How many reps should you do to build muscular size and strength? Today we'll give you that answer and a few others as we help you on your quest to discover how to build muscle quickly and effectively with proven, science backed methods in the gym.
First of all don't worry. If you're a little lost on your training and what you should or shouldn't be doing, one thing is for certain. You are not alone. In fact, most people are in the exact same situation, they just don't do anything about it and spend years going through the motions without seeing any results. Today, you separate yourself from that crowd.
Most guys are attempting to do the same thing you are. They want to build a more muscular physique, one which both makes them proud and gets you attention.
In order to get the right kind of results from your workouts, however, you need to know how to force your muscles to do what you want them to do. It will not grow by itself and this is where so many people go wrong. They don't force progress, but we'll go into that a little bit later.
Depending on what results you are aiming for, one of the following two rep ranges will be suitable for you:
* Hypertrophy.
* Endurance.
Given that you want size and strength you should be trying to hit your hypertrophy zone. This means you should be aiming towards the eight to twelve rep range. This will ensure you fall within the correct zone for building a more powerful physique.
If you were to continue pushing you reps, say, into the 15-20 zone, you would find yourself in the muscular endurance category. This would help you to tone up and really build up the stamina of whichever muscle you were training but it wouldn't work as effectively as the hypertrophy zone if your goal is pure size.
If you'd like to give yourself a confidence boost, we urge you to take a look around the resistance section the next time you walk into your local gym. You will see people training with seemingly no structure, going through the motions and, despite putting in effort while training, not seeing any results specific to what they want to achieve.
So you now know that the rules with weights have nothing to do with the popular gym mythologies out there. You know the ones we're talking about, right? Things such as 'high reps are just for women'. High reps are for those looking to build muscular endurance, regardless of your sex.
The second thing you need to do to make the most of hitting the hypertrophy zone is to progress. Your body's only job is to keep you alive, it does not care about your desire to build a more appealing look. It's not going to change unless you force it to change.
Use your rep zone to determine how much weight to lift as well as deciding when it is time to increase the resistance. How? It's actually very simple. Whereas most people don't know when the right time to increase a weight is, or most women are scared for fear of gaining muscle mass, simply remember the rules of your target rep zone. If using the hypertrophy zone use a weight which you can manage to lift eight times. Stick at that weight until you are able to get past 12 reps with good technique, then it's time to increase the weight, consistently forcing yourself to increase loads and stay within the right rep zone.
So now not only do you know how to build muscle but you also know how to push consistent gains from your body to avoid the plateau most people encounter and never break free from.
First of all don't worry. If you're a little lost on your training and what you should or shouldn't be doing, one thing is for certain. You are not alone. In fact, most people are in the exact same situation, they just don't do anything about it and spend years going through the motions without seeing any results. Today, you separate yourself from that crowd.
Most guys are attempting to do the same thing you are. They want to build a more muscular physique, one which both makes them proud and gets you attention.
In order to get the right kind of results from your workouts, however, you need to know how to force your muscles to do what you want them to do. It will not grow by itself and this is where so many people go wrong. They don't force progress, but we'll go into that a little bit later.
Depending on what results you are aiming for, one of the following two rep ranges will be suitable for you:
* Hypertrophy.
* Endurance.
Given that you want size and strength you should be trying to hit your hypertrophy zone. This means you should be aiming towards the eight to twelve rep range. This will ensure you fall within the correct zone for building a more powerful physique.
If you were to continue pushing you reps, say, into the 15-20 zone, you would find yourself in the muscular endurance category. This would help you to tone up and really build up the stamina of whichever muscle you were training but it wouldn't work as effectively as the hypertrophy zone if your goal is pure size.
If you'd like to give yourself a confidence boost, we urge you to take a look around the resistance section the next time you walk into your local gym. You will see people training with seemingly no structure, going through the motions and, despite putting in effort while training, not seeing any results specific to what they want to achieve.
So you now know that the rules with weights have nothing to do with the popular gym mythologies out there. You know the ones we're talking about, right? Things such as 'high reps are just for women'. High reps are for those looking to build muscular endurance, regardless of your sex.
The second thing you need to do to make the most of hitting the hypertrophy zone is to progress. Your body's only job is to keep you alive, it does not care about your desire to build a more appealing look. It's not going to change unless you force it to change.
Use your rep zone to determine how much weight to lift as well as deciding when it is time to increase the resistance. How? It's actually very simple. Whereas most people don't know when the right time to increase a weight is, or most women are scared for fear of gaining muscle mass, simply remember the rules of your target rep zone. If using the hypertrophy zone use a weight which you can manage to lift eight times. Stick at that weight until you are able to get past 12 reps with good technique, then it's time to increase the weight, consistently forcing yourself to increase loads and stay within the right rep zone.
So now not only do you know how to build muscle but you also know how to push consistent gains from your body to avoid the plateau most people encounter and never break free from.
About the Author:
About the Creator: Russ Howe PTI is the UK's most subscribed Personal Trainer. Learn how to build muscle with our free video walkthrough showing the five principles to a more muscular physique.
