like “the pump.”
They like the danger of trying to descend a flight of stairs 24 hours after leg day.
And they like the fact that they can train for months on end – at a fairly high intensity – without their joints giving them the middle finger. To be perfectly honest, that’s fine.
There’s nothing wrong with having a rep range you consider your “favorite.”
And there’s nothing wrong with having a rep range you prioritize in most, if not all of your training plans.
But, a huge mistake I see both with powerlifters and bodybuilders alike is that they tend to over utilize one rep range, while completely eliminating all the rest.
This IS a problem.
Although specificity is important, you’re only as strong as your weakest link.
Each rep range stimulates a unique adaption.
Each adaption helps to build all of the other adaptions.
And getting married to one rep range – at the cost of all of the rest – can develop glaring weaknesses that can potentially halt all progress.
Rep Ranges and Their Adaptions
First, lets briefly discuss the physical adaptions that each rep range uniquely stimulates.
These adaptions overlap to some degree (you’re never truly stimulating only one adaption), but the main adaptions that are stimulated by each individual rep range are as follows:
- 1-5 reps = Strength
- 6-7 reps = Strength/Hypertrophy (muscle size)
- 8-12 reps = Hypertrophy (muscle size)
- 12-15 reps = Hypertrophy (muscle size)/Muscular Endurance
- 15+ reps = Muscular Endurance
The variation in stimuli between rep ranges results from the different effects that each rep range has on load, rest time, and time under tension (TUT).
A full article could and probably will be written to discuss each training variable in detail, but just as a very short overview:
- Load on the bar and the number of reps performed during an exercise are inversely proportional. As the number of reps goes up, the load on the bar goes down, and vice versa.
- Rest time and the number of reps performed during an exercise are inversely proportional. As the the number of reps goes up, the rest time in between sets goes down, and vice versa.
- Time under tension and the number of reps performed during an exercise are directly proportional. As the number of reps goes up or down, the time under tension goes up or down respectively.
If the goal is to build maximal strength (which wikipedia defines as “the maximum amount of force that can be generated in one maximal contraction”), more work should be performed with lower reps, heavier weight, longer rest periods, and a shorter TUT.
This is because strength is largely neural in nature (it has a lot to do with synchronization, rate coding, motor unit recruitment etc.) and heavy loads (think 80-100% of your one rep max) performed for a small number of reps (1-5) are required (although you can still improve strength with light loads) in order to maximize this adaption.
When it comes to the goal of building size, more work should be performed with moderate to high reps, moderate to light loads, shorter rest periods, and a greater TUT.
This is because muscle growth is greatly effected by mechanical tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress (metabolic waste build up and flooding the muscle with blood), with the last two being maximized in a higher rep range.
Finally, if the goal is to improve muscular endurance, more work should be performed with extremely high reps, light weight, short – or no – rest periods, and a greater TUT.
This is because muscular endurance – as defined by Livestrong – is “the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to repeatedly exert force against resistance,” and anything less than 12-15 + reps – which requires a low weight and becomes harder with a shorter rest period – doesn’t start challenging (or improving) that adaption.
Like I said before, every adaption overlaps to some degree, so you’re never truly stimulating one adaption.
But, just because you’re stimulating an adaption doesn’t mean you’re improving that adaption.
And if you’re only training in one rep range, you’re only improving one area of your overall physical performance.
The Adaptation Continuum
The idea behind training in multiple rep ranges, as opposed to only sticking with the rep range geared towards strength or hypertrophy, comes down to two important principles:
- Each adaption effectively builds one another.
- You’re only as strong as your weakest link (cliche, but it’s true).
When you train for endurance, you increase your ability to build size by increasing work capacity and your ability to tolerate more volume (more volume = more growth).
When you train for size, you increase your ability to gain strength, because a bigger muscle has the capacity to become a stronger muscle.
And when you increase strength, you increase your ability to build size and endurance, because you can now use more weight within the rep ranges geared towards stimulating those adaptations.
Now – spinning this around a little bit – just as improving one adaption will increase your ability to improve another adaption, failing to improve one adaption will DECREASE your ability to stimulate another adaption.
If you don’t improve muscular endurance – and therefore don’t increase work capacity and your ability to tolerate more volume – you decrease your ability to gain size and strength, because volume (load x reps x sets) drives physical adaption.
If you don’t improve size, you decrease your ability to gain strength, because a smaller muscle has a smaller capacity to gain strength than a larger muscle.
And if you don’t improve strength, you decrease your ability to gain size and endurance (and pretty much everything else), because you can’t increase load – which is the number one form of progression – within each target rep range.
What this all means – which I probably could have said in far less words – is simply that in order to maximize any one adaption, you have to spend some time focusing on all of the rest.
How much time?
Well that depends on the person and the situation.
But, a good rule of thumb is that every few months, take some time to focus on a weak point that you’re probably starting to develop.
One Last Thing – Always Take into Account Specificity
The last thing I wanted to touch on is the principle of specificity. Simply stated, specificity means that your training must be specific to the goals you want to achieve.
If you want to get stronger, the MAJORITY of your training should take place within the 1-5 rep range.
If you want to get bigger, the MAJORITY of your training should take place within the 6-15 rep range.
And if you want to gain endurance, the MAJORITY of your training should take place within the 15+ rep range.
Variation? It’s important, and plays a fundamental role in physical adaption and performance enhancement but, specificity comes first.
Although you should – at some time or another – train in all rep ranges, always prioritize the one that matters the most.
If you’d like to contact Nick, send him an email at nsmoot2@gmail.com, visit his website smootfitness.com, or follow him on Facebook (Smoot Fitness)
Other Posts You May Enjoy:
1. Top Five Strength and Conditioning Mistakes
2. Five Unique Muscle Building Exercises You Are Not Currently Doing
3. Physiology Behind Improving Power Sports Performance
4. Nutrition For The Strength Athlete
5. The Importance of Progression
