Higher Reps and Lower Weights

If you have never done linear progression– using progressively heavier weights on compound exercises in the 5-8 rep range– your body has probably not even approached its strength and muscular potential. If you have done linear progression until you have reached acceptable strength standards, at that point you can start to use higher rep ranges, between 8-15. Lay the foundation of strength first, and then you can try some different things.

Obviously, acceptable standards can vary from person to person. Worthy goals for a normal man is to bench press their bodyweight and squat 1.5x their bodyweight. Achieving these goals can take some time. Realize that until you have trained seriously for two years, you are still considered a beginner.

If you have reached these types of strength levels, it can be a good idea to use higher reps and lower weights from time to time in order to give your joints a rest or a new stimulus for your body to adapt to.

The one time I almost always use higher reps and lower weights is for isolation work. Exercises that specifically target one muscle group instead of multiple muscle groups e.g., biceps and triceps. The reason being that isolation work does exactly what its name implies, it isolates certain muscles.

For example, isolating the triceps through skull crushers or rope pushdowns will, for the most part, only work the triceps muscles. Bench pressing on the other hand works the chest, shoulders and triceps all at the same time, thus the tension is distributed more widely across various muscle groups and supporting structures like ligaments and tendons.

Using the 5-8 rep range on isolation exercises will necessitate heavy weights being moved by smaller muscles and their tendons. The direct stress placed upon these tissues can often overwhelm them, resulting in pain and injury. For this reason I find it best to use a rep range of 8-15 for any isolation work.

The meat and potatoes of the workout –the compound movements like bench press and squat– I usually do between 5-8 reps. Any assistance work in the form of isolation exercises will be done between 8-15.

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