Exercise works on the SAID principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Your body will only adapt to the specific type of stress you apply to it. Therefore, if you want to be strong, you have to primarily practice lifting heavy weights and if you want to be a marathon runner, you have to primarily practice running long distances.
In weightlifting, there is a relationship between the amount of reps you do and the muscular adaptation that occurs in response. This is why programs tell you to do 3×6, 3×10, 3×15 and so on.
The chart below is a general representation of the commonly accepted continuum. The science behind the chart is more complicated as it takes into account the central nervous systems role in creating strength and how a muscle gets bigger. I provide some links to the “behind the scenes” information after the chart.
The Repetition-Adaptation Continuum
Looking at my hand drawn graph, you notice:
– the continuum goes from 1 to 20 reps+.
- 1 repetition corresponds with 100% intensity, which is the heaviest weight you can do for one rep, As you move further to the right, the percentage of your one-rep max decreases which means the amount of weight you are lifting decreases. There is an inverse relationship between intensity and reps. As reps go up, the intensity at which you are able to work goes down. Intensity is not about how something feels. It simply measures the percentage of what you can do one time. In the chart you see that five reps is around 85% of what you can do one time.
- The second part of the graph is the strength/hypertrophy rep range. This is where you get the best combination of strength and hypertrophy. For more background on this topic, read this.
- As you move past eight reps and continue further to the right, the emphasis starts to be more hypertrophy and endurance. Eventually, it becomes virtually all endurance. If someone is consistently performing more than 15 reps in a set, the intensity is very low. They might be struggling and shouting and feeling the burn, but the drama is in response to the chemical reactions that are going on inside the muscle to produce energy. They won’t be gaining as much strength or muscle as the person who calmly does 6 reps of the heaviest weight he can do.
- There is overlap between all the categories as you go from left to right. Consistent training will always improve numerous aspects of fitness, however different rep ranges emphasize different aspects. Even one single rep will result in some hypertrophy when it is done consistently and in a systematic way. It’ll also result in some endurance improvements, though the improvement may be so minimal as to be barely noticeable.
- The same can’t be said for starting on the left and moving to the right. Although absolute beginners can make strength improvements by lifting just about anything, as you get more advanced, a strength threshold kicks in. Studies and practical experience show that you must train at a higher percentage of your one rep max to maintain progress in strength. I describe it in more detail in this post.
- The rep ranges of 8-12, and even up to 15, are where the most controversy arises. I’ll address these issues in a future post.
For now, keep in mind that progressive overload is the key to building muscle. You could use any amount of reps and grow as long as you are lifting progressively heavier weights over time. Some rep ranges lend themselves to progressive overload better than others.
I have had the most success in training people (and myself) with rep ranges of 6-8 on the compound exercises as the core of our training. Assistance exercises are usually done with slightly higher rep ranges of 10-12 for various reasons which I have touched on here.
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