Why not just increase the number of sets?

Asked by: Sigurd Colton

Should I increase the number of reps?

Generally, exercises with higher reps are used to improve muscular endurance, while higher weights with fewer reps are used to increase muscle size and strength.

Should I increase reps every set?

Just do as many as you can, or go lighter to reach the number of reps you want. As you can see, this complete pyramid involves more sets, but the higher volume will help you build more muscle!

Do you increase sets or reps?

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.

Is more sets always better?

The bottom line is that doing more sets is better for gaining strength, muscle, and endurance up to a point, and your best bet for long-term gains is to gradually build your workout volume over time.

How many sets is too much?

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.

Do high reps build muscle?

More repetitions with lighter weights can build muscle as well as heavier weights — assuming they are done to the point of exercise-induced fatigue. And fatigue is the important point. That means even with light weight, the last two to three reps should be hard.

What happens if you keep lifting the same weights?

“When you train with the same weight week to week, over time, your body will adapt to the resistance, and you won’t see gains in muscular strength or hypertrophy [size],” says Jacque Crockford, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise.

Should I increase or decrease reps each set?

Increasing each set until you reach your one-, two-, or three-rep max may provide another benefit if you do it once in a while — it can help you know your real “percentage of one-rep max” for designing your sets.

Is 4 sets of 10 reps too much?

4 sets x 10 reps = 40 reps



Moderate to low intensity. Most ideal for building muscle, but also suited for endurance.

Is it better to do more sets or more exercises?

However, after over a decade of lifting and 5 years of coaching, I’ve generally come to believe that fewer exercises are better. There’s some scientific reasoning for this. In studies by James Krieger, it was found that more sets in a workout are generally associated with greater results in both size and strength.

Is 3 or 4 sets better for muscle growth?

If you’re trying to build muscle and get bigger, doing sets of 3 or sets of 5 or sets of 10 will ALL help you get bigger, if you’re eating enough to get bigger! If you’re trying to lose weight, it doesn’t matter if you do sets of 15 or sets of 5 if you are consistently overeating by 1,000 calories a day.

Should I do all my sets at once?

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.

Should I do more than 15 reps?

The best rep range for building muscle



Numerous research studies show that high-volume resistance training is the best method for building muscle. According to the American Council on Exercise, the eight to 15 rep range holds the most muscle-building potential.

Should I do more than 12 reps?

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.

Is 15 reps too high?

When training for muscular endurance you want to be in the 12-20 rep range, so 15 is a perfectly reasonable rep count. In contrast, 1-3 reps trains for strength, 3-5 trains better for power, and 6-10 trains better for mass.

Is 15 reps too much for hypertrophy?

The “hypertrophy range” of roughly 6-15 reps per set may produce slightly better results per unit of time invested than low rep and high rep work.

Are high reps a waste of time?

High-rep training has more cardiovascular impact than lower-rep work, and it also burns more calories (probably not per unit of time, but because high-rep sets keep you working for longer durations).

When should I stop doing reps?

So, when training for strength you should stop these exercises 1-2 reps short of failure. When training for size, stop 1-2 reps short on all but the last set, on which you go to failure. For Levels 6 and 7, I recommend going to failure on all of your sets.