The fitness world and specifically the lifting world has become so convoluted and filled with contradicting information that it has become difficult to find what you are looking for with simple Google search. I remember when I was first starting out in fitness I would watch two videos on the same subject and get wildly different ideologies. The thing was they both made a lot of sense and both people had good muscular structure. So what does that mean? Do these variations and different tactics matter at all? It looked to me like both of the people in the videos were getting great results from their contradicting strategies.

Now that I have been in the fitness world for over a decade I can say that it both does and does not matter. First of all if you are a beginner, you have almost no baseline experience, you don't even know what style you like yet. So just pick the one that looks the most enjoyable to you and alter your path from there. Letting FOMO or analysis paralysis stop you from even starting your fitness journey is far worse than accidentally choosing a lifting style that might not be your favorite. Either way you are still making progress. On the other hand if you are intermediate to advanced then breaking down rep ranges is going to matter.

What is a Rep Range

I will keep this short as I am guessing most people know, but for the beginners out there a rep range is simply a number of repetitions of a certain lift during a set. A set is one cycle of reps. For example when I say I did a 5x5 that means I did five sets of five reps 5 (sets) x 5 (reps). The aim of a set is to be close to failure by the final repetition in that set. That means if you are doing less repetitions the goal would be to increase the resistance, and vice versa.

Classifications of Rep Ranges

There are classically three main classifications of rep ranges; strength building, muscle building and endurance / tone building. The lower the reps the more weight you need to add in order to get close to failure by the last rep.

What Rep Range Should be Your Main?

Conclusion

Rep Ranges are an important concept that can help you succeed in your fitness goals. Although they are not something you need to stress about too much. In the end, either way you are making progress. The classification of different rep ranges came from highly dedicated fitness enthusiasts who wanted to optimize their lifting. Understanding these different ranges will optimize our training and help us reach our goals faster.

Luckily for us all the research work, the trial and error, has already been done by those who came before us. If you are in a sport or training for a competition then optimization is extremely helpful and focusing on rep ranges is going to be very important for you. On the other hand if your goal is to be able to take your shirt off at the pool and feel pride rather than discomfort then rep ranges are not as important. In that case balance is more important and you should focus on whatever rep ranges make you feel more motivated to get to the gym. Hopefully this article helped you demystify rep ranges, thanks for reading!