4-8 Reps for Building Size and Strength
Posted in: Muscle Building Workouts
Just about anyone who lifts weights has, at some point, asked the question: ‘What number of reps should I do for best results?’
The answer is: it depends entirely upon what your goals are; Strength, size, a lot of strength and some size, or a lot of size and some strength?
It’s widely known to anyone who lifts weights that, lower rep ranges (1-5) are the domain of the strength trainee. Strength trainees are training for functional strength and also, with the very low reps, ridiculously powerful, very short-lived bursts of strength.
If a trainee was to train using reps of 4 – 8, they are training in a rep range which begins firmly in strength (4) and goes into lower-rep bodybuilding size training (8), so in effect; the trainee will get the best of both worlds.
This is because of how our muscles are made up. Our muscles are made up of different kinds of fibres ranging from very slow twitch to very fast twitch. Slow twitch fibres make up the bulk of our muscle size – and it’s the higher reps which target these fibres, which bodybuilders (size) trainees mostly use. Slow twitch muscles are about endurance.
Strength trainees use lower reps (less than 5), and this hits the fast twitch fibres. Fast twitch fibres are all about generating massive amounts of speed and power for a short time.
Although in general, the vast majority of people’s muscles are made up of slow twitch fibres, some people do have a significant amount of fast twitch, too. Bodybuilders – who are all about complete muscular development – have long utilized power training as a means of getting extra development out of their muscles which they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.
But yes, anyone looking to gain good strength and size could do a lot worse than to hover between reps of 4 – 8.
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