Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple

And if we're standardizing the range of motion and we're standardizing the exercise and we're standardizing the tempo, then it's easy to say, okay, I'm using...

two and a half more pounds this week, I've progressed.

If we're playing around with all of these variables and then we're trying to add load, it starts to get a little tricky because you're saying, I know I'm using more load, but am I cutting the range of motion short in order to lift more?

Am I...

speeding up the reps in order to lift more.

So we want to introduce fewer variables to make sure that we are progressing, whether it's a rep or load.

We used to think, and they used to teach all the personal trainers this, there was a strength endurance continuum such that you're doing one to five reps and you're building strength.

And then you're doing something kind of moderate range up to 12, and that's hypertrophy.

And then beyond that, 12 to 20, that's muscular endurance.

And our understanding of that has evolved.

Certainly, if you're training for maximal strength, i.e.

a one rep max, then you need to be training in those lower rep ranges because that is a sports-specific training.

And so it's not that if you do sets of 10, your one rep max won't get stronger.

It will, but...

to maximize your one rep max, then we need to do some very high load, very low rep training.

If the goal is hypertrophy, we have way more flexibility because we do see similar growth, whether you're training in those high load, low rep ranges or the lower load, high rep ranges and anything in between, provided that we train close enough to failure.

However, we need to think about overall volume because that's very important for growth.

So if we're doing sets of three, we're going to need to do a lot of sets of three to accomplish the same overall volume that we would get by doing sets of eight or 10.

I typically do something in the 6 to 12, depending on the exercise.

But I think some exercises are fun to do 15 reps of, and some are not.