Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer for the
seemingly age-old question: How many reps
should I be doing? There are many factors that come into play
when determining the best number to aim for during a workout. It
is necessary to take into consideration what the goal is: is the
athlete most concerned with wanting to lose belly fat,
or is he or she looking for the ideal bicep workout? In any
sense, the number is bound to vary.
One thing that should be taken into consideration when deciding
how many reps a person should do is how new they are to
the workout. Going too high with the poundage of the weights
could cause the muscles to strain and a person could end up with
a serious injury. On the other hand, it is also dangerous if a
new athlete tries to overdo it on the number of repetitions. A
new weight lifting program should be taken easy
so the person can decide what feels comfortable.
Then, the athlete should establish a goal. For example, some
people start doing weight lifting exercises because
they want to build large amounts of muscle. This goal determines
how many reps the person should be doing. Ideally, to
build the largest amount of muscle mass quickly, a person should
partake in heavy weight lifting to build muscle
with low repetitions. He or she should use the highest poundage
that can be managed while still doing three sets of five to
seven reps and maintain the ideal form for the workout.
How many reps one should use in order to simply
tone muscles and build strength slowly for everyday
activities will vary from muscle building. In these
weight training programs, the athlete should instead execute about
ten to twelve reps and a few sets of each. These should still be
done with semi-challenging amounts of weight, as lifting weight
that is so light it can hardly be felt does not help a person to
make progress. After each set, the athlete should feel a fair
amount of fatigue.
The amount of reps a person decides to do might vary from
workout to workout. He might want to do more reps in his bicep
exercise than during deadlifts, which is fine, as long as the
workout routine is challenging. Once weights and reps are
established, an athlete should always keep track of how much he
is exerting in order to make sure that he is moving up
regularly. It should not be difficult to increase the amount of
weight and do the same number of repetitions over time.
Knowing how many reps to do during
weightlifting exercises is extremely important, especially if a
person wants to make progress. However, it is all a matter of
whether you are trying to build or maintain muscle and what
types of workouts you are doing. In the end, this is going to
vary for everybody, so it is important to experiment and learn
what works best for different parts of the body and different
body types.
Read More about Weight Gain Guide