Fitness Together Brecksville: Trainer Tuesdays: What's the Difference Between Doing More Reps of an Exercise and Adding More Weight?

Trainer Tuesdays

Welcome back to the weekly edition on Trainer Tuesdays. Make sure to check in at our blog every Tuesday evening to learn the expertise of our great staff. Aside from being fantastic exercise coaches, they are also extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of health and fitness; so, it's time that you get to know them a little better! Each week, we will post a frequently asked, or sometimes just a fun fitness related question followed by the answers of each of the trainers at Fitness Together Brecksville.

What’s the Difference Between Doing More Reps of an Exercise and Adding More Weight?

Jenn Noggle: While there are a number of people who associate high reps with "toning", that is just a myth. A person achieves a "toned" look by having low body fat and a healthy amount of lean muscle mass. There is one main difference between low weights/high reps and high weight/low reps. Performing exercises at a higher rep range will be focusing mainly on improving muscular endurance. Higher weight with a lower rep range is working more on improving muscular strength.

Muscular endurance refers to the ability to perform a specific muscular action for a prolonged period of time. Muscular strength is a muscle’s capacity to exert force against resistance. There is a place for both types of training in the average person's overall routine and your trainer can help you determine exactly how to set up your program so that your workouts are both efficient and effective!

Taynee Pearson: Adding more weight when you weight train would help increase your muscular strength and would help you develop more muscle mass whereas increasing your reps would help build up your muscular endurance. Both are necessary when trying to get into shape and develop more muscle mass. To improve your muscular strength, reps of 8-12 should be performed for 3-4 sets of each exercise. Muscular endurance may be improved by doing reps of 12-20, and 3-4 sets of each exercise. Both are important and should be used in a training program to help you make the most gains from your workout

Steven Madden: When I am training a client, the amount of reps that I have them do on a particular exercise are not just chosen randomly to fill time. Weight and reps are always chosen with either an over all fitness goal in mind, or with a goal of the particular 4-6 week program we may be working in. There are three general goal categories that determine reps/weights, strength, endurance, and power. The long accepted standard for exercise has been 1-6 reps is the power range, 8-10 or 8-12 for strength and 12-15 or 12-20 for endurance. This of course requires appropriate weight. No mater what the rep range, you generally want a weight that has you straining to complete the last 3 reps of an exercise while still maintaining proper form.

So what do you do when that weight you've been lifting is getting easier? Do you do three more reps, or do you increase the weight? That all depends on your goals. If you are looking to visibly increase the size of your muscles or increase your overall strength, then increase the weight a little. If you are trying to tone your muscles or increase your muscular endurance, then add three more reps. Just make sure your goals are clear so you do not make a decision that might be counter to your wishes.

Kelly Bailey: The last time you were at the gym, you may have noticed that some people tend to lift lighter weights for a higher number of repetitions, while others are lifting very heavy weights for a low number of repetitions. The traditional and very simplified reason behind the difference is that lower weight and higher reps (15 or more) will tend to increase muscular endurance (typically associated with more fat loss), while lifting heavier weight with lower rep ranges (1-5 reps) will increase muscular strength. Rep ranges somewhere in the middle (6-12) will increase muscular hypertrophy or muscle growth. You can build muscle, increase strength, or lose fat with just about any rep range, but some rep ranges work better than others for each training outcome. In terms of safety and overall effectiveness for fat loss AND muscle building, the ideal rep range seems to be 8-15 reps, and you should be reaching muscular fatigue by the last few reps of your set.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Trainer Tuesdays: What's the Difference Between Doing More Reps of an Exercise and Adding More Weight?

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