Everything You need to Know about Rep Ranges and 1 Rep Max
Imagine you are reading a program, and it says something like
Do 4 sets of 3 reps with 70% of your 1RM, and then on the 5th do as many reps as possible.
Maybe you know what that means, but I guarantee many of you are asking
70% of WHAT??
and also
what does 1RM mean?
Its time to learn. Lets start with a CHART
You see this chart has three columns
The first is repetitions, the second is percentage of 1 rep maximum, and the third is the multiple to determine 1 rep maximum
If you look at 1 in the repetition column, this represents a weight that you can lift ONE time, which is 100% of your max strength levels. Hence, your 1RM, 1 Rep max.
If you look at 2 in the repetition column, this represents a weight that you can lift TWO times, which is 95% of your max strength levels. Hence, your 3RM, 3 Rep max. You could use your 2RM to determine your 1RM, by multiply your 2RM by 1.05, or 105%.
If you look at 2 in the repetition column, this represents a weight that you can lift TWO times, which is 93% of your max strength levels. Hence, your 3RM, 3 Rep max. You could use your 3RM to determine your 1RM, by multiply your 3RM by 1.08, or 108%.
The more repetitions you can perform with a weight, the lighter the weight will obviously be
You can see that a 5 rep max uses a weight that is about 87% of your 1RM.
And a 10RM uses a weight that is about 75% of your 1RM.
When we talk about “Strength” most people default to measuring strength by 1 Rep Max
Which is partly correct, but its not the whole picture either.
The fallacy in strength training is believing that the ONLY way to increase your one rep max is to “max out”. This is FALSE
Your 1 rep max is a TEST of strength. One rep by itself is not stimulating enough to promote adaptations in size and strength over time.
The whole reason we do multiple reps in a set is because training neurological coordination and promoting tissue growth requires sufficient stimulus.
To stimulate adaptation in strength and size, you need a sufficient number of reps
The minimum number of reps in a set that produce strength and hypertrophy gains is about 5 reps.
5 reps is also quite HEAVY.
For safety reasons and also for practical training purposes, its makes more sense to use a moderate rep range for hypertrophy and strength development.
This is the 6-12 rep range is so popular.
BUT, if you do want to focus on strength, 5 reps is effective.
This why programs like Starting Strength or StrongLifts uses sets of 5 reps, it WORKS
Especially on the Big 3 barbell lifts, 5 reps are the “sweet spot” for training.
Typically you are not actually multiple sets of your 5 rep max, but something around a 6-8 rep max instead.
Remember that you do NOT need to train to failure to get results, especially when doing multiple sets.
However, sets of 5 reps are obviously not the only way to train.
The "Hypertrophy” Range of 6-10, 6-12, or 8-12 reps will still increase your maximal strength as well
While these higher rep ranges are not as specific for maximal strength, you are still going to increase your maximal strength potential significantly.
Example:
Imagine you increase your 10 Rep maximum in the Barbell Back Squat from 225 to 315 over the course of a year
Your 1RM max potential strength would increase from
300lbs (225x1.33)
to
419lbs (315x1.330)
Thats a 120lb increase in max strength potential.
The most effective powerlifting programs in the world have you training SUBMAXIMALLY the majority of the time
You increase your 5 rep max. Or maybe 3 rep max.
Or 8 rep max, or even 10 rep max.
What you DONT do is “max out” every single week.
What about Olympic Lifters?
Even for Olympic lifters who do many "singles” in a training session, they do not only do 1 rep of a lift and leave the gym. They many many many singles (which adds up eventually to enough muscle stimulation) , and they do other lifts to supplement the main lifts (the Chinese are famous for the amount of bodybuilding work they do)
If You Want to Specialize in Max Strength, that is what Powerlifting Is
Powerlifters train to increase their one rep max in the squat bench and deadlift. Thus, most powerlifting programs will use percentages of 1RM to guide their programming.
There are various powerlifting training methods, but all tend to have the same things in common
Doing sets of 5
Doing multiple sets of low reps, such as doubles or triples
Occasionally doing high rep sets to build submax strength
Over time you build up your strength, practice low reps, and then peak your strength for competition
If you want to prioritize hypertrophy and are Satisfied building Submaximal Strength, that is what Bodybuilding is
You train with moderate to high reps on most of your lifts. You might do 5-8 reps, or 6-10, or 8-12, or 10-15, or 10-20.
Everything can work. Depending on your genetics, you might find some rep ranges work better than others.
Many lifters find moderate reps work well for upper body, such as the 6-10 or 8-12 range. Many lifters also find higher reps to work well for lower body, such as 10-15.
Again, Individuality. Everything could work. Experiment and see what works for you.
Some Pieces of Equipment are Better Suited for Low Reps than Others
My recommendations are as follow
Barbell Lifts: The barbell is perfectly balanced and the barbell lifts are leveraged lifts that work perfectly for maxing out. The barbell can be used with any rep range.
Dumbbells: As DBs get heavier, they become harder and harder to balance. The balance demands diminish the stability and make performing low reps highly risky. I recommend the 6-12 rep range when using DBs.
Cables: Cables work excellent for moderate to high reps, but low reps are largely impossible. The level of inertia you must overcome to do low reps with cables, and the counterbalancing demands on the body are simply too extreme
Machines: Machines can potentially work well for everything from low reps to high reps. However, because machines are BETTER than free weights at placing mechanical stress on a target muscle, its usually impossible to do anything less than about 4 reps. As the weight gets heavier the body will try to protect itself from injury and the cut the ROM short. At the same time, what is the point of maxing out a chest press or leg press? I suggest moderate reps, 6-12 range with machines
The Risk is with low reps is they always increase the joint stress significantly. This is why injuries happen so often with heavy weights.
This is why the barbell works the BEST for low reps. The compound nature of these lifts means you can distribute the loading equally across multiple muscles, versus a more isolated exercise which is overloading a single muscle and you risk experiencing a muscle or tendon tear.
In strongly advise against doing low reps with Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises by design are intended to overload a single muscle, and achieve this by isolating its function and using long moment arms with amplify the stress placed on the muscle.
The heavier you go on isolation exercises, the mechanical stress increases by greater orders of magnitude compared to compound lifts.
Trying to find a 1 rep max on a lateral raise or bicep curl is inherently risky. You can try, but if you hurt yourself and tear something, don’t say you were not warned.
And Finally, as a Heuristic
For upper Body Exercises, 6-10 Rep Range
For lower Body exercises, 8-15 rep range.
Adjust up or down based on your preferences
I’m 60. When I started lifting in the late 70s as a teen. I think it was my older brother who told me to do 5 sets of 5 reps per exercise especially bench. I made pretty good gains through my life doing basically that except for times when I would sets of 6-7 and 3 when I went to a weight I could only do 3 times (usually on set 4.). But even if I went 6 or 7 reps of could only get 4, the target was 5. Also I never knew exactly why, but I remember someone telling me if you can bench 225 ten times, then you should be able to a 1 RM of 300…and today 😀 I found that to be 100% true in my case. I just never knew the math behind that. But using this chart it does show ten reps of 225 means your 1 rep max will be 300.
On another note, once I got above 54 or so I stoppped lifting like this and do lighter weight for 8-10 reps. I wasn’t really getting weaker as much it hurt my bones and joints to lift heavy and took a much longer recovery period.