OPTIMUM REP RANGE
by Kevin Dye
Amongst all the variables that bodybuilders agonise over when constructing their routines, rep ranges would rank highly as a factor that seems to have as many theories as their are options. It’s little wonder when taking into consideration all the conflicting opinions that dominate the field of weight training, as everyone tends to favour a particular rep range for one reason or another, but what is the optimum rep range [orr] to suite your unique needs?
Well if you listen to folklore, then you would forgiven for believing that you needed high reps for cutting-up, low reps for muscle size, and even lower reps for strength. The rational being that each rep range involves certain muscle fibres, delivering results that coincide with that particular rep allotment. But are these really the best options to ensure you make the progress you want? Is there a better way to ensure that every set you perform involved the muscle fibres that you were blessed with?
Without knowing your own unique muscle fibre make-up, a trainee would be guessing at best as to what the best orr was for their unique needs. Some may come across it by chance, while others never even come close, but in your efforts to improve upon your existing muscle development, only by applying the most efficient means available will you be content in the knowledge that you are on the quickest path to your goals. Efficiency should be the underlying goal trainees strive for when training, because you don’t want to waste time when you could get the job done faster by using your orr.
It’s a biological fact that trainees vary greatly in the muscle fibre allotment distributed throughout their bodies, as it’s these variations that determine what rep range is needed to matches that particular muscles potential. So while you might be training your lats with 6 reps and see progress, your biceps on the otherhand might require slightly higher or lower reps to achieve the same goal. So you can see how arbitrary choosing reps based upon tradition or hearsay would be futile in ensuring you progressed at a satisfactory rate.
Every living being is blessed with fast twitch muscle fibres, or slow twitch, usually it’s a combination of both with one prevailing. This means that each fibre allotment requires a rep range that taps into their unique fatigue potential. Fast muscle fibres fatigue rather quickly, so demand the focus on a handful of repetitions, while slow muscle fibres require just the opposite, meaning that a high number of reps need to be performed before fatigue occurs. The first step in determining your allotment is by testing to see where you stand.
Muscle biopsy’s would be our best choice, but as medical procedures are costly and inconvenient, there’s a simpler way that’s nearly as good, which involves picking an isolation exercise for every single muscle, such as leg extensions, leg curls, toe presses, pullovers, pec deck flyes, lateral raises, bb curls, tricep extensions, wrist curls, and crunches. Compound exercises would complicate the results, because how could you tell which muscle was responsible for the eventual termination of the set?
The idea is to isolate the involved muscle as best as possible, to ensure that it, and nothing else does the brunt of the work. Momentum needs to be kept to a minimum, so a slow rep tempo is mandatory. Without counting seconds, which would distract from your effort, about 5 seconds in either direction would be about right, depending on the range of motion for each movement. The first step determining the one rep maximum for each exercise, which might involve a few workouts so you don’t overtrain while doing the experiment.
Once this is achieved, decrease each exercise by 20% so you are using 80% of your one rep maximum for your actual set. Keep each rep strict, as sloppy reps only give false results which defeats our aim. All momentum must be avoided, as we want to use true muscular effort for every single rep. As before, it would be better to divide the experiment over two or three workouts so fatigue doesn’t effect the overall results. You have the rest of your training life so don’t get too eager to see what your fibre make-up is all at once.
Keep count of the reps you perform, as well as the time it takes you to fatigue each muscle. This will then be your orr, and the tut [time under tension] for that particular muscle. So you will know with certainty that when you train next you need to keep the reps around that range [about 1 either way], and the tut to match the required fatigue rate. No longer will you be searching in the dark, relying on guess work to guide you in your efforts, as you will know exactly what is needed for you to train every single muscle on your body.
This eliminates one more variable to worry about in your routine, letting you proceed confidently knowing that when you reach failure the muscle has received stress in accordance to its muscle fibre allotment, not someones opinion or tradition. Being gentically determined, these will never alter all through your life, no matter how strong or large your muscles become. So train acording to what your body needs, then see if you don’t make regular and consistant progress at the rate your body can deliver!
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