Thread: Working out what weight for diff reps

there is no easy way. to effectively stimulate each muscle fiber type you have to use a varying range of reps and loads

I probably didn't explain myself properly! What I meant was

If my 5 rep max bench was say 120pounds then what would be the easiest way of working out my 8 rep or 12 rep maxes etc... Without actually doing the reps. Is there a formula you can use to work out your rep maxes.

Hope that is a bit clearer.

Cheers

Originally Posted by yeksetm

I probably didn't explain myself properly! What I meant was

If my 5 rep max bench was say 120pounds then what would be the easiest way of working out my 8 rep or 12 rep maxes etc... Without actually doing the reps. Is there a formula you can use to work out your rep maxes.

Hope that is a bit clearer.

Cheers

The best way is trial and error. There might be some calculator out there, but trial and error works for sure.

Typically, to reach high reps 15-20 you should use something like 60% of your max. For the 7-12 rep range, you can use about 75-80% and then obviously use your max weight for rep ranges of 1-6.
These are the percentages outlined in UD2 and they work pretty well. However, you'll always need to adjust that for how well you perform the lift. For example if you use 60% of your max to target 15-20 reps and you can get out 22 reps, add weight. Some muscle groups are stronger than others so use the percentage thing as a starting point and adjust as needed.

You might be able to generalize to a degree, but as pushandpull said it comes down to trial and error. Some people have better maximal strength then endurance, while for others it's the opposite.

For the longest time I was doing 135 lbs on my bent over rows for 10 clean reps, but I couldn't nail one proper rep with 155 lbs. At the time, my maximal strength was very poor on that particular lift. According to a general formula I "should" have been able to row 155 for like 6 or 7 reps? But, it doesn't work that way.

I know a guy who can deadlift 280 for 5 clean reps, but struggles to deadlift 205 for 10 reps because of the endurance.