Difference between heavy weight/low reps and light weight/more reps?

[dabronxbombers2]

Whats the difference between doing 12, 10, 8, 6 as weight goes up and 10, 10, 10, 10 as weight stays the same? For the past year, I've been doing 12-10-8-6 with weight increasing.

[theshoupguy]

Depends what your goals are, what exercises you're using, and what your body gets the most out of.

Generally, lower rep / higher weight exercises will help much more with size/strength gains. Lower weight / higher rep exercises will lead to more endurance gains (and "toning", if you want to use that word ).

If you're not sure what would be best for you, switch things up for a month or two and see what results you get.

[Karaim]

Depends what your goals are, what exercises you're using, and what your body gets the most out of.

Generally, lower rep / higher weight exercises will help much more with size/strength gains. Lower weight / higher rep exercises will lead to more endurance gains (and "toning", if you want to use that word ).

If you're not sure what would be best for you, switch things up for a month or two and see what results you get.

Actually under 8 reps is used primarily for strength (although you gain size too), 8-12 is used for size (although you gain strength as well), and over 12 is generally used for endurance. These are not set in stone. It all depends on the particular muscle fibers in the muscles you're working.

[400Lb Gorilla]

Depends what your goals are, what exercises you're using, and what your body gets the most out of.

Generally, lower rep / higher weight exercises will help much more with size/strength gains. Lower weight / higher rep exercises will lead to more endurance gains (and "toning", if you want to use that word ).

If you're not sure what would be best for you, switch things up for a month or two and see what results you get.

this. but like shoup says it also depends on how you respond. for me low reps= strength. while higher reps= size and by this i mean low 1-7 reps and high 8-15 reps. anything above that and i am probably wasting my time.

[theshoupguy]

Actually under 8 reps is used primarily for strength (although you gain size too), 8-12 is used for size (although you gain strength as well), and over 12 is generally used for endurance. These are not set in stone. It all depends on the particular muscle fibers in the muscles you're working.

Exactly - which is why I didn't toss any numbers into my claim.

[Tyrbolift]

Whats the difference between doing 12, 10, 8, 6 as weight goes up and 10, 10, 10, 10 as weight stays the same? For the past year, I've been doing 12-10-8-6 with weight increasing.

I've always felt that doing the same weight in repeated sets for the same reps is kind of cheating yourself out of more intensity.

There's no way you can do 10 at near maximum effort and then keep doing 10 after that over and over.

[kel_varnsen]

Whats the difference between doing 12, 10, 8, 6 as weight goes up and 10, 10, 10, 10 as weight stays the same? For the past year, I've been doing 12-10-8-6 with weight increasing.

high rep ranges, such as 10-12, do not achieve full muscle fibre recruitment until after a few reps. so perhaps only 6-7 of the 12 reps fully stimulate all of the muscle fibres.

medium ranges, 5-8 reps, stimulate 100% of the muscle fibres from the beginning.

low ranges, 2-5 reps, increase rate coding (nervous system signal firing) in addition to 100% muscle fibre recruitment.