how many reps should you do over the course of a workout

by Noel O'Connell 6 min read

Here are the rep ranges you should do based on fitness goals: General fitness: 12-20 reps Muscular endurance: 8-12 reps Building muscle: 6-12 reps

If you are new to exercise and looking to improve your current level of fitness, doing 12 to 15 reps should be sufficient. Improving your fitness and strengthening your muscles will help you burn calories, which can lead to weight loss.Feb 15, 2022

Full Answer

How many reps is best during a workout?

Feb 16, 2022 · If a workout requires you to perform 20 reps of air squats, that means you’ll need to do 20 consecutive air squats. A “set” contains a certain number of reps. You can imagine a set as a basket filled with reps. Three sets of 20 reps of air squats mean you have three baskets, each filled with 20 reps of air squats.

What is the ideal number of exercises per workout?

Jan 01, 2022 · Footnotes ( returns to text) More specifically, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) recommends executing more than 12 reps and having a rest interval in-between sets of 30-seconds or less for muscular endurance. Additionally, you want to focus on a load of 67% or less of your one-rep max (1RM).

How many reps before you increase weight?

Aug 25, 2015 · 1. Training for Muscle Size (Hypertrophy) If you're training for muscle size, choose a weight at which you reach muscle failure in the 8-12-rep range. In other words, after your warm-up sets—which are never taken to failure—you should select a load with which you can complete at least 8 reps but not more than 12.

How many exercises, sets, and reps should I do?

Feb 17, 2022 · According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), a good range for those new to training or interested in general fitness is 12-20 reps per set. Movements during exercises should be slower, and the weights will be lighter than lower-rep workouts.

How many reps should I do per workout?

No matter how many reps you're completing per set, most fitness experts recommend performing between two and six sets for each exercise. Anything below two sets may not challenge you enough; anything over six sets could lead to overworked muscles.

How many reps should you do in one session?

Allowing your body at least 1 day to recover between each full-body workout is key, so three sessions per week is a good baseline to start with. Within these workouts, you'll choose one exercise for each muscle group — back, chest, shoulders, legs, core — and, as a beginner, aim for 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps.Oct 1, 2020

Is 5 sets per exercise too much?

People who did 5 sets gained more strength on almost every exercise than everyone else. People who did 3 sets gained more muscle than people who did 1 set or body weight training only. People who did 3 sets gained more strength than people who did 1 set or body weight training only.

Is 3 sets of 20 reps good?

So, How Many Reps to Build Muscle? Doing around 6–20 reps per set is usually best for building muscle, with some experts going as wide as 5–30 or even 4–40 reps per set. For bigger lifts, 6–10 reps often works best. For smaller lifts, 12–20 reps often works better.Oct 28, 2021

Is 4 sets of 8 reps good?

Intermediate lifters with more muscle mass need more volume to keep growing. Four sets of eight reps allows for heavier loads to add mechanical stress, while stopping one rep shy of failure adds a solid amount of metabolic stress to force muscle growth.Jun 26, 2014

Is 3 sets enough to build muscle?

Are 3 sets of exercises enough for building muscle? Building muscle, or hypertrophy, requires a greater training volume than just three sets. If you have some training experience and you are looking to build muscle, you would do 3 to 6 sets of each exercise and you would aim for two exercises per body part.Feb 15, 2022

Should I increase reps or sets?

VeryWell Fit reports that the American College of Sports Medicine recommends higher reps (10-15) per set with lighter weights to support muscle maintenance and 8-12 reps per set with moderate weights to build strength.Sep 9, 2021

Is 5 sets of 12 reps good?

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength. Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size. Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.Jan 1, 2022

How many reps and sets should I do to build muscle?

Choose Your Reps and Sets In general: For fat loss: One to 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps using enough weight that you can only complete the desired reps. To gain muscle: Three or more sets of 6 to 8 reps to fatigue. For beginners, give yourself several weeks of conditioning before going to this level.Mar 19, 2020

Why is 8/12 reps the best?

It turns out that 8-12 reps is actually good advice. It sits in the Goldilocks Zone of reps and loading, it's time efficient in that it can maximize the number of tough reps per set, it's energy efficient in that it doesn't require too many reps to stimulate hypertrophy, or involve loads that are unnecessarily heavy.

Does 15 reps build muscle?

Your Optimal Set and Rep Range The weight you lift varies by exercise but performing each exercise at a higher set and rep range, like five sets of 15 reps, is one method to build muscle. Note: The weight you lift per rep will likely decrease at this high range of repetitions.Jul 22, 2019

How many sets is too much for a workout?

He took a deeper look into the previous meta-analysis I mentioned and found that limit to be roughly 10 sets per muscle group. So for example, on your chest day, performing over 10 hard sets dedicated to your chest will likely just begin to provide diminishing returns and start to impair your recovery.May 17, 2019

What should the weight you choose along your strength curve correspond to?

The weight you choose along your strength curve should correspond to the number of reps you want to achieve, which matches your training goals. In that sense, your workouts should never be random, where you just grab any old weight; there is a best weight and optimal number of reps you should be doing.

How to improve muscular endurance?

Train like an endurance athlete: Most endurance sports aren't gym-based, so it's hard to duplicate their motions with weights. Low-weight/high-rep lower-body multijoint exercises and even Olympic lifts can be done to improve muscular endurance, so long as form is never compromised in an effort to keep a set going.

What is a true set?

A true set is one in which you fail—the point at which you can't do another rep with good form on your own— within the target rep range of 8-12. If you can easily do more than 12, add weight on your next set so that you're failing in the target range.

Does aerobic training increase endurance?

This type of training enhances the muscle's endurance without necessarily increasing the size of the muscle. Highly trained aerobic athletes can do lots of reps for long periods of time without fatiguing, but you won't typically see a sprinter's body on a marathon runner.

Is it hard to train smart?

Training hard is easy, but training smart gets you closer to your goals. For example, let's say you want to build muscle. You can choose a light weight and rep it 50-60 times, or grab a heavier weight and push it maybe 10 times. Both examples are hard, but one method is superior for building muscle. Effort is important, but it has ...

How Many Exercises Should I Do Per Workout?

When it comes to exercise selection, a lot of people think that more is better. After all, exercises are good for you, so more must mean better results, right? However, it’s entirely possible to have too much of a good thing, and that includes exercises per workout.

How Many Sets Should I Do Per Exercise Workout?

In general, the more exercises you have in your workout session, the fewer sets you’ll be able to do. For example, if you are planning on doing nothing but deadlifts, you might do as many as eight or ten sets of that one lift.

How Many Reps Should I Do Per Set?

The number of reps you do per set should match your training goal. Unlike the number of exercises or sets per workout, there are actually some guidelines to help you determine the right rep range to use.

How Many Workouts Per Week?

Your ideal number of workouts per week very much depends on what you can commit to and do consistently. For example, while a six-days per week bodybuilding program might be ideal for sculpting massive muscles, it would be pointless to start such a frequent workout plan if you can only reliably train twice a week.

How Many Sets And Reps Should I Do Per Exercise?

Simple. You should do exactly enough to allow you to fall within the optimal volume range for each muscle group.

The Most Common Set And Rep Combinations For An Exercise

Below are the most commonly used and prescribed combinations of sets and reps you could do per exercise along with the total amount of volume each one produces.

How To Put This Information Into Action

Alright, so you now know the most popular and proven combinations of sets and reps that can be used for an exercise.

NEW: Need A Home Workout?

Are you working out at home with nothing but some resistance bands, or a few dumbbells, or just your own body weight?

How many sets of reps for strength?

There are 3 main set and rep ranges. Strength. Hypertrophy. Endurance. For strength, you typically do 3-5 sets of 3-6 reps with heavier weight. For hypertrophy, you typically do 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps with moderate weight. For endurance, you typically do 2-4 sets of 15-20 reps with lighter weight.

What is rep set?

When you bend your knees, squat down, and stand back up one, that is one rep. A set is group of those repetitions put together without stopping. Let’s say you do 8 repetitions of a squat in a row without taking any break.