Strength Training Repetition Ranges

Trusylver

Sport and Exercise Coach
Staff member
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When in calorie deficit for weight loss, it is best to stay in the strength rep ranges for maintaining existing muscle. Hypertrophy (Building muscle size) as a general rule requires eating a calorie surplus.
 
Hmm, this is confusing. What does each color represent? What are the annotations? Why the different font sizes and weights?
 
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The Large and more bold the type, the more ideal the rep range is for that goal. So if you look at the top row, which is strength. your ideal rep range is up to 6 reps, this does not mean that you won't gain any strength in the 7-11 range which more ideally suited to hypertrophy.

For the ladies who are worried about getting to "muscular", working in the strength range up to 5 reps will build minimal size (Hypertrophy)

In general you are looking to use the largest weight you can handle with good form in the target rep range for your goal. Power is a little different however. When training power the goal is to move the weight with as much speed and force you can without loosing good form. This can be done with a variety of weights depending on what the ultimate goal of building power is for. As a powerlifter it usually involves very heavy weights but a tennis player looking to build power for their game would use a lighter weight.

High reps are not very good for anything other than muscular endurance.

From a diet perspective, Hypertrophy require extra calories to build muscle size, so working in a hypertrophy range without adequate calories (calorie deficit) is counter productive and where you see people toil year after year in the gym without making any progress towards their goals and then claim that they are "hard gainers" when in reality they are not eating enough to build muscle.
 
OK, I see. Thanks. What’s the difference between power and strength? And sorry for my ignorance but are there competitions in powerlifting that measure how much you can lift in a certain amount of time?
 
Muscular strength is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert maximal force against resistance.

Power is the ability to move weight with speed

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert sub-maximal force against resistance for an extended period of time.

In powerlifting the goal is to lift as much as possible, it is not however a goal to lift it slowly, when we lift we aim to move the bar as quickly as possible (Power) Developing Power allows a lifter to help push through any sticking points they may have. It may look slow to an observer but the bar is moving as fast as the lifter is able to.

When I train I will have max strength days and power days.

For example many lifters have a sticking point near the bottom of the squat, Developing power with an exercise like explosive squat jumps at a lighter weight helps to develop power to push through that sticking point.

Bodybuilders looking for hypertrophy will often deliberately lift slowly, because the extra time under tension helps build size, however this will not help athletic performance. Giving them the big muscular look but not having the strength they appear to have.
 
While time under tension is important for hypertrophy, and slow reps have their place you cannot achieve most goals with just lifting slow.

Training with slow reps for the majority of training hinders sports performance, by targeting the type one muscle fibres. by not training type II a and b fibre.
If your individual fibre mix is type II heavy, not targeting these fibres will also hinder size growth.

Slow reps by necessity are done with lower weights than is optimal for strength gain, this harms your ability to develop strength and power training is never done at a slow tempo.

performing reps at a fixed speed of four seconds per rep versus a self-selected speed has been shown to decrease both muscle activation and training volume Self-selected vs. Fixed Repetition Duration: Effects on Number of Repetitions and Muscle Activation in Resistance-Trained Men. - PubMed - NCBI

Researchers from the University of Sydney report that taking six seconds to do a dumbbell curl is no more effective for muscle growth than a rep lasting two seconds Resistance training for strength: effect of number of sets and contraction speed. - PubMed - NCBI

A team of Japanese scientists compared slow and fast lifting speeds. Reps lasting six seconds didn’t work any better than reps lasting three seconds for increasing whole-body muscle thickness

. The length of time that a muscle is under tension for during a set is a lot less important than the total amount of tension it’s exposed to during a workout for growth.

Total workload (total weight lifted) is one of the biggest factors in building both size and strength, TUT training reduces the ability to maintain a high enough workload. It is a trade off, between achieving greater protein synthesis with TUT training against having a lower less effective total workload.


other reading

The impact of velocity of movement on performance factors in resistance exercise. - PubMed - NCBI
Optimizing power output by varying repetition tempo. - PubMed - NCBI
Effects of lifting tempo on one repetition maximum and hormonal responses to a bench press protocol. - PubMed - NCBI

This person explains it relatively well The Best Lifting Tempo For Hypertrophy - Awesome Fitness Science
https://www.ebtofficial.com/build-muscle/why-time-under-tension-is-overrated/
 
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