Exercises and Workouts - Should You Focus on Weights Or Reps?

As you go about your workout program, you may find yourself asking the question of which is more important - adding more reps or adding more weight?

Many people struggle with this question and aren't entirely sure. Should they increase their rep range so they can build more muscle endurance or add more weight so they boost their strength?




The answer is going to depend on a few different questions - and your answers to them. Let's go over what these are so you can answer this age-old question once and for all...

1. Your Current Fitness Goals. First, consider what your fitness goals are. Are you someone who is looking primarily just for strength enhancement? If so, you are almost always going to be best increasing your weight over your reps.


The only one exception to this is if you are just dong a set of 2 to 3 reps on a certain weight level. As that is so low already, you should consider cycling up to five reps first and then adding more weight after that.

2. Your Current Rep Range. Next, also look at what your current weight level is. As just mentioned, if it's very, very low, add more reps first.

On the flip side of the coin though, if you are already doing 15 to 20 reps, going over and beyond that is not going to provide much in the way of actual fitness benefits. In that scenario, you would be best adding more weight, decreasing back down to 8 to 10 reps and then increasing up from there.

3. Your Available Equipment. Also consider your available equipment. Do you have enough free or plate weight to increase the weight? In some cases, especially if you're doing a home workout protocol, you may not have this free weight available and as such, reps is the only option.


In this case, you also might consider doing a new exercise entirely to challenge your body in a different manner. Home workouts can be more challenging for this reason - at some point you may find yourself limited with how much weight you can actually lift.

So there you have a few guidelines to know and remember. At the end of the day, there is no one best rep range. Rather, using a variety of different ranges over time is going to yield the optimal results and work your fitness level across many spectrums.


Although managing Type 2 diabetes can be very challenging, it is not a condition you must just live with. Make simple changes to your daily routine - include exercise to help lower both your blood sugar levels and your weight.

For nearly 25 years Beverleigh Piepers has searched for and found a number of secrets to help you build a healthy body. Go to http://DrugFreeType2Diabetes.com to learn about some of those secrets.

The answer isn't in the endless volumes of available information but in yourself.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Beverleigh_H_Piepers
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