What Would Happen if You Ate Three Eggs a Day?

Everyone has this thought when they first walk into a gym: how much weight should I lift to get muscle as quickly as possible? What dumbbell ought You to choose? How heavy or light are the weights you use for yourself? What weight setting on the machine should you use?

In this post, we'll dispel all the ambiguity and provide you with clear, straightforward rules to follow so you can always choose the appropriate weight, which will enable you to work out consistently.

8–12 reps for hypertrophy

Have you ever wondered where this advice originates from or what it actually means? It's common knowledge by this point that you should train in the 8–12 rep range in order to grow the most muscle.

It really just entails shifting the weight 8–12 times. Few others have taken the time to more clearly describe this concept, so we will attempt to do so by highlighting these three crucial points:

Choose a weight that you know you can only lift for 8 repetitions, meaning that you will reach total failure after the eighth rep and be unable to lift the weight for any additional repetitions, even with all of your strength.

Choose a weight that you can perform at least 8 repetitions of without sacrificing form.

You can increase the weight to the next increment you can only complete 8 reps with before total failure as your strength steadily improves and you move from completing 8 reps to 12 reps with the same weight without failing.

Let's examine a real-world illustration.

Therefore, the query "I've grown stronger now and can do 12 reps with my current weight without failing" makes sense. What shall I do now? How much weight should I apply?

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Consider the barbell bench press as an illustration, but bear in mind that the same idea holds true for all exercises. Let's imagine that a few weeks ago, you attempted an 8-rep bench press with 120 pounds, failing on the eighth attempt.

With each successive workout, you performed more reps as you became bigger and stronger, finally reaching 12 reps to failure before doing another 12 the next week and continuing indefinitely.

At this time, you should increase the weight because it is now too light for you and no longer serves as an effective stimulus for proper hypertrophy or the growth of new muscle.

Instead of merely increasing the weight until you can fail at 12 reps once again, you should do so until you can only complete 8 reps before failing.

Using our example as a guide, if you can now press 120 pounds for 12 repetitions without reaching failure, you might elect to use the strategy above and move up to 140 pounds for 8 repetitions before failing rather than 130 pounds for 12 repetitions.

You may raise your strength using this technique while also optimally growing your muscular mass. By applying the concept of progressive overload, you will ultimately become bigger and stronger.

The most crucial factor is that you'll finish it faster than the man who believes he's exercising properly but is actually not making any progress and isn't maximizing all of his potential. This guy uses the same weight every workout or similar weights week in and week out, training in the 8–12 rep range.

How to use this technique when performing many sets

If you execute an activity for more than one set, you could wonder what would happen by the third or fourth set if you continue.

Due to accumulated weariness, I won't be able to complete 8–12 reps. You would be entirely correct, and the same general idea holds true in this situation.

Drop the weight as soon as you can no longer complete 8 repetitions. For instance, if you completed 10 reps on the first set and 8 on the second, you would know that you would not be able to accomplish 8 to 12 reps on set 3 or set 4.

Now is the time to reduce weight while adhering to the defined strategy and choosing a weight that enables you to perform the aforementioned rep range.