If you've ever wondered how to build muscle in the gym you have probably also asked yourself how many reps you need to do to get best muscle gain results. Today we are going to answer that question for you.
Firstly, while you may feel like you are the only person who is lost with regards to your training you certainly are not. In fact, you probably aren't even the only one at your gym in this situation, never mind the entire world. As a fitness instructor I meet hundreds of people per week who need help, so don't for one second think you are by yourself. Today you'll learn some progress producing facts.
The reason most men get a bit lost with fitness is they're training for two different goals simultaneously. Whereas the majority of girls just want to shed fat, guys want to build while losing unwanted fat.
The human body only changes when it is forced into it. If you are not doing that, not progressing in your workouts, your body won't change. Why? Because it doesn't have to! How many people do you see in your gym who have been doing the exact same thing for months and don't seem to be getting any results? Quite a few, I imagine, because this is a common issue which most people never address properly. Your body adapts to your workout. Even though you're working hard, your body knows it can handle it. Why? Because you probably did the same thing last week and it can remember. To get change you need to force change.
Depending on what results you are aiming for, one of the following two rep ranges will be suitable for you:
* Muscular growth or hypertrophy.
* Endurance.
So given the fact you're reading an article on how to gain muscle we already know that you're mainly here because you want to learn how to pack on head-turning size. This tells us you need to be primarily focusing on hitting the muscular growth zone, which means you should be trying to land each set between the eight and twelve rep mark.
If you were to continue pushing you reps, say, into the 15-20 zone, you would find yourself in the muscular endurance category. This would help you to tone up and really build up the stamina of whichever muscle you were training but it wouldn't work as effectively as the hypertrophy zone if your goal is pure size.
Most people can openly tell you what they want to achieve in the gym, what type of body they are striving for, but for some reason that's as far as it goes. They never actually tailor their workout plan to be specific to that goal. Now you know what you are doing, you will begin to notice this all the time in your local fitness center.
So you now know that the rules with weights have nothing to do with the popular gym mythologies out there. You know the ones we're talking about, right? Things such as 'high reps are just for women'. High reps are for those looking to build muscular endurance, regardless of your sex.
None of this information will do you any good of course unless you remember the golden rule of weight training. Some people call it progression, others call it overload. Basically, you need to force change from your body as we mentioned before. If you keep on doing the same thing your body will adapt and then simply stay in the same place.
The rep range we brought your attention to is a good way to do this. Many people ask us how much weight they should be using on a particular exercise and your rep range will determine this for you. For hypertrophy, find a weight which forces you to quit at around eight reps and then keep working with that weight until you get stronger. Once you can manage twelve reps at that level it's time to increase the resistance, forcing yourself back down to eight reps at a slightly heavier level and beginning the cycle again.
You will now find results far easier to come by. It might seem rather simple, given the amount of confusion in the health and fitness industry in general, but these facts are proven and backed up by decades of scientific research. Learning how to build muscle is simple, but most people never figure it out. You now have!
Firstly, while you may feel like you are the only person who is lost with regards to your training you certainly are not. In fact, you probably aren't even the only one at your gym in this situation, never mind the entire world. As a fitness instructor I meet hundreds of people per week who need help, so don't for one second think you are by yourself. Today you'll learn some progress producing facts.
If you don't know how to build muscle today's interview will assist you a lot.
The reason most men get a bit lost with fitness is they're training for two different goals simultaneously. Whereas the majority of girls just want to shed fat, guys want to build while losing unwanted fat.
The human body only changes when it is forced into it. If you are not doing that, not progressing in your workouts, your body won't change. Why? Because it doesn't have to! How many people do you see in your gym who have been doing the exact same thing for months and don't seem to be getting any results? Quite a few, I imagine, because this is a common issue which most people never address properly. Your body adapts to your workout. Even though you're working hard, your body knows it can handle it. Why? Because you probably did the same thing last week and it can remember. To get change you need to force change.
Depending on what results you are aiming for, one of the following two rep ranges will be suitable for you:
* Muscular growth or hypertrophy.
* Endurance.
So given the fact you're reading an article on how to gain muscle we already know that you're mainly here because you want to learn how to pack on head-turning size. This tells us you need to be primarily focusing on hitting the muscular growth zone, which means you should be trying to land each set between the eight and twelve rep mark.
If you were to continue pushing you reps, say, into the 15-20 zone, you would find yourself in the muscular endurance category. This would help you to tone up and really build up the stamina of whichever muscle you were training but it wouldn't work as effectively as the hypertrophy zone if your goal is pure size.
Most people can openly tell you what they want to achieve in the gym, what type of body they are striving for, but for some reason that's as far as it goes. They never actually tailor their workout plan to be specific to that goal. Now you know what you are doing, you will begin to notice this all the time in your local fitness center.
So you now know that the rules with weights have nothing to do with the popular gym mythologies out there. You know the ones we're talking about, right? Things such as 'high reps are just for women'. High reps are for those looking to build muscular endurance, regardless of your sex.
None of this information will do you any good of course unless you remember the golden rule of weight training. Some people call it progression, others call it overload. Basically, you need to force change from your body as we mentioned before. If you keep on doing the same thing your body will adapt and then simply stay in the same place.
The rep range we brought your attention to is a good way to do this. Many people ask us how much weight they should be using on a particular exercise and your rep range will determine this for you. For hypertrophy, find a weight which forces you to quit at around eight reps and then keep working with that weight until you get stronger. Once you can manage twelve reps at that level it's time to increase the resistance, forcing yourself back down to eight reps at a slightly heavier level and beginning the cycle again.
You will now find results far easier to come by. It might seem rather simple, given the amount of confusion in the health and fitness industry in general, but these facts are proven and backed up by decades of scientific research. Learning how to build muscle is simple, but most people never figure it out. You now have!
About the Author:
About the author: Russ Howe PTI is England's most subscribed Personal Trainer. Learn how to build muscle with our free video walkthrough teaching the five principles to a more muscular body.
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