It depends on your goals, but for muscle growth 20 reps is a little high. 8-10 is a good range and then you can progress up to 12 reps before increasing the weight again.
Ex: week 1 30 lbs 8 reps
Week 2 30 lbs 10 reps
Week 3 30 lbs 12 reps
Week 4 35 lbs 8 reps
Etc
My goals are strength training and weight loss. I'm just kind of going to the gym, kicking my own ass for 3-4 hours a day, and then doing it again.
Just starting out, but I've already felt some improvement, and lost about 4-7lbs depending on the day. It fluctuates.
If you want to get leaner and stronger, you should focus on bigger movements and not single muscle concentrated exercises. Pull ups, rows, bench press, deadlifts and squats. After whole body lifts, you can focus on single muscles like biceps. If you do them while fatigued by other lifts, you have to tune the load accordingly.
Most important of all: look at your form and stick to the movement. Let the weights down before going out of form. Weight is the tool, not the target (in your case!)
Are you giving your body enough time to recover? Also, rather than reps, focus on time under load. Aim for a weight light enough such that you do two or three verrrry slow reps for more than 60 seconds, but too heavy for 90 seconds. Source: "Body by Science" by Little and McGuff; "SuperSlow" by Hutchins. According to Little and McGuff (and their bibliography), most people require 7 to 10 days in between weight training muscle groups in order to fully recover. Any less than that and gains are being left on the table.
I didn't quite believe it myself, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Sure enough, I started being about to go up about five pounds every 6 to 8 weeks, weight training once every 7 days.
7 to 10 days between gym time??? I'm in the gym 4-5 days a week for 3-4 hours a day. Now granted some of that time is rest, but that sounds nuts! I just got off an exercise bike, and went for 20 minutes straight. Which is a new personal best. Said I burned 150 calories. I might do it again in 2 hours.
But for now, it's weights time.
Edit: really trying to clarify my statements. :D
I could have stated that more clearly. Little, McGuff, and a lot of other research point to the 7 to 10 day recovery duration between weight training sessions, especially if you weight train to failure. Which, if you want strength gains, that failure + recovery is how it's done. The CV system is capable of base/maintenance/load cardio as much as you want. HIIT approximately every other day, but some people, especially when well-conditioned, are capable of HIIT every day.
I'm with you. I'm in the gym and/or bike commuting every day.
.......you're just confusing me more.
I don't know the gym terms. I don't know what CV or HIIT are.
I'm just going to the gym, basically kicking my own ass every night, and then getting home, showering, going to bed, and weighing myself in the morning. The needle is moving in the right direction. At my heaviest I was 315. I've been dieting for like 2 years, but a month ago I started going to the gym.
Since I started going to the gym, I went from 259, to today 247. I think the cardio combined with my new diet is a good combo. I was 249 yesterday. Then I did like 35 minutes of cardio. Mixed in with arms, abs, and legs strength training.
Today I was 247.
I still don't get what you mean about 7 days rest.
Kick. Ass. So much congrats on the progress! Also, kudos on modifying the diet. As my first cycling coach told me: there's no outrunning a bad diet.
Your original question was regarding your lack of strength gains. The human body requires recovery from stress. I gave you very specific book references. Take it from there.
As low as 8 reps is effective. 20 is at the higher end but there’s some limited reasons to do that.
Multiple sets. 3 sets of 10 reps gets you 30 reps.
Give Renaissance Periodization and Jeff Nippard a look on the other platforms. Dr Mike talks a bunch about rep ranges.
....is it bad that I've been doing 5 sets of 20 reps? You're saying 30 reps total. If I REALLY pushed myself, I might be able to do that in 1 set. You're saying split it between 3 sets. Is there a such thing as too many reps? I've been just saying "nope!" if my arm gets this heavy/tired feeling. When I feel that, it becomes a struggle to lift, and I've been taking that as a sign that I need to rest before I get hurt.
No. It’s not bad. You’ll grow muscle. There is an upper limit for productivity. It won’t be as good for developing pure strength. It takes longer. It can be good for rehabilitating an injury, targeting a specific muscle, or managing fatigue.
You should target 2-3 reps in reserve. That means 2-3 reps before you literally cannot lift the weight.
If you’re doing sets of 20, it will be very difficult to injure yourself.
I feel like it’s not necessarily about “too many” as long as you don’t get hurt doing it, but rather it’s a question of time - 5x20 with something you can do easily will not really get you better or faster results than 3x10 with a weight that really makes you work, and the latter takes less time.
What other lifts are you doing? Do you also have any cardio exercise? I feel like we can give better advice if we get a better idea of what you are doing.
I basically go to the gym and try to kick my own ass. Some days it's all cardio. Some days its all arms. Some days its all legs. Some days it's a mix.
I don't even know the names of the machines. One of them you do a jogging moonwalk. I do that for 15 minutes. Some days I do an exercise bike. They also have this machine where you pull a stick as you sit down, and the whole seat moves backwards.
Then there's this thing that has 2 handles, and the handles are connected to weights which are connected to a steel cable wire. As you push the handles forward you are pushing the steel cable, which in turn lifts the weights which are on the side.On that one I do 20 reps at 55lbs. But some days my arms are too tired, so I bump down to 40lbs.
They also have a ab machine. Turns out I was doing it wrong. You put your knees on this padded seat, and then your elbows in the arm rests on the top with handles. I thought you were supposed to lift with your knees but stablize the left with your arms. Then I saw on the machine NOT to use your arms.
So.....whoops.
If 5 lb is too large of a jump, you can also get magnetic weights (expensive) or some cheap 1-2.5 lb wrist weights to bridge the gap.
Anything between 5-30 reps is inside the hypertrophic sweet spot, but for isolation exercises you probably want to aim for ~12 reps and up.
My biggest concern reading this is that you seem quite fixated to the weight of the dumbells. Some body English is fine, but be careful to not make what should be a biceps exercise into a full body exercise.
Body English? :)
In sports and exercise contexts, it also describes the use of non-standard or extra body movements to help complete a physical action, such as using torso or leg motion to assist an upper body exercise
Thanks for the explanation! I interpreted it correctly, but really thought you misspelled something :D
I learned something new.