Weight vs rep

chapiano

What is better, high weight low rep, low weight high rep or a combination of both?

For someone who is just doing basic strength training rather than looking for gains.

LazSommer

never do 6 or 7, nothing will happen bud

Gallowmere1984

For compounds, I tend to go 90-95% for singles, after I get through my warmups. However, I also keep rest periods pretty short (30 seconds or less). Always worked better for me than wasting a bunch of time on easy reps.

However, on accessory work, I'll go ahead and get into the five rep range, just because for a lot of accessory movements, it's going to be hard to find a weight that you can move for a single, and have it be challenging, without slopping the hell out of everything, or risking busting your *kitten* up (skullcrushers for example).

singingflutelady

For strength high weight low rep

Gallowmere1984

Also, it's going to depend upon one's definition of "stronger". If you could bench 185 for one last week, but now you can bench 225 for one, did you get stronger? Yeap. At the same time, if you could bench 185 for five last week, but you can push it to eight or ten this time, did you get stronger? Absolutely.

jemhh

I like doing 3 reps for my main compound of the day and 6-8 for follow up compounds (but sometimes I'll go up to 12.) Then more for isolation work. For some reason I loathe sets of 5 (and thus would never do SL5x5.)

This is a good article. It's about hypertrophy for the main part but does include this info and chart:

Now, before jumping in, I will note that the assumptions about lower reps/higher weights building more strength and higher rep/lower weights building more strength endurance have largely been validated. You can still gain strength with light weights/high reps and moderate weight/moderate reps, but strength gains are generally better with heavy, low-rep training. Conversely, you can build absolute muscular endurance (how many times you can move a set load, regardless of your 1rm) with low rep and moderate rep training, but you can build a lot more with high rep training, and high rep training is generally the only way to improve relative muscular endurance (how many times you can lift a certain percentage of your 1rm).

CincyNeid

I typically do lower weight higher rep in my core, back, chest arms. And do a mixture of high weight low rep, and low weight high rep on my legs.

piperdown44

Find a strength program like 531, Candito, or SL5x5 and follow it.

sgt1372

The chart posted previously says it all.

Low reps/hi wt for strength
Hi reps/low wt for endurance

Want both? Just go in between. Let the chart be your guide.

To get stronger, just raise the amount of weight lifted incrementally each session. For strength, increments are usually +5# but you can go lower (or higher) as need be. For endurance, you can just increase the reps at the same weight. For strength and endurance, you can do a combo of increasing weight and reps.

At some point, you will top out in weight and reps and then you'll need a different program to achieve further gains but that point should be at least a year off, if you're working out 3x's a week, longer if you are working out less frequently.

cwolfman13

It really depends on what you mean by "better"...different rep ranges are just going to train different things...I really like the picture that was posted above...

Personally, I work in meso-cycles in various rep ranges throughout the year. As a matter of general fitness I see no reason to "specialize" Also, my lifting is really more in support of my cycling so I usually only do heavy cycles in the winter...heavy cycles are no bueno for me during the cycling season.

cgvet37

Unless you have a specific goal, I believe in not sticking with one rep range. I may do 3 sets of 15 reps for a period of time. Then switch to 4 sets of 10 reps. Or 5 sets of 5 reps. I believe it's better for overall development. I don't think it's beneficial to have strength but no endurance, and vise versa. Find what works for your goals.

Hornsby

Honestly, I do all rep ranges up to about 20. Certain exercises are easier to isolate with lighter weights. Some lifts feel better in the 3-5 range. Some feel good in the 8-12. Some feel good no matter the rep range. I do the lifts and the weight that I can isolate the muscle I'm training.

DiIDE

The experts all seam to say. To gaini muscle high weight lose reps and work to fatigue muscles. For toning high reps low weights. It all depends on what you want to achieve. I am trying to gain muscle and lose fat so have been told low reps high weights.

Willbenchforcupcakes

In terms of preference, I like my compounds in the 1-3 rep range and my accessory work in the 8-10 rep range. In terms of what I do, it's whatever my programmer tells me to do.