How many sets and reps should you do I Low reps heavy weight vs high reps low weight
In this instructional video, Eric Roberts breaks down the optimal set‑and‑rep schemes for three primary training goals—strength, hypertrophy (muscle growth/definition), and muscular endurance. He defines reps and sets, then outlines specific guidelines: 3‑5 sets of 3‑6 (up to 8) reps for strength, focusing on heavy compound lifts, long rest intervals (120‑180 s), and high intensity near one‑rep max; 3‑4 sets of 6‑12 reps for hypertrophy, balancing moderate weight with near‑failure effort; and 2‑4 sets of 12‑20 reps for endurance, generally applied to isolation movements with lighter loads. Roberts stresses three overarching notes: the ranges are flexible guidelines, not rigid rules; strength training is the foundational priority because it underpins gains in hypertrophy and endurance; and a well‑rounded program should integrate strength, hypertrophy, and some endurance work, either within a single session or across the week. He also discusses progressive overload, the distinction between compound and isolation exercises, and practical programming examples. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to engage, ask questions, and subscribe.
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Rainbow today. YouTube, what is going on? Welcome back to the channel. Welcome to the video. In this video, we're going to be talking about the best sets and reps that you should be performing for your workouts. And as you can clearly see, for strength, for hypertrophy— which hypertrophy is just like muscle growing, muscle definition— And endurance. And so if you aren't familiar with what sets and reps are, just very quickly, reps are the actual repetitions you do with your squats, for example. So if you do 10 squats in a row, that is 10 reps. If you do a full set of 10 reps, so, you know, you do 10 consecutive squats and then stop, that is 1 set. Okay? So we're gonna be talking about the best sets and the best reps. Scheme you should be incorporating into your workouts. Okay, so we're first going to cover the main 3 ones, like I said, strength, hypertrophy, and endurance. Um, and then we're also going to cover 3 important notes that which I'll be very honest with you, unless you watch the whole video and get these 3 important notes, this shit over here is not going to matter. This is what like everybody focuses on. This is what most people actually need. So I'm going to say that first of all, so you should be watching The whole video. Don't skip ahead. Why would you skip ahead? You clicked on the video. Fucking watch the whole thing, man. Alright. Strength. So the sets and reps that are best for strength are going to be anywhere from 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 6 reps. And sometimes you can push that 6 reps to 8 reps. It really just depends. But let's just call it 3 to 8 reps, the absolute max. So 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 6 reps. Okay? So again, if you're doing squats, for example, you would do 5 consecutive squats in a row, stop, rack the bar, drop the weight, whatever. That is 1 set. Okay? So this is 1— again, this is 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 6 reps. Now these are for your bigger movements, your bigger compound movements, things like squats, things like deadlifts, Things like overhead presses, things like bench press, things, things like that that are your bigger compound movements. And when I say compound movements, I just mean like you're not doing a single arm bicep curl, right? Like you going through a goblet squat or a back squat or whatever it is, that is a fundamentally different movement that includes your entire body because your core has to be braced. Your thoracic spine has to be extended. Your legs are working. Your upper back is working. Your entire body is working in a squat. Whereas when you're doing a single arm bicep curl, just your bicep is working, right? So compound movements, this is where the strength really comes into play. And when it comes to your compound movements and this kind of like set range and rep range, you're really trying to focus on higher intensity with lower volume. Okay? And when I say lower volume and intensity, lower volume, higher intensity, volume is just, again, the sets and reps, Right. So you're not doing super high reps. You're keeping it more on the lower end of the rep range. Higher intensity, once again, that doesn't mean like you're going to take 20-second breaks in between. That's actually the worst thing you can do for strength. For strength, you want to be taking like anywhere from 120 to 180 seconds between sets because your intensity is going to be so high. And when I say intensity, I mean how close you are lifting to To failure. So let's just say for a quick example, your, uh, max one rep max on your squat is 200 pounds, right? And let's say you're doing 4 sets of 4 reps. You're not going to be training with 100 pounds. You're probably going to be training with 180, possibly even 190 pounds, right? You're pushing very close to your, uh, your, your one rep max. That's what I mean by intensity. So you're lifting very close to failure and very, uh, Uh, high, close towards your, your one rep max, what, what your quote unquote one rep max would be. So because the intensity is so high, you want to keep the reps lower. And you also want to allow yourself to have maximum recovery because if you're trying to go, you know, heavier in weight and you're only resting 30 seconds, you're going to get injured. You're not going to recover quick enough. You're, you're not going to recover most optimally to be able to keep pushing. That heavier weight. I see this all the time in like HIIT workouts and stuff where it's like you start the set with, I don't know, call it 50 pounds. And then because you only get a 20-second break, you have to drop to 35 pounds and then you get 20-second break and you drop to 25 pounds. It's like you're continuously dropping weight. Like that's not, that's not good. Like you should be trying to push yourself as heavy as you can for the entire time, especially if you're looking to build strength. So that is on the strength training side of things. And this is where you're really trying to focus on progressive overload. If you don't know what progressive overload is, You need to learn. And I got you because I wrote an entire article on progressive overload. I'll link that here in the description of this video below. Feel free to go check that out. This is where you're really trying to practice that progressive overload to where you're trying to lift more. You know, for example, if, if you're on week 1 and you're lifting 4 sets of 4 at 100 pounds, again, just random numbers, but 4 sets of 4 at 100 pounds. On week 2, try to push to 105 pounds. On week 3, try to push to 110 pounds. You're trying to have that progressive overload where you're trying to really see progression in this movement. Again, it kind of depends because, for example, with a lot of my online coaching clients, what I'll do is I'll say, hey, weeks 1 and 2, we're going 3 sets of 5 reps. Weeks 3 and 4, we're doing 3 sets of 4 reps. So automatically throughout that progression of the month, we're going to be increasing intensity, decreasing volume so they can lift heavier weight. Over a period of time. So that's really the goal of this strength training. You're trying to build your strength. You're trying to get stronger. Okay? So that's for strength. Now, switching markers, let's go to hypertrophy, which again is just muscle definition, muscle building. Like this is where, you know, you, you see the muscles, right? I'd say anywhere from 3 to 4 sets of, call it 6 to 12 reps. Okay? So again, 3 to 4 sets Of 6 to 12 reps. And this is because this rep range and these sets, you're not going so heavy right here to the point where like you're doing 3 reps, 4 reps, 5 reps. Like you're not going so heavy to where you're going to have maximum stress on your joints. Like if you just kept, like if you just kept doing like, you know, sets of 4 reps through the entire like duration of your workout, I mean, you'd be toast, man. Like, It'd be very difficult, like mentally, physically, everything. But like over time it's gonna take a toll on your joints, right? So between this kind of 6 to 12 rep range, it's heavy enough to where you're still going to push close to failure. Like listen, like for example, let's just use a lower body workout like lunges. For example, if you do like a set of 8 lunges, that's gonna be pretty difficult. Or like a set of like RDLs, for example, a set of doing 6 RDLs. Incredibly, incredibly difficult, right? So like you're still pushing yourself, but it's not so heavy to the point where again, you're doing like 3, 4, 5 reps. And so 6 to 12 rep range allows you to have that kind of like medium to somewhat high intensity as well as medium to somewhat high volume, right? Because again, 3 to 4 sets, 6 to 12 reps, you're finding that kind of like happy medium where you're able to push yourself, But you're not going so heavy to where you're going to possibly get injured and burn yourself out and so on and so forth. Right? So that's kind of like the muscle definition kind of, uh, again, um, side of things. And again, if you're doing things like, uh, you know, honestly these could be any exercise. Um, because let's just take a, uh, you know, a dumbbell bent over row, for example. This would be a great thing to use for your dumbbell bent over rows. Let's take a lunge, for example. This would be a great thing to do for your lunges, right? So it all kind of depends, but there's really no way to go wrong with this kind of rep range because it's normally the safest. And I wouldn't say the most effective because we're going to talk about that over here in a second, but this rep range is a great rep range to be in. Okay. So this is the hypertrophy rep range. Now, last marker, pretty in purple, we're going to endurance. And so for endurance, I'd say anywhere from 2 to 4 sets of, let's call it, 15 to 20 reps. And you'll probably be like, well, Eric, you had 6 to 12 here. You're missing 13, 14, and 15. I've never programmed a workout to where I'm gonna tell somebody to do like 13 reps, like it's— or 14 reps. Like, it just doesn't come to mind for me. So I'm just gonna kinda skip those. But like, those would be more towards the endurance side as well. I guess I could put 12 to 20, but like— Either way, like, I'm never programming 13 reps. Either way, so endurance, you're doing 2 to 4 sets of 12 to 20 reps, right? So the reason that this is the rep range is because, again, if you're doing 15 reps, 18 reps, like, the weight, the load, it's not gonna be that intense because for that many reps, you physically cannot go that heavy because you have to do so many reps, right? Yeah. So the intensity is lowered and the volume is increased. Excuse me. For endurance rep ranges, I don't program a ton of like 15 to 20 rep ranges. If I would, it would be on things like bicep curls or leg extensions or shoulder raises or those kind of like isolation movements. Because let's just take a squat for example. If you're doing 20 sets Of a squat, or I'm sorry, 20 sets, it's a lot of sets. If you're doing 20 reps of a squat, more than likely you're going to get injured, number one, because like the amount of reps you have to do, and like again, a squat is a total body movement, or a deadlift for example. This is where like I see people doing like these like, these like AMRAPs of like 20 rep sets of deadlifts, and like they wonder why they blow their back out or something. Like it's just, you have to— These movements, like the compound movements like that, they require you to keep proper form, and it's so important to keep proper form. And when you're doing so many reps, it makes it that much harder to keep your proper form over a period of time because you just get fatigued. Your muscles get fatigued, you mentally get fatigued, you stop thinking about bracing your core, you stop thinking about having the right form, you're just trying to get the reps done. So, um, I would program these for like Isolation movements, again, things like a single leg glute bridge or a bicep curl or a tricep extension or things like that. But again, like I kind of said going back to, I would normally probably put those more in the 6 to 12 rep range and probably more towards the 10, I guess, 10 to 15 rep range I would say for movements like that. So that is the sets and reps for strength, hypertrophy, endurance. Again, one more time. Strength is more of like your compound movements. Think squats, deadlifts, overhead presses. Hypertrophy is more for anything really. This can be lunges, this can be bent over rows, this can be lat pulldowns, this can be an incline chest press, it could be a flat chest press, this could be a cable curl, a bicep curl, tricep extension, shoulder raise, anything. Like literally anything you can put in the hypertrophy. And again, endurance is kind of like that, you know, isolation type movements or burning yourself out type of movements. That's kind of what I would say. That's that. Now, for the 3 important notes, which honestly is the most important part of this video. I'm not going to write over there, so it's going to remain empty. Number 1, these aren't set in stone. This is what I need to make very clear because me growing up loving fitness, trying to learn as much as I possibly can, I saw videos like this on YouTube, honestly on YouTube, and I thought, okay, well shit, once I get over 6 reps, well, I'm not building strength anymore. Or like, okay, well, if I'm in the 3 to 6 rep range, I'm not gonna build any muscle. So like, I need to do more than 6 reps if I wanna build muscle. Same thing with endurance. Well, if I go to 15 reps, there's no way I'm building muscle. Like, I'm losing all my strength and so on and so forth. That's not the case. Okay? Like these aren't set in stone, like exact things you have to follow. These are just general guidelines for all the reasons I mentioned earlier. Like again, for example, the reason it's 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps for hypertrophy is because with hypertrophy, with muscle definition, you are looking to push close to failure to again, grow more defined muscles, but you don't want to go too heavy to where you can't get enough volume in. And again, volume, sets, and reps, right? So this is where, again, like, that's why you can still— you can and you still will build muscle in the 3 to 6 rep range. You're still going to build muscle. Are you going to optimize muscle building? Probably not. But that doesn't mean you're not going to still build muscle. Same thing with endurance. For example, let's say you are doing, you know, 15 reps of a bicep curl. It doesn't mean like once you hit 16 reps, oh, I'm not building muscle anymore. Like I'm losing all my gains. I'm losing all my strength. No, you're still going to build muscle and you're probably still going to contribute to your strength, uh, your, your strength performance, because they all kind of intertwine together. So don't use these as like hard stops, like hard, uh, you know, uh, uh, uh, lines in the sand, so to speak. They're just like general guidelines. And I have to say that because again, when I was growing up and I watched these videos, I'm like, well, this is it. Like, this is set in stone. Like, no, they're all going to kind of play intertwined with each other. And that brings me to the next point, which is Strength is the most important, and that's why I put it first. Strength is the most important out of all this because strength is like your, your big rock. If you get stronger, you are going to be able to lift heavier weights in the 6 to 12 rep range, which if you continuously lift heavier weights in the 6 to 12 rep range, guess what? You're going to build more muscle. So even if your goal is muscle building, which again, I'll raise my hand. And when I was very focused on getting, you know, muscle building, like, I wouldn't do any strength work. And I was wondering why I wasn't getting bigger, my muscles weren't growing, so on and so forth. I wasn't seeing more definition. It's because I was lifting the same weights over and over and over and over again because I wasn't getting stronger. I wasn't including any strength work. Also, I noticed that my injuries tended to pile up more because I wasn't doing those, like, fundamental compound movements like a squat or a deadlift or a split squat, or a bench press, or all those kind of movements. Strength is the most important part out of all this and that's what you should put the most of your focus on. I don't care what your goal is. Fat loss, or muscle definition, or if it is strength training, or endurance. I don't care what it is. Strength is going to help all of these attributes no matter what it is. For example, again, let's say you are doing— we'll use the hypertrophy one more time. If you're doing 3 sets of 8 with a dumbbell shoulder press, right? If week 1 you're doing 3 sets of 8 with 15 pounds and then weeks 8, 9, 10 you're doing 3 sets of 8 with, call it, 35 pounds, over time you're going to build more muscle because you're able to lift heavier, you're able to recruit more muscle fibers, so on and so forth, right? So that's for hypertrophy. For endurance as well, and actually I can relate this to a lot of people I work with, if they are runners and they do enjoy running, Whenever we get them on like a strength training program, every single time, like I'd say within like the first 4 to 8 weeks, they come back to me and they're like, man, my runs feel good. I feel strong. My time is going down. Like they just, you know, I just feel stronger in my runs. Like they just feel overall better because they're gaining strength in their legs and their core because they're strength training properly. So strength is going to help your endurance. And, you know, Most people think, well, I don't want to get big and bulky, or I'm not going to do strength training because I want to be— maybe you are a marathon runner. I don't know. But like, if you look at like Olympic athletes, for example, 3/4 out of the year they train for strength and then like 4 to 8 weeks leading up to their competition, that's when they go into more of like a dedicated, like endurance only kind of training program because the competition is soon. Right? So it's like, even if you are training for endurance, if you were a top Olympic athlete, 3/4 of your training is going to be in the strength training world. So strength is the most important. And that's why you should be focused. Again, like I said earlier, you should be focusing on getting stronger, lifting more weights, doing so, like whatever your program is set up to do, which you should have a program you're following, I hope. But that's what you should be focusing on the most because that's what's going to bleed into the rest of the hypertrophy and endurance work as well. So no matter what your goals are, Strength most important. And last but not least, I kind of already touched on this, but again, I would focus 90% of your attention on the strength and the hypertrophy. If you're going to include the endurance work, I don't think it's a bad thing. And I'll touch on this very quickly. Um, you know, people always ask me, well, should I do these reps or these sets? Or like a good program should have all of these intertwined in there. And yes, even endurance. I wouldn't put the majority of your workout as like, you know, 20 rep sets, but like you should have some like endurance work and higher rep, higher volume work in there. A good program should encompass all this either over the course of a week or over the course of a day. I kind of do both with my clients. So like, for example, actually, you know what? I did a whole video here on YouTube, like how to create your own workout routine where I go over all this stuff. So I won't go too in depth here. I'll put that video here above. Somewhere up there. I don't know. I'll put that video here above. So if you want to check that out, do that. But like a good program should include, like for example, you'll have a goblet squat with, I don't know, you know, 4 sets of 5 reps for a goblet squat. And then you'll have, you know, dumbbell RDL supersetted with a reverse lunge, 3 sets of 6, 3 sets of 8. And then you'll have, let's just call it a single leg hip thruster with, um, you know, a hamstring curl, 3 sets of 10 superset, 3 sets of 15. So, like, they're gonna include all of it. It doesn't have to be one or the other, or you can only do this, you can only do that. A good program should incorporate all of these things into it already. And if it does, that's how you know you're doing a good program. And again, you can spread it out throughout the week as well. You know, like, for example, if you have, like, a strength day and then more of, like, a hypertrophy day, you can do that as well. I've seen both work. Personally, I like to kind of have, for the average individual, I like to have it kind of all in one session because no matter what, you're getting all the benefits, all the components. You're kind of training those things at once. That's what I'd say. Again, if you want more information on that, head to my YouTube channel where I put that video here above. I go over all how to create a workout routine for yourself. That's what I would say. All right, guys. Hope you enjoyed the video. Hope you learned something from it. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop below. I'm a big training nerd, so I enjoy questions on training. Training's probably one of my most favorite things, honestly. So if you have any questions on that, please feel free to let me know. I'm gonna be over here with the rainbow. I can't do this. I did it earlier. There we go. I wanna be over here with the rainbow. Thank you for watching. If you like the video, subscribe to the— shit. Leave thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and we'll talk soon, okay? Before I make a fool of myself anymore.
