Building muscle is not an easy task. It can take months, or even years, before you notice a change in your muscle size or definition.
Getting rid of unwanted fat around the muscle can be achieved by eating a healthy diet, along with performing fat-burning exercises. Increasing muscle size can be achieved by lifting heavy weights and changing your routines in number patterns (sets and repetitions). Sets and reps provide structure and organization to your workout.
Once you create a workout plan, you should stick to it for at least six to eight weeks, while increasing your weight when you feel ready to do so. If the weight is still a bit too heavy for you to complete every rep in the chosen set, you aren’t ready to increase. After the six to eight weeks, you can change your workout routine if you notice a lack of results.
Try different exercises that you haven’t done in a while or that you’ve never done before. Changing up the number of sets and reps can break you out of that plateau as well.
The number of reps should be varied often, as repetitions are the main key toward progression.
One to five reps
Although extremely challenging, this range is the quickest way to produce muscle strength. Using a light weight in this range will not produce results — you will lift a certain amount of weight no more than five times, because you can’t lift it more than five times. This means you have reached failure and muscle fatigue, which is when you will see growth occur.
You will have to experiment to find out what the maximum amount of weight you can work with is to see where to start. That means that you should not attempt this until you have perfect form.
Ask a trainer to spot you. They can also help you with a forced rep, which is where they provide just enough assistance to help you get through your last rep in a set.
Six to eight reps
This is also a muscle-producing range that will show gains. When you need a change from the one-to-five range, come here.
Nine to 12 reps
Body composition changes, such as the burning of body fat, weight loss and toning, happen quickly. This is also a good place to come when the previously mentioned ranges need a change.
Thirteen or more reps
High rep ranges like this can most definitely produce change.
This is not just a place for beginners to start, but also for experienced athletes to dabble in.
About sets
A set is the number of times in which you will repeat the exercise sequence for a specific number of reps. For example: John did three sets of 10 squats. Ten is the number of reps performed three times for a total of 30 repetitions.
You can stop between sets and take a break, or simply stop for a brief moment before the next set, depending on your muscular endurance.
As with reps, varying your numbers of sets is just as important. The more reps you do, the fewer sets you do. Some good guidelines:
One to five reps: four to six sets
Six to eight reps: three to five sets
Nine to 12 reps: three to four sets
Thirteen or more reps: two to three sets
Les Mills BodyPump is a barbell class I teach at the YMCA, and it is performed with 80 to 100 reps per muscle group. We call it the “rep effect,” because it creates long, lean muscles and a strong, toned physique. It exhausts muscles, using light-to-moderate weights, while performing a very high number of repetitions.
By the time you finish a BodyPump class, you will have performed over 800 reps: more than four times what a person can achieve when training alone.
Using super-heavy weight in this range will lead to overtraining, or injury.
Heather Dykstra is an AFAA-certified personal trainer and has been a group fitness instructor for over 13 years. She is currently involved with the Plant City Family YMCA.