An article for those who want to know how to quickly and effectively gain muscle mass without fat deposits.
In some situations, the rep range we do can affect the amount of muscle growth we stimulate with each set. There is a famous study by Brad Schoenfeld, Ph. D., which we look at in this article on strength training. He found that when doing seven sets, muscle growth would be the same as when doing three sets of high repetitions.
The strength training group performed 7 sets of 3 reps. It took them 70 minutes to finish their workouts, and by the end of the study, they were complaining of joint pain and general fatigue. 2 participants dropped out due to joint pain.
The hypertrophy training group did 3 sets of 10 reps. It took them 17 minutes to finish their workouts, they wanted to do more lifts, they finished the study feeling refreshed, and they built the same amount of muscle as the first group.
If we look at the general research, we can see that sets of 1-3 repetitions, and perhaps even sets of 4-5 reps, do not stimulate the same muscle growth as sets with higher repetitions. They are great for a strength approach, but not as great for building muscle.
Then, at the other end of the strength endurance spectrum, as reps go beyond 30-40 reps per set, they get better for improving muscle endurance, but start to stimulate less muscle growth.
According to expert Greg Nachols, sets of 4-40 reps stimulate the maximum amount of muscle growth per set. For others, such as Mike Israel (Ph. D.), sets of 5-30 reps are ideal for building muscle. We also have researchers like James Krieger who only counts 8+ rep sets in his study of volume of hypertrophy. However, all of these hypertrophy repetitions are essentially the same, and they become even more similar once we start to place them in the context of a good mass program.
When we do sets of 1-5, sets tend to work harder on our joints and connective tissues, they can have higher injury rates, and they can take longer to recover. There are also problems with doing sets of 20-40 reps. First, we must bring them closer to muscle failure in order to reliably trigger muscle growth. Second, taking high reps to failure is so painful that people feel sick. And third, higher rep sets can cause massive amounts of muscle damage, making it difficult to recover from workouts.
So while sets 4-40 or 5-30 can technically stimulate the maximum amount of muscle growth, hypertrophy training tends to run much smoother if we spend more time lifting in the 6-20 rep range. And even within that tapering rep range, different lifts respond better to different rep ranges, narrowing it even further.
Because of how heavy and tiring they are, the lower end of this range is generally ideal for larger body parts:
Deadlift: 4-10 reps per set.
Front Squat: 5-12 reps per set.
Bench Press: 5-12 reps per set.
Upper abs: 6-12 reps per set.
Pull-ups: 5-10 reps per set.
And then the ideal rep ranges are raised higher for assistance and assisted lifts that are easier, less tiring, and can tolerate slight disruption to technique. Here are some free guidelines for some common isolation lifts:
Bicep curls: 8-15 reps per set.
Rows: 8-15 reps per set.
Dips: 8-15 reps per set.
Dumbbell Bench Press: 8-15 reps per set.
Romanian Deadlift: 8-15 reps per set.
Zercher Squat: 8-15 reps per set.
Side Raises: 10-20 reps per set.
Push-ups: 10-30 reps per set.
Wrist Curls: 12-30 reps per set.
Neck Curls: 15-30 reps per set.
Either way, the bottom line is that sets of 4-40 reps and, of course, sets of 6-20 reps stimulate almost the same amount of muscle growth, which allows us to simply count the number of difficult sets per week.
If you are doing sets of less than four or more than forty reps, count them as half a set.
