What Are Reps And Sets? An Easy To Follow Guide

A big number of the population are starting to workout and plan their own training programs because with the cost of living rising not everyone can afford the luxury of a personal trainer. If this is you then understanding the terms needed to plan and follow a good fitness regime is essential because if you do it wrong then your at risk of not seeing gains or at worst, an injury. With so many generic plans available on the internet you need to be able to look at them and decide which are best for you and will it actually work.

This is an example of what you see in a program:

Bench Press = 3 X 15 reps

Squats = 4 X 15 reps

But what does this actually mean in real terms?

Reps/Repetitions

When you see the word rep it is short for repetition.

There should be limited variation on this term but it is possible to see the phrase "partial rep". This refers to completing just a portion of the whole movement, usually seen during a 21 set, where you may complete 7 partial reps of the lower part of the movement and then 7 of the upper part and finish with 7 of a complete rep. But in general if you see the term rep it means 1 complete action.

Sets

A set is a group of repetitions or actions determined by how many reps is required. For the example above, 1 set consists of 15 reps of a bench press, you would then have a rest period which would be stated e.g. 30seconds before completing the next set of 15, until you have completed 3 sets of 15 totalling 45 reps of the bench press. There are many different types of sets:

• Superset - completing two exercises back to back with no rest
• Triset - completing three exercises with no rest
• Pyramid Set - Starting with a low weight and high reps (10kg at 15 reps), then slowly increasing to a high weight and low reps. Normally 4 sets are completed as a total pyramid
• Drop Set - Completing 3 sets as normal but then adding a fourth set at a very low weight and complete as many as possible
• Giant set - Completing 5 exercises back to back with no rest. This is the best for endurance or weight loss training

There are many others such as pre/post exhaust, force vs negative sets but the 5 above are the most common and easiest to use. Its really good to vary your training to make sure that you don't get bored during sessions.

Other terms

When looking at the program make sure to identify any other terminology that is important such as rest or recovery period. This will be shown either per exercise or at the beginning and to be kept the same throughout the workout.

See Also: Focusing On One Move For Gains

They are there to get the most out of the activity.

High Reps Or Low Reps?

Something I get asked a lot is what does it mean when we refer to high reps or low reps. What is the significance? Simply, it is linked to the type of training you want to do or what you are looking to achieve from a program.

High Reps

When personal trainers and programs say to use high reps it is usually paired with low weight.

So you need to replicate that in training, there is no need to be able to lift a very heavy weight as this won't improve your endurance. What you need to is lift lower weights for a high amount of reps for example 5kg bicep curl 15-2- times. The optimum number of reps is 15-20, any less than 15 then you are not doing enough to improve the muscular endurance, too many and it isn't effective.

Low Reps

On the opposite to high reps is low reps, and it simply means the complete opposite. Instead of using a lot of reps under low weight you limit the reps you can do by using a much higher weight. This is particularly important for those people looking to build strength or size of the muscle because if you perform too many reps the muscle gets tired and the workout becomes ineffective.

For improvements in strength you should be aiming for only 2-5 reps maximum, this shouldn't be by choice that you stop at just 2-5 reps but you must be lifting a weight that is high enough that you can only do that many. If you can lift more then you need to increase the weight to get the most out of the session.

To improve size of a muscle the optimum number of reps is between 8 and 12, again this should be controlled by the amount of weight lifting. When you get to the higher end of the reps e.g. 8 or 12 you should be struggling to lift but not as much as when training for strength. Again, if getting to 8 is too easy you need to increase the weight.

For endurance (high reps) it is usually 60 - 75%, size (medium reps) is 75-80% and for pure strength (low reps) 80 - 95%. To calculate this you complete a 1rep max test, on any piece of equipment you start a low weight and do 1 full rep. Up the weight and do another rep, repeat this until you cannot complete a full rep, the last full rep you can do is you 1rep max (1RM) and this can be used to work out the % to lift.

See Also: Add 10-Minutes To Your Day... And Workout!

For example - if on a bench press my 1RM is 100kg and I want to improve my strength I use 80% of 100 which is 80kg, I should be doing 2-5 reps of 80kg. Use this to workout the weights for all the different exercises but as you improve you will need to adjust the weights.