''How many reps per set?'' is an enigma the muscle industry has been seemingly trying to solve since the creation of the iron room.
The conventional muscle science found in thong catalogs, I mean mainstream muscle magazines, recommends 10 reps for 3 sets.
Why? Because this style is politically correct and less likely to cause an injury. As an added benefit, you also get a nice muscular pump meant to help you experience heavenly emotions and trigger massive muscular growth.
Over the years many have been criticizing this method and rendering it ineffective for the average natural bodybuilder stranger to the anabolic cocktails of the pros. This caused the low rep revolution led by persistent marketers and supported by an army of confused noobs.
From 2005 onward, the gurus have been advising beginners to follow a strength routine such as the popular 5x5. This resulted in the formation of 5x5 zealots and other forms of recreational powerlifting idiots who consider high reps the choice of the insecure bodybuilder who uses the gym as a metrosexual spa center rather than a place where men go to forge their testicles.
Many members of the low rep community are afraid to do a set above 5 reps or a biceps curl, whereas the pump fanboys think they will shatter into pieces if once in a while they perform a heavy triple.
But guess what? Both are nothing but subjects to combative dualism.
The supporters of each method only see the truth in their choice and the lies of the opposite side. Those individuals fight each other using ego pleasing methods until they transform into the very thing they were fighting against.
The two sides are too confused and illogical to open their minds and think outside of the basic formulas.
They are not willing to accept a third approach, but there is one.
It's called synthesis – a combination of separate materials into one unified entity.
Ultimately, the term rep range is nothing but a simplified expression of a bigger idea.
No matter how many reps or sets you do, it all comes down to tonnage and intensity.
Those are the two essential elements of any workout. To achieve progress, you have to unify them into an acceptable form generating progress.
Tonnage per workout equals the total amount of weight lifted in one training session. For instance, if you perform 3 sets of 10 reps with 100 kilograms, the total tonnage is 3x10x100 = 3000 kilograms [1363 lbs.]
But that number can be achieved by doing 5 sets of 6 reps with the same weight or by lifting 200 kg / 440 lbs for 15 repetitions. The tonnage is the same, but the intensity in the second case is higher.
The combination of tonnage and intensity is similar to earning money.
High intensity equals decent money earned in a short period of time with tremendous effort, whereas high tonnage is the equivalent of earning money over a longer period of time with less effort.
An example of high-intensity training would be a bank heist.
Technically, the operation shouldn't take a lot of time, unless you count the planning, but you can end up with some serious profit that may otherwise require 50 years of regular work.
However, high intensity is really stressful and demands longer recovery time. You can't rob a bank every day.
On the other hand, going to work every day, earning little for decades, and accumulating some decent tonnage [bank] is way more realistic. The downside of this method is that you may never live to see your money. Therefore, the best approach is synthesis of both elements. In money terms, this means that you have to find a bank that you can rob more frequently without getting
caught or injured.
One of the ways to combine repetition training (higher tonnage) and intensity training (heavy weight) is to split each into different periods of one training cycle.
The classic approach is to start with high reps at the beginning and then progressively add weight each workout to increase the intensity.
Here's a simple linear cycle combining high and low repetitions.
Week 1: 15 reps with 100;
Week 2: 10 reps with 120;
Week 3: 8 reps with 140;
Week 4: 5 reps with 160;
Week 5: 5 reps with 170;
Week 6: 3 reps with 180;
Week 7: 2-3 reps with 190;
At the end of the cycle, you should start another one with a heavier weight such as 110-115 and build back up again to a personal record.
Obviously, if you want to focus more on reps rather than intensity you can increase the number of weeks during which you do high repetitions.
Another technique that allows you to combine the best of both worlds are back-off sets.
Back-off sets are high rep sets done after heavier low rep sets and are meant to increase the tonnage per workout.
For example, doing a set of 10 reps with 100 after a heavy set with 200 would be considered a back-off set.
You can also combine linear periodization starting with high reps and add back-off sets once you reach the low repetition weeks.
***
Next comes another eternal question:
How many sets per workout should a muscle apprentice perform in order to reach the land of otherworldly muscle development?
Honestly, unless you are trying to improve your technique, you don't really need a lot of sets.
2-3 working sets per compound exercise are more than enough.
There is no need to do an endless amount of working sets to stimulate growth.
Proper warm-up and a few work sets cover the requirements for growth stimulation.
A hidden benefit of doing less working sets is that you can invest more energy and concentration into them.
The fewer chances you have, the more you appreciate them.
The Two Myths
There are two big myths linked to low and high rep training.
The first myth is that high reps build ''unfunctional'' faggot muscle, whereas low reps only increase your strength and stimulate synthesis of ''functional muscle''. I used to believe this lie when I first joined an actual gym with weight and stuff. I had my clock winded by the 5x5 zealots and considered high rep jedis losers. While my attitude was justified because most people in the gym are really brain dead idiots who have no idea what they are doing, my mindset was wrong. I wasn't better than the average person. I was convinced that I was building quality muscle by doing low reps. In reality, however, I was nothing but the opposite part of the spectrum. Then, after my low repetition era of training failed to deliver the muscle I thought I had earned, I switched to high rep bodybuilding routines and did all the sins 5x5 zealots and other sycophants love criticizing. I did high rep sets, burn out sets, drop sets and numerous isolation exercises.
Obviously, I didn't get the growth I thought I had earned that way either.
At the end, the culprit was obvious – I was a natural lifter expecting too much. I was a regular clerk thinking he can work his way up to higher management by playing Mr. Nice guy and working hard.
The problem were neither high nor low reps.
The problem was my naive mind convinced that the world is an enormous place full of ideas, concepts and even individuals looking out for you. I was a gullible person, trusting the authorities despite the fact that the evidence was suggesting otherwise.
The truth is that there isn't a magic rep range that can change your genes and offer you unnatural muscular development.
We just want to believe there is one because that dream makes us feel like in control.
But we aren't.
You can’t tell nature what it can or can’t do.
It’s the other way around.