What is the meaning of life?
How did the universe come into being?
And what is the optimal rep range for hypertrophy?
These are the great debates that have occupied the brains of modern man for time immemorial. For the young guys reading this that haven’t been immersed in this weight training stuff for very long, it may seem like the debate about rep ranges and what is optimal for strength vs hypertrophy etc is a new thing – let me assure you it is not. It has been going on for decades.
To be honest, I’m not sure it’s really an answerable question. The problem is that a “rep range” is not an isolated aspect of your training program or your workout. The rep range can only be analyzed in the context of several other factors, all of which give the repetition it’s actual meaning.
A set of 8 is not the same thing as 5 sets of 8. A set of 8 to failure is not the same thing as a set of 8 with 2-3 reps left in the tank. A set of 8 one minute after the last set of 8 is not the same thing as a set of 8 five minutes after the last set of 8. A set of 8 with a strong mind muscle connection is not the same thing as a set of 8 without one. A set of 8 with 545 is not the same thing as a set of 8 with 185. A set of 8 on a Squat is not the same thing as a set of 8 on a Side Delt Raise.
So yeah, it makes it hard to come up with answers about what is “optimal” since the discussion is almost entirely context dependent.
But we still have to set up a training program and we still have to perform some sets for some reps, so how do we figure that out if our primary objective is to grow bigger and enhance the physique?
When it comes to training for hypertrophy (or call it power-building, bodybuilding, etc) then my viewpoint has always been that of take advantage of all potential pathways to growth, rather than trying to isolate the “holy grail” of rep-ranges where muscle magically grows best.
So I use the entire spectrum of rep ranges when trying to build muscle, all the way from 2 to 20+.
The trick is in applying the rep ranges in the right doses and to the right exercises and to the right body parts. You don’t need to perform heavy doubles every week (nor should you) and you don’t need to do sets of 20 on every exercise either.
I personally think that if there is a “sweet spot” for hypertrophy it’s in the 5-8 range, and I don’t think this is a highly controversial opinion. Progressing in this rep range with multiple sets has the right combination of load, and with enough sets, accumulates the right amount of total volume, and even a bit of metabolic stress (i.e. chasing the pump), especially if you play with rest periods.
So if I had to pick just one rep range to train in to achieve the goal of strength, muscle mass, and physique development, I guess 5-8 would be it. But fortunately we don’t have to make those silly choices and we can color outside the lines a bit to harness the benefits of training heavier and lighter to really maximize the training effect.
That being said, when I design a power-building program for a client, the vast majority of the work we do is in the 5-8 rep range, and in the margins we do some work in the 2-4 rep range in order to train maximal strength, and we do some work in the 10-20 range (sometimes even higher if doing drop sets, rest-pause sets, etc) in order to achieve some metabolic stress (the “pump”) in each muscle group.
Now, if we’re going to train in this way, my preference is to set up the weekly training split into 4-5 different workouts that have an intensive focus on one lift and/or one main area of the body. It doesn’t have to be this way, but is just makes training more practical, more focused, and more efficient in my opinion.
A typical power-building weekly split is typically organized like this:
- Monday: Bench
- Tuesday: Deadlifts
- Thursday: Overhead Press
- Friday: Squats
And often times I throw in a fifth day of the week for dedicated back work like chins, rows, etc.
Once we have the days set up, then I’ll generally select 3 exercises for larger muscle groups (chest, quads, shoulders, hamstrings, lats) and 1-2 exercises for smaller muscle groups (biceps, triceps, abs, calves, traps, rear delts, etc), and then start assigning each exercise it’s rep range for the day.
So on the Bench Day we might go:
- Flat Bench Press
- Incline Bench Press
- Dips or Cable Flys
Deadlift day might also be called our “hamstring/posterior chain day” and I’d set up a workout like this:
- Deadlifts
- RDLs
- Leg Curls
Squat Day might be a quad emphasis day and I’d set up a workout like this:
- Squats
- Hack Squats or Leg Press
- Leg Extensions
Press Day might be:
- Overhead Barbell Press
- Seated Dumbbell Press
- Side Delt Raises
The first movement of each day is our strength focused lift and 99.9% of the time should be a multi-joint barbell exercise that uses maximal loading. For this first exercise I tend to use straight sets / sets across with rest times being whatever is needed to complete the prescribed volume using perfect form, and generally avoiding sets to failure so that the focus can be on adding weight (or reps) week to week and/or cycle to cycle. I generally go with my standard 3 week mini cycle of rotating out 8s, 5s, and 2s although other strategies and programming methods could also be used (i.e. anything reasonable that works for you).
- Week 1: 3 x 8
- Week 2: 3 x 5
- Week 3: 3 x 2
- Week 4: Repeat and add weight to each rep range if possible.
So here, 2 of the 3 weeks of the mini cycle are in that “sweet spot” of 5-8 reps per set and every 3rd week we jack up the weight for doubles across. Handling the heavier weights every 3 weeks or so is a good way to keep strength progressing without burning yourself out with maximal loading in the +90% of 1RM range week in and week out.
I sometimes switch out the first exercise with a close variant (deficit deadlift, front squat, incline bench, etc), but most of the time, it works best to just stick with the “big 4” each week and try to improve your performance on the 8s, 5s, or 2s.
The second lift each day is an exercise that I feel best maximizes both loading as well as “isolation” of a particular muscle group. So a Hack Squat is a good example of this for the Quads. An RDL is good for the hamstring. An Incline Bench Press is good for the chest, but so is a Dumbbell Bench Press. So for the second exercise of the day we want something that enables you to move some weight, but I also want you to be able to really feel the muscle you are trying to work. So at some level, this is very individualized, based on the mind-muscle connection you can establish with this exercise. Some will work better for some than others.
I almost always use Descending Sets for this exercise. That is to say, I will assign 2-3 work sets, but each work set generally decreases in weight and increases in reps (although the reps don’t always increase if fatigue is high enough from the previous sets). However, these are not Drop Sets. Descending Sets generally use a longer rest time between sets so that “mostly complete” recovery can take place. I usually cap the descending sets around 3 minutes of rest between sets. Drop Sets usually have 30 seconds or less rest between efforts.
I will more or less match the first work set of the second exercise to whatever rep range we used for the first exercise of the day. This kind of preserves a “theme” to the workout as either heavier or lighter and allows you to build strength on your secondary exercises as well. The second and third work sets are dropped by 5-20% each and reps are increased so that the final workset is almost always reaching at or near failure in the 8-12 range. Depending on the exercise we are at or near failure on every set for this exercise.
Here is an example using the Bench Press and Incline Bench Press:
Week 1
- Flat Bench Press 3 x 8 (sets across, full rest between sets)
- Incline Bench Press 1 x 8-10 (drop 5%) 1 x 8-12 (drop another 5%) 1 x 8-12
(note: at the higher rep ranges, I use small drops of about 5% and often times, the reps don’t change much as fatigue accumulates)
Week 2
- Flat Bench Press 3 x 5 (sets across, full rest between sets)
- Incline Bench Press 1 x 5-6 (drop 10%) 1 x 8-10 (drop another 5-10%) 1 x 8-12
Week 3
- Flat Bench Press 3 x 2 (sets across, full rest between sets)
- Incline Bench Press 1 x 3-5 (drop 10%) 1 x 6-8 (drop another 10-20%) 1 x 8-12
So now the meat and potatoes of the workout is done and we move onto a third movement that is generally purely an isolation movement that trains in a much higher rep range with very short rest intervals or no rest intervals at all. This shouldn’t take long, but the density should be high i.e. a lot of reps in a very short period of time. There are lots of ways to do this, and it varies from one exercise / bodypart to the next and so this has to be done largely by feel. This means that you need to select exercises / rep ranges / techniques that give you the most massive pump you can possibly achieve. Weight doesn’t matter much here, although it should be bumped up over time as you can. Drop sets, rest-pause sets, sets for time, or even just 1-2 very high rep straight sets all work here.
For the Quads the 3-week mini-cycle might go like this:
Week 1
- Squat 3 x 8
- Hack Squat 1 x 8-10 (3 plates per side) 1 x 10-12 (2 plates per side) 1 x 12-15 (1 plate per side)
- Leg Extensions 1 x 15 (to failure) then a double drop set of 10 reps per set.
Week 2
- Squat 3 x 5
- Hack Squat 1 x 6-8 (4 plates per side) 1 x 8-10 (3 plates per side) 1 x 10-12 (2 plates per side)
- Leg Extensions 1 x 20 (to failure) then 3-4 rest pause sets of 5 reps each with 20-30 seconds between each set
Week 3
- Squat 3 x 2
- Hack Squat 1 x 4-6 (5 plates per side) 1 x 6-8 (4 plates per side) 1 x 8-10 (3 plates per side)
- Leg Press 1 x 50 reps with as few breaks between reps as possible.
For the smaller muscle groups, we’ll generally just select 1 or 2 exercises and use the mid-rep range sets and maybe some density sets.
Biceps might be:
- Incline DB Curls 6-8 x 40s, 8-10 x 35s, 10-12 x 30s (descending sets)
- Barbell Curls 1 x 15 to failure + 2-3 rest-pause sets of 5 (metabolic stressor)
Triceps might be:
- Weighted Dips 3 x 6-8 (straight sets)
- Cable Pressdowns 3 x 10-15 + 1 drop set of 15 at the end (straight sets + metabolic stress)
A question I get asked a lot by my trainees is “Can I do all this with just a single exercise, and just vary the rep ranges within the workout?”
In other words, can I do this?:
- Squat 3 x 5
- Squat 1 x 6-8, 1 x 8-10, 1 x 10-12 (descending sets)
- Squat 1 x 15-20
Yes, but it has it’s drawbacks.
In my opinion, this much volume on a single exercise week after week after week has diminishing returns in terms of both size and strength. I feel that rotating through the second and third tier movements leads to less stagnation, less over use type injury, and better growth. I don’t have anything to prove this one way or the other, other than many years of programming this type of training for clients and observing the results.
The other downside to running this type of scheme with a single barbell exercise is that it just wrecks your body (especially if you try it with squats and deadlifts). It’s hard to recover from physically. Especially when you try and apply the metabolic stressor type tactics to barbell exercises. You might get away with this on occasion, but week in and week out it is going to eat you alive. You can get the same (and actually better results) with this type of training by coupling your heavy barbell exercises with dumbbells, machines, cables, and bodyweight exercises fr the second and third tier movements.
Don’t get me wrong, the method I’m advocating for is hard too, and not without recovery difficulties, but I have found that using a wider variety of exercises allows you train harder at each session without wrecking yourself.
I strongly believe that it’s important to learn how to match the rep scheme / tactic to the right exercises. Go heavy with barbells. Pump up with dumbbells, machines, cables, and bodyweight.
The other side is the mental aspect. When doing this type of training, I like my trainees to stay fresh and engaged mentally. This keeps training motivation higher, and when motivation is higher, effort is higher. Beating yourself to death with the same 3-4 exercises week in and week out is not a good long term strategy for growth and physique development in my opinion.
When training for growth and physique development I believe that variety in exercise selection is not only helpful but necessary, because I also believe that effort must be high and that a good portion of your training volume should include sets at or near failure if you want to grow. You can’t do this on the same movement every week! You don’t need 42 different movements per body part to choose from, but you probably need a staple crop of maybe 4-6 movements per body part you rotate through every few weeks over the course of the year.
If you want more information on this type of training then check out the KSC Method for Power-Building
