Weight Training Tips and Articles

Switch Your Rep Ranges Regularly

April 16, 2008 on 3:48 am | In Weight Training Routines, Weight Training Exercises, Build Muscle |

  If you’ve been weight training for a while, there’s a good chance that at some point you’ve hit a wall, or plateau, in your size and strength gains. This is something that happens to every weight trainer because you can’t get bigger and stronger all of the time. If you could powerlifting records would constantly be broken and bodybuilders would weigh 400 pounds of pure muscle. Hitting a plateau can make your workouts much less enjoyable if you can’t do any more weight or reps than you have before.

  The best way to break through a weight training plateau is to make a change in your routine. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a different rep range on your sets of weight training exercises regularly. If your body gets used to doing the same amount of reps for every set you’ll certainly hit a plateau. Doing a different amount of reps per set way be just what you need to get past it.

  One great way to keep your muscle size and strength gains coming is to try a weight training routine where you do a light day, medium day, and heavy day for each muscle group. On the light day do sets with higher reps (15-20), on the medium day do sets of 10-15 reps, and on the heavy day do sets of 5-10 reps. If you do this you’ll hit both your fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers and give yourself a better chance of continual gains.