How Many Reps Should You Do? 

Just keep showing up to the gym

Personal favorite channel for hypetrophy training & exercise science, very underrated.

Fantastic work, man! This video is mega helpful! My key takeaways was: If Strength focused; most important parameter is load, measured in % of 1 Rep. Max (% 1RM). Heavier load is better for strength. No apparent limit. But joint injury risk increase with heavier loads. If Muscle growth focused; most important parameter is proximity to failure. Measured in Rep's In Reserve (RIR). Proximity to failure is better for muscle growth. No found limit, so the closer the better. Also muscle growth gain is ineffective above a load of 87% 1RM. Which equats to about 5 Reps per set for equal volume load. Also training for growth becomes ineffective below 40% 1RM load. This equats to about 30 reps. Recommended rep-interval is between 5 to 20 reps, with lower reps being favorable for strength. Also: RIR (proximity to failure) has no influence on strength gain.

This is quality content you deserve way more recognition, keep grinding mate

Thank you for actually mentioning set-to-set fatigue, which is something I don't find many people talking about and just leaves me with the impression that everyone but myself manages to do the same number of reps every set when taking them (close) to failure.

2 sets per muscle group per day rules out fatigue that's 12 sets a week within hypertrophy set ranges of 10-25 per week.

Great video. Very comprehensive coverage on the topic!

Great overall synopsis of "best rep range" for training using the most recent studies!

Thank you, I started gym 3 weeks ago and your content is what I was looking for. There is an infinite amount of informations about exercise but showing actual studies makes it believable ( sorry for bad english) Please do continue !

Love to see it ⭐️✅

I'm glad you defined your terms, specifically that "strength" here means one-repetition maximum (1RM) strength. It makes perfect sense that regularly performing heavy low repetition work makes you better at it. There's a very technical aspect to moving one's 1RM since you only have one chance to efficiently move the load or you fail the rep, whereas there's a lot less pressure on moving each rep of a 20RM. Since the primary driver of muscle growth is progressive overload, muscular strength and size are one in the same. One must get stronger to get bigger, and if they got bigger it's because they got stronger... but that doesn't mean it has to be in low rep ranges! If my 10RM becomes my 20RM, I still got *stronger* even though I'm far from performing only a single repetition, and unless this was on a new exercise I'm learning and refining my technique, I must have grown larger muscles in order to double the number of reps performed. A question, then, would be HOW does someone get stronger to the point of progressively overloading? That would be the optimal balance of stimulative training volume, and recovery mechanisms such as nourishment and sleep.

Awesome job!! so clear! it's impressive! thank you very much!

Boy, sooo much value in 15min, that's mindboggling! One of the most densly-packed, insightful videos about resistance training on all of RU-vid! Keep going mate! PS: Your channel reminds me a lot of Jeff Nippards channel, which is also top notch, but he has 4.5mio subs. You deserve the same! Did you ever analyze why you're not on par? Is it maybe that he has less graphics and more actual filming? Consider looking into that, bc the quality of your content should definately have you level with him 💪

Well done, very good walk through of the scientific data.

Personally, I've transitioned to low-volume training with extremely heavy loads. Despite the intense strain on my body, it's become easier to achieve the targeted reps I set out to do. Consequently, this adherence to my plan has become more manageable. The sessions are briefer, and the gym now feels like an integrated part of my lifestyle rather than a burdensome obligation. 😅 Many Thanks for the insights though. Love from India 🙏🏻

this channel is extremly underrated, this is the best youtube channel ive ever came across for fitness. simply the best

That was great insight. Thanks

This video made a lot of sense and I hadn't realized that low rep sets were good for injury reduction/mitigation.

Thank you for another great video

I like to vary weight and reps for each set, adding weight and reducing reps for each set until 5 reps.

Very useful! Thank you

Your voice are totally like Coach Eugene.

Best science best content

I have trouble choosing things so my first 3 sets are for strength and my last 4 are for hypertrophy. They kind of are the same thing anyway.

Great video . even for long time I have been I wanted to do build muscles so I was confused how to go about doing hypertrophy training . This video really clarified it . I will try this from next week and will let you know about the progression and also I have also started calorie surplus per day which I used to avoid before. Let see how it goes.

For me I find the 5 rep x 5 sets going to failure on the last couple reps in the last set to be one of the best for muscle growth over all muscles in the upper body. For legs it’s 1 set of 20 reps taken to failure. I do full body workouts and target each workout every 3rd day.

44 year old guy here with multiple bulging discs. I probably started the problem riding horses that were bucking, but twice in my life squatting more heavy in the 8 rep range (with good form), I flared up a disc problem. I also had wrist pain benching in the 6 rep range. With the science now, and knowing my back. I'd train with 12+ reps most all the time, with the occasional 10 rep sets. I wish I could go back in time, but it's better to learn this late rather than never.

waw, excellent content ! thanks

Very informative keep it up 👍

Hypertrophic range produces hypertrophic results. 12 is more than 8. 8 is less than 12. The upper ceiling of that 8-12 range will produce more with consistency and weekly sets in the upper teens.

On 12:13 distal had ~7% increase on Rest-pause, although admittedly the total is on par with the rest, still seems interesting that was skipped by.

What is the minimum level of stimulus required to maintain muscle mass? I just had surgery and cant bend, twist or lift anything over 10lbs for 6weeks so I wondering how I could maintain my muscle mass. I can walk as much as I feel up to and can start swimming after 3weeks but in terms of strength and muscle I can only do some upper body resistance band work to pump the muscles. Would this be enough to keep the muscles stimulated? 🙏🏼 hope to hear from you

Short answer: 12

My biggest take away is doing reps with less than 40% 1RM won't do much for you which makes sense. So if you can military press 140lbs, doing reps with less than 85lbs won't do much for you in terms of strength or muscle growth. I am interested in other effects that might be harder to quantify like heart health, cardio, and "tightness". For instance gymnasts and combat fighters tend to do a lot of extremely high rep or equivalent, they also look so much tighter and have amazing cardio. I wonder if there's truth to this and any way to meaningfully quantify it.

Lighter loads for faster recovery.

Is there a difference between lifting slow and lifting explosively? I've heard that lifting slow is better for increasing muscle mass, while lifting explosively is better for power and athletic performance. Great video👍

I do 3-5 reps per set

Q: heavy load/low rep isn’t optimized for hypertrophy, but does that still result in some muscle growth? If yes, to what extent, and are there differences between heavy load/low rep hypertrophic results between compound vs. isolated exercises? And does the interset rest time and recovery time after a session play into this? Many thanks for high quality content as always ✋🏼🙏

What about endurance, as a fighter with 5 minute rounds strength is great but endurance is a must.

5 reps are superior to 10-15 reps for hypertrophy. If you're doing 15 reps, the first 12 reps aren't really going anything until you approach failure. 5 reps, and you're working hard from the very start.

So if I wanna get stronger ill have to use heavier dumbells

how many were actually worth doing- at all? effectiveness . . . YMMV

Tree fiddy. Always tree fiddy

I do one exercise for 90 minutes, 2000 repetitions

They failed to account for rest time between sets. I put on a lot of muscle mass by doing 2 rep sets. However I was doing 10 sets while resting for 2 minutes. Some of these studies are incomplete.

do u watch paul carter/ chris beardsley?

Question: If low rep ranges are better for strength gain, wouldn't it allow you to gain a faster rate of progressive overload and therefore, over time, more muscle growth too? Or is it just that low rep ranges increases 1RM and not "overall strength"?

Thise studies are based on a sample of guys who are new to training, as we know they have newbie gains we want a study on a sample of guys that workout regularly

Just stick ro the traditional hypertrophy rep range of 8-12 reps.

anybody else type in highland games on youtube lol

Love that you did get in shape in the past but sorry, 6% Bodyfat looks way different.

I'm eating chocolate cake.

I don’t believe there is a difference between strength and hypertrophy, as a muscle gets stronger it gets bigger simple

say it like it’s exclusive 😑

Please stop with this nonsense!

To quote my teenager, you talk too much…get to the point please

3-30 reps