To Fail is to Grow
One of the biggest mistakes I see people doing is completing multiple sets and maxing out their rep range without breaking a sweat. These are the same people that will eventually tell me that they are not seeing the results they would like, which I reply to them saying “What did you expect?” After all, why would your body invest its resources building muscle if what you’re showing it is that you can already complete these tasks with ease?
What people must understand is that your body is inherently lazy, but not necessarily in a bad way. What I mean by this is that your body is selfish with its resources, only using them when needed. In today’s time, depending on where you live you are likely spoiled with the fact that you have food and access to resources at will. However, your body (or any other animal’s body) was not created with this in mind. The way the human body works is that it wants to complete any task at hand with as little energy as possible. Yes, your body is really cheap. But it is created this way to optimize survival in the real world.
Remember, we are at a place in society where our basic needs are almost always met, so we can focus on all the other social tasks. Your body will continue to operate the exact same way so long as all tasks are completed with ease and with no “danger” sensed that would require the body to adapt. If your body picks up a stimulus that may prove to be a danger or a risk to your survival it will adapt. How the body adapts to various stimuli is one of my favorite fascinations. It is really important to understand this when investing your time into health and exercise. So, now that you have a better sense of how the body thinks, let’s apply it to the main topic of this post: Rep Range and Progressive Overload.
Rep Range
For those that aren’t sure of what this is, it is the amount of “repetitions” performed for a particular exercise during a workout. It typically involves a range of repetitions, such as 8-12 reps, indicating that you should aim to perform between 8 and 12 repetitions of the exercise in each set. These rep ranges can vary depending on your fitness goals, with lower reps generally targeting strength, moderate reps for muscle hypertrophy (aka size), and higher reps for muscular endurance.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927075/
Regardless of which rep range you choose, the most critical component to all of this is that the last rep or two of any range MUST be difficult to complete. You should be struggling and shaking to complete those reps. That is how you send a stimulus to your body to say “Hey, we need to start investing our resources to these muscles because they are failing us!” You will have muscle growth in all ranges, but each range does focus on a separate component of your muscles. The lower ranges focus on the neuromuscular stimulation and peak strength, the moderate range focuses on growth and size, and the highest range focuses in on endurance. All of them are important, and a good exercise plan will incorporate all three of these rep ranges.
Strength Range:
When it comes to strength training the typical rep range can be anywhere from 1 to 6 repetitions per set. This range is commonly associated with heavy lifting to increase maximal strength output. Doing less reps with heavier weight also means focusing on solid form through each rep, and stimulating the neuromuscular system to adapt. You won’t see the largest amount of “size” from this, however, you are doing two things instead. You are teaching your body how to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible at once, and you are creating a stronger “base” layer of muscle. Let me tell you why this is extremely important.
Remember how I told you the body is inherently lazy and desires to complete tasks with minimal effort? Well, when you lift a weight do you think your body is recruiting 100% of its muscle fibers 100% of the time? That’s a rhetorical question, your body does not. Only in life or death situations will your body have enough adrenaline flowing through you to rip your own arm off as was done once by someone pinned under a rock. Typically, when exercising you are recruiting 45-55% of your maximal strength.
You start with the use of slow-twitch muscle fibers and then begin to recruit more fast-twitch muscle fibers as the level of stress and mechanical load increases. This is where the benefit of lifting heavy comes in. You consistently train your neuromuscular system to recruit more muscle fibers at once increasing the total amount of weight you can lift. This inevitably leads to a greater stimulus to grow those muscles as well. Over time, as noted in the article below, strength training shifts your muscle fibers towards having a greater percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibers mainly used in lifting and strength. The second article gives a short synopsis of how muscle fibers are not used at 100% of their total capacity, at least not at the start.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8473039/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17823300/
Additionally, now that you have taught your body to recruit more muscle fibers at once and increasing your total output, how do you think that will effect your performance in the other rep ranges? Well, it will actually increase the amount of weight you lift for each of those rep ranges, and more reps at greater weight means you can expect greater results, eventually packing on more size down the road if that is your goal. However, as I mentioned earlier, for you to see the best results you must ensure that the last rep or two of each range is significantly hard to complete. That is the key to stimulating your body to make a change.
Hypertrophy Range:
In regards to hypertrophy training, the typical range involves performing moderate to high repetitions, typically around 6-12 reps per set. This is the range that is most associated with muscle growth. Lifting weights within this rep range when done to failure, does an adequate job at inducing metabolic stress and muscle damage which are key factors towards muscle growth. Another benefit of this rep range is a concept known as “time under tension,” which refers to the total amount of time your muscles are exposed to a mechanical load and stress.
To exploit this concept effectively, what I’ll have my clients do is take a weight they think they can do 6-12 reps of. If they hit 12 reps, I would say the weight is likely too light for them. At this point you can do two things, either increase the weight, or increase the amount of time your muscle is exposed to that same weight. You’ll find that taking a few seconds longer with each rep will leave you completing less reps, increasing muscle breakdown, and creating a surge of stimulus for your muscles.
Using moderate weights allows for greater time under tension and thus increased hypertrophy when comparing to heavier weights. You can argue that using lighter weights means that you may perform more time under tension and although that may be true, you want time under tension to be of significant stress. Otherwise, everyone would be getting ripped off slowly repping 5 lb. weights by taking 10 seconds to do a rep. Not the most efficient.
Endurance Range:
The endurance exercise rep range typically involves higher repetitions, often ranging from 12-15 repetitions or ever higher per set. This range is commonly associated with improving muscular endurance, which is your muscles’ ability to perform repetitive contractions over an extended period without fatigue. Endurance training aims to enhance cardiovascular fitness, muscular stamina, and overall endurance capacity. It typically involves lighter weights, or bodyweight exercises performed at a higher number of repetitions to challenge the aerobic energy system.
This is the part of the training regimen that will introduce a different type of stimulus to the muscles known as a metabolic stress. This usually involves a build up of lactate around the muscles which is slightly acidic and causes that “burning” sensation when we lift. Lactate build up occurs when the oxygen in your muslces is consumed at a faster rate than it is delivered. When this occurs, your body begins to use the anaerobic pathway to generate energy. Anaerobic simply means “without oxygen” whereas “aerobic” means with oxygen. A majority of the energy generated within your muscles useses the aerobic pathway, however in those moments where we introduce greater than the usual amount of stress our body has to use alternative pathways. That stress causes your body to improve its oxygen delivery to those muscles in the form of angiogenesis (creation of new blood vessels) allowing you to tolerate more in the future. Being and feeling strong is great, but being able to use this strength for extended periods of time is even better.
For those of you that are not a fan of running as a form of cardio like me, this is also a great way to keep things a bit more interesting, challenge multiple muscle groups, and continue to stimulate your cardiovascular health through it all. Beyond this, you don’t need to treat this rep range overly different than the rest. You can still apply the time under tension principle and choose weights that make you fail before the last rep of your rep range. It includes the same principles only with lighter weight, and has a focus on a different component of your fitness health. With the weights being lighter you often have more room for error allowing for the introduction of more creative exercises as well.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is a fundamental principle based on the idea that for muscles to grow stronger, they must be subjected to stress beyond their current capacity. By progressively increasing the workload, muscles are forced to adapt by becoming stronger, more resilient, and better able to handle future stress. Otherwise, if you continue to perform at your current capacity you will reach a plateau, also known as the point where no further growth is occurring. A lack of progressive overload, and a lack of training to failure are two of the most important reasons why people fail to see progress at the gym!
When you push yourself to failure adequately along with proper nutrition you can expect the weight and/or rep range to improve every week or so. The good news is that you’re getting stronger, but the bad news (if you view it this way) means that you will have to continue to increase the weight and “stress” your body once more to convince it to adapt. For example, if you’re using the hypertrophy rep range and last week you did 10 out of 12 reps at 40 lbs for bicep curls, then perhaps the following week you will get 12 out of 12 at 40 lbs. However, that means you should increase the weight to 50 lbs and attempt to get 12 once more. If you fail before 12 reps, then continue to work up towards 12 again before increasing the weight, and so forth. Your gain in strength will slow down over time and it will take longer and longer to achieve higher numbers however that is a normal part of the process. I told you, your body is an adaptive machine and the longer you are in the game, the more creative you must become.
Some other less thought about benefits of progressive overload in exercise include:
1. Preventing Plateaus: Without progressive overload, the body can quickly adapt to a specific exercise routine, leading to plateaus in progress. By continually increasing the demands on the body, progressive overload helps to prevent plateaus and ensures ongoing improvements in fitness and performance.
2. Injury Prevention: Progressive overload allows for a gradual adaptation of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue to increased stress. This reduces the risk of overuse injuries that can occur when the body is subjected to sudden or excessive loads.
3. Enhanced Metabolism: Intense exercise sessions resulting from progressive overload can boost metabolism and calorie expenditure, aiding in weight management and fat loss goals. As you gain strength and size remember that your BMR increases as well!
Overall, progressive overload is a cornerstone principle in exercise programming, providing a systematic approach to achieving continuous improvements in strength, muscle size, and overall fitness. Any solid exercise regimen or plan created for you MUST include this principle. However, it's also essential to implement progressive overload gradually and safely, taking into account individual fitness levels, proper form, and recovery to avoid injury and maximize results.
My final advice to you is to always challenge your body when you show up to the gym. Show it a reason it must improve, and it will. Your mind will tell you to stop, telling you “that’s all you can do.” That is your brain telling you it is at the point of change. If you stop at that rep, your body could have actually done more, and it won’t make a change.* But, if you push forward with one more rep, even if you fail, you’ve succeeded in showing your body you can do better. Remember, it’s you vs you in there.
* - It goes without saying that if you are injured and experiencing pain then you should indeed take a rest
Takeaways:
Understand each rep range has a unique focus and impact on your fitness level
A lower rep range of 1-6 tends to focus more on strength and neuromuscular activation
A high rep range of 12-15 tends to focus on the endurance of the muscle, and cardiovascular health
A moderate rep range of 8-12 has blend of the previous two, offering enough stimulus and breakdown to increase size (hypertrophy), strength, and endurance. Though its effects wont be as profound as simply focusing on strength or endurance alone
A good fitness plan should include all three rep ranges. I style mine as a 3-month plan, with the first month being strength, then hypertrophy, followed by endurance. This is the basic layout and any adaptations are specific to each individual
Progressive overload is an absolute must in your exercise regimen. Continue to challenge your body and convince it that it must continue to adapt by showing it failure.
You can do more than your mind tells you. But stay safe, don’t compromise form, and do not push through pain. Be smart about it.