There are no absolutes in this. In fact, these days I have been engaging in rep ranges that I initially thought were not ideal. But there is such a thing as effectivity. So let's go for that just go and edit the post topic with a pen and marker whenever you are ready.
I got fascinated by this topic when I read bigger leaner stronger about 5 years ago. Till now I have been a crusader for the information in the book.
In recent times I have had to involve myself in training and I was also helping a girl out at the gym and she asked what is the best rep range for women. This took me by surprise because most women are uninterested in weight training (because they think they will turn into the Hulk) and just want to do cardio.
So without further ado let's get into the science of the whole matter. Remember if you want to support my content, I am just a few clicks away at TikTok.
I could finish this whole post by simply quoting Bigger leaner Stonger by Micheal Matthews that the perfect rep range for men trying to get bigger leaner and stronger is 6 to 8 reps and for women, it's 10 to 12 but it's a little more complex than that. There is also the fact that new articles on the topic are coming out every single day so we have no real way of knowing for sure until we do a little reading for ourselves.
The science behind all this
This is not to say that the rest of the stuff I have to tell you is all junk from here on in but I'll mostly be stating facts and proving them to be true with experiments.
It is important to note that men and women are different and get different results from a good workout. This is related to hormone levels, recovery rates, and lifestyle differences- men being more involved with manual labour.
The first fact is that we know that progressive overload is key. That is, if you are going to make any gains then your next week has to have more volume than this week and this week should be better than last week. In fact, I know some bodybuilders who don't focus on sleep, nutrition, best rep range, or any of that and just pounce on their muscles. They sleep the way they have been told by other fitness enthusiasts and they eat 3 to 6 eggs daily.
All they do is go to the gym finish a program that makes them feel shittier than they did last week and repeat and the results are awesome (they get better) and that's what we all want.
So that is that. I have written multiple times about the importance of sleep and nutrition. By now if you don't know you should get enough sleep for your workout then you should read my post that also touches on why people aren't getting enough sleep. I also have a post that we dive deep into protein sources that are cheap.
One additional aspect of all this is genetics. Genetics determines who will make the best result in the quickest time but does not say that you won't be able to make any results. So while genetics means that there is an increased chance that some people will do better than you at the gym it doesn't stop you from doing better than you did the last time.
Genetics accounts for 85% of muscle strength and mass and those traits are inheritable only about 30-50% of those traits are inheritable.
Sex is also derived genetically and plays a big part in the way people build muscles. The first part to consider men and women is the fact that men have more total muscle mass with or without body size consideration.
While still considering sex, women tend to have more strength gains per muscle mass when compared to men with a study showing an 11.6% rise in men and an 11.7% rise in women. So, in terms of results, it's more encourageable for women to be out there pounding all that weight. There is also some proof that after 195 miles women run 0.5% faster than men.The differences in these features have been attributed to hormonal differences between men and women. Testosterone accounts for the mass seen in men and estrogen in the endurance seen in women.
What do the studies say
I'm so happy that I caught on this early enough while learning to be a fitness trainer. There are so many schools of thought available about this topic that it has become somewhat tiring to keep up.
All while I've been trying to build muscle, I've been using the science I saw from bigger leaner stronger. The book says 4-6 reps, 3-9 sets depending on if it's the main compound exercise or just an isolation exercise.
According to the scholars at McMasters University, all this is pretty much junk. Their research came to the conclusion that even if you lift light with reps of up to 20 to 30 repetitions you would build muscle and strength. The key phrase in the last sentence is "even if". For years as a gym bro, I've been arguing for a science that McMasters wouldn't endorse.
It is really sad that they did not add the method of their study but we can trust that Mc Masters standard would have been put into place.
Thankfully, another study done by Havard stands close to what Bigger Leaner Stronger suggests but this study made emphases on older men. The study suggested that older men should try to keep their repetition to around 8 reps in each set.
A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods by Michal Krzysztofik et al suggested that training till failure was the best for bigger results.
A systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis explained from their study that more sets were key for the best results as opposed to repetitions.
Take this home to your grandma for me
All the recent studies have different suggestions on what is most important and some of their suggestions are very specific for a particular group (like the Havard Study). But what works well, is what works well.
I am glad I worked on this project and got to see everything for myself. I initially started this post with the title "Best Rep ranges for Men and for Women". I am glad I could get more out of writing this than I was able to put in.
So get out there, do your thing, and don't let anybody stop you even if the person trying to stop you is you. Peace!
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