Prior to 2017, every personal trainer knew that to build muscle, you needed to train between 8-12 reps. It was often stated that this placed the muscle under tension for a sufficient time to elicit a hypertrophic response. 

Then in 2017, research demonstrated equal amounts of muscle gain at any rep range. From singles and doubles up to 30 reps (subsequent research has taken reps as high as 40)

So what gives? How can this be true?

As long as the muscle is pushed hard enough and training is progressed. That’s what’s required to increase muscle mass.  This has led a lot of coaches to run off with the idea that you can do any rep range, and it’s all equal. 

I actually think the initial rep range wasn’t too far off. Maybe 6-20 reps is a better modification. Why? 30+ rep training sucks! Especially on big compound lifts, 50 rep back squats anyone?

Moving a lot of your exercises to high reps is not practical from a time frame perspective. Plus, the most likely thing to give out is the cardiovascular component. Hypertrophy occurs when a muscle or groups of muscles are taken close to failure. If your heart and lungs give out first, you didn’t tax the muscles as much as you thought.

Exercise selection is key. Low skill, isolation exercise, sure, by all means, do them very high rep. But with big compound lifts, I’d strongly suggest staying in the 6-12 zone.

The evidence isn’t as strong for equal hypertrophy on reps below 6. Mainly because you must be a very experienced lifter to train close to muscular failure on heavy lifting. Usually, what would go first is your form, and your likelihood of injury would be much higher. So for 99% of people that train to build muscle, I’d stay over 6 reps.

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