How many Repetitions for an Exercise?
When designing any program it is important to decide how many repetitions are needed for each exercise. To get this number you first need to understand what your goals are. When you know what you want to achieve then you can start designing a bespoke program that will really help you reach those goals.
Remember that there are always exceptions to the rule and there are training techniques that do not follow the protocol that I will share with you. These are very simple guidelines that have a proven track record of getting my clients the results they want.
Basic Rules
Here is a table covering the three main goals that people desire and how many repetitions should be completed to achieve this.
| Strength | 1-8 reps |
| Muscle Gain | 8-14 reps |
| Fat Loss | 15+ reps |
With exercise there is never an obvious program but if you want to get the best out of your body it does make sense to do a combination of these three exercise types. It should be noted that every exercise affects all three objectives. For example, the fat loss rep level also increases your strength and muscle size and strength training also increases muscle size and encourages fat loss.
Why these repetitions?
It is all to do with energy systems of the body. I am not going to go into huge detail (Oh, good – Beeble) but lower reps are an anaerobic exercise. This means that oxygen is not used in the energy process and it also means that a very small percentage of body fat is used during the exercise. When you get up to around 15 reps and more, your body needs to use oxygen in the energy process and this is called aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise uses a larger percentage of body fat to help with the energy supply. There is also another reason and that is the type of muscle fibre you use.
Muscle fibre
For the strength-based training you use fast twitch muscle fibres and with fat loss training you use more slow twitch fibres. Fast twitch fibres are very powerful but can only be used in short bursts. A good example of this is a sprinter. They have trained their muscles to be very powerful and they are able to contract and extend at incredible speeds releasing huge amounts of energy.
Slow twitch fibres are nowhere near as powerful but their forte is that they can repeat a movement many many times. A good example of this is a long distance runner. Their speeds are significantly slower than a sprinter’s but they can maintain that movement for a long period of time. You may also notice a difference in these two types of runners’ physiques. As a general rule of thumb the sprinter is very muscular with large muscles whereas the long distance runner whilst still very muscular is a lot more sinewy.
Applying this to your goal setting
Understanding this helps you to picture where you want your goal to be. If you want to be the next body building champion then there would be no point in completing 15 reps of an exercise as you would be focusing on slow twitch fibres which won’t give the muscle growth you desire. On the other hand if you would like to have a nice svelte trim body more in line with our long distance runners then there is no point in going for 12 reps or less.
Weight selection
A common misconception is that because your reps have gone up the weight should therefore be really light. This is wrong – of course the weight should come down but it shouldn’t be so light that you can’t feel your body working. It doesn’t matter if you are going for strength training or fat loss, the weight you choose should still make you work for it. We have written a post on repetitions and weight selection that you can read here. When you pick a weight the right weight will be the one that pushes you, but you are able to keep good technique throughout and at the end of your reps you could probably do one more but that would be it.
Summary
Of course there are always exceptions to the rules, but if you follow these basic ones on repetitions then it will help you get the goals you have set for yourself. Good luck with your training and if you have any questions on this topic or others then please leave a comment at the bottom of this post.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
thanks, that was that very informative. i can lift about 12 kilos on each arm, i can do 10 reps at a time, is that ok? i have lung fibrosis so i have to take time to recover between reps, i had problems when i started exercise but i know what i can do now. i lost weight and my body is more toned.
May 21st, 2009 at 10:21 am
Hi Fred,
Yes that is absolutely fine and a good weight. Always listen to your body, if you need to take more rest between sets then you do that. I am so pleased that exercise has helped you get into shape, keep up the good work
May 28th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Useful info but not quite complete. Where do sets come in? How many sets is optimal and with how much rest in between. I have a nephew who, by virtue of toned body results, I consider fairly expert, and he told me that WHATEVER one does, for max benefit it should be in two or three sets. So quite recently I switched to sets, and with a 25-30 sec break (5 deep breaths) between sets, managed to increase total reps by 25% (30 to 3×13) initially, and am shooting for 3×15=45, which would be an increase of 50% over my one-set max of 30, which was just about 2-3 reps short of failure. My goal, to lose xs fat and then remain a fit 70. Am I on the right track in terms of sets and reps?
May 28th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Thanks for your question and whilst I am sure you feel that my post was not complete I can assure you that it was complete for the topic I was discussing which was repetitions. Whilst there is a very close link between reps and sets there is also a close link with reps and a thousand and one other fitness related topics and unfortunately, as much as I would like to, I cannot make every post perfect for every reader.
There are no set rules for the amount of sets you should be doing, whilst your nephew says 3 is the optimum there are people I know including myself that will complete 5 sets and others that will go as far as 20+. Science has proven that for every set you do the effect is reduced when compared to the preceding set therefore there are some in the industry that say there is no point in doing more than one set per muscle group as long as you fatigue the muscle. Personally I disagree and say there is no set rule for anyone person and the best route forwards is variety. As you are use to only 1 set then taking it to 3 sets will give you real benefits, however maintaining 3 sets from now till the end of time will not be the best use of time and the benefits will greatly reduce as time progresses.
So to answer your first question; yes you are definitely on the right track for your goals and the rest time is perfect for now but remember only stick to a routine for a maximum of 2 months before you should change it all over again