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Stop Counting Reps (I'M BEGGING YOU)

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Rating: 4.5; Vote: 2

When it comes to working out and building muscle, I need you to stop counting reps. In this video, I am going to explain why counting the number of reps you are doing, as well as your rep range goals, is counterintuitive to the gains that you are seeking. There is something that you should be doing instead that will help you to get the most out of every workout that you do. By targeting a specific number of reps, you are setting yourself up for subpar results and lower quality repetitions. So, instead of thinking how many reps you are going to do to build muscle, I want you to think about generalities; in general I can pick up a weight that is heavy enough to fall in the 1-7 rep range. The next rep range requires a moderate weight that falls within 8-14. A lighter weight would have me looking for 15-30 repetitions. The last number of reps, above 30 reps, requires a super light weight. Every single one of these ranges will build muscle. In the lowest rep range, the benefit that I get is that there is extremely high tension which means that I do not have to go to absolute failure. I can increase muscle growth thanks to that tension. As your rep range increases, failure is even more important as tension starts to go down. Failure is defined as not being able to perform a rep of an exercise in good form. That means, if you were performing a curl; you are not doing what looks like a good morning in order to swing the weight up. In terms of getting to a specific rep number, our body often self-corrects. If we achieve a difficult rep lower than the number goal, then we start to shortchange or cheat our next reps until we reach that last number. By doing this, you are leaving gains on the table. Instead of performing effective receptions throughout the entirety of the set, you are limiting the number of them that you are doing. If I chose a weight that causes me to fail absolutely in the rep range that I am looking for, we know that the overload for growth is going to occur in the last 3 or so reps. However, when it comes to effective reps in these ranges, it doesn t mean that the early reps can t be effective too. In fact, these can be extremely effective if you a performing each rep with good intention to create a more solid mind-muscle-connection. By establishing a better mind-muscle-connection, you can better perform the later reps for overload. When you are trying to get better at performing an exercise, that connection between the brain and the muscle in order to better feel the muscles that you are working. Not only that, but you will have a better feeling of what failure is and be able to utilize those last few reps to create the overload necessary for muscle growth. So, don t think that the early reps are just throw away reps - use them to get better at the exercise so that you can better perform each repetition, especially as you get closer and closer to failure. This will make those last, effective reps, even more effective. Again, it is extremely important to think about these rep ranges as generalities. Instead of focusing on a specific number, a mindset that will leave you with subpar results, you want to focus on the intention of each rep. When I head into my workouts, I don t look for the reps that I am doing; I am looking to reach a range based on the weight I am choosing and taking it to failure. I mentioned earlier that you can still build muscle in the rep range above 30 repetitions. With such light weight, the tension is extremely low as well. In this case, you need to incur a large amount of volume. With low intensity, volume is important to build muscle. It doesn t matter what rep range you choose to work towards, you can still build muscle. The important aspect of each one, however, is to make sure that you are putting in a high level of effort into each repetition. I ve always said to stop counting reps, but make the reps count. With high intention comes the most muscle gains as you create a greater mind-muscle-connection with your earlier reps and a tension overload in the later reps of the range you are working within.
Date: 2022-10-30

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Comments and reviews: 13

Muscle
I love it when people try to say that the best thing to do is to leave enough in the tank to do the goal number of reps for the next set. Why does it matter? The fact of the matter is that traditional progressive overload for muscle growth has been completely debunked. You can literally do 30 reps for every set, and progress by upping the weight to your new 30RM.
That being said, there's a reason why moderate ranges still rule. It's literally the best range for both muscle growth and strength gains. You can still feel the muscles working without compromising form, and you are taking the muscles to true failure without the burden of lactic acid locking your muscles up first. 6-12 is my bread and butter just for that reason.
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vukcan
Hi athlean-x
Can you please make a detailed video about hypertrophy vs strength training. There are some information about these out there but I want to understand the science behind it. According to what I read with strength training you will get bigger muscles and with hypertrophy you will get better definition but this kind of does not make any sense for me.
Do these trainings hit different types of fibers?
Also, thanks for the great info you keep sharing with us
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Scott
The idea is to aim for a rep range until you can surpass it, then you know that you need to up the weight. I aim for 8 - 12 reps and train to failure. Once I hit 13 reps I know the weight has to go up. It's very simple to follow this style of training and it makes tracking progession simple too. It's disappointing to see Jeff making these types of videos as it's going to be confusing to beginners. The basics work, please stop trying to convince people that they don't.
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Ifa
All my accessories lifts I do 2 sets of 15 reps. On my second set if I can get more reps without my form breaking down I push to failure. I've been able to increase on all my those lifts significantly. On the 3 main lifts I'm using Jesse's phase to, the 5/1/5/1/5/1. At 160lbs be my deadlift is up to 435. Stay with a program for a while and push harder than last time and you will see gains.
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ATHLEAN-X
FAST ACTION Q&A - Leave your most burning question about this video or any other training, PT or nutrition question within the first 2 hours of this video s release (AS A SEPARATE COMMENT) and I will pick 8 to get a detailed reply from me right here in the comments. Answers will be posted within the first 24-48 hours of you leaving the question. Good luck!
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LEE
if i don't count them how am I meant to track my progress, sure sometimes when i'm burning the muscle out i won't count, but still if i don't count have can i log it, and see my progress while i agree that feeling is more important than the number, the number still matter and this idea of mindlessly going though the notion isn't a great way to track progress
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John
I m a trainer and been counting reps for over 40 years. I ve tried not counting reps, especially during my workouts but now it s automatic. If I look at someone else in the gym, I automatically count his reps without even realizing I m doing it at first. I will continue trying but I m not sure how successful I ll be. It s crazy I know.
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Ryno
Is it a good idea to do the following? Say it is bicep curls: I start with say 30 lbs. I can do e. g. 5 reps, then I use 20 lbs and can do e. g. 3 reps, and I end with 10 lbs and can do only 2 reps. So I reach failure 3 times, each time with a lighter weight. It really burns like hell, but want to know if this is a good idea?
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Kartavian
I have been ranging from 15 to 30 reps, increasing as I gain until I hit 30 and then raise the weight and drop back down. Not always 100 % to failure, especially with military press which is over my head, also failure to me is dropping the weights. But I am building for stamina, not strength and I will 40 in March so.
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Heath
The gym I instruct at typically uses a lot of high rep resistance band strength training exercises. It's common for people to still hold their band by the end. I've started talking about how it's the last 5 reps before muscle failure is the most important, so if they never drop, most likely they never found those 5 reps.
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Daniel
I have been training with bands for the last five months. I guess that they could be considered light resistance compared to weights. I can tell that my gains, especially postural nature, have been amazing. I have been gaining control over a lot of movement patterns through lighter resistance. Thank you Jeff.
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PUFFINGONCLOUDS
Hey Jeff, diabetes runs in my family so I'm scared of eating too many carbs. Is it a good idea to eat just half protein like eggs and meat, and half vegetables? And what is the least number of different vegetables that I can get away with eating. I eat mostly broccoli and brussel sprouts.
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fadingship
but shouldnt we record the num of reps and weights so that we can know what we did in the session before and push ourselves harder than that? And if we cant or even regress, we know that we are regressing and have to fix something, like nutrition/rest etc. And that requires counting?
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