Why “3 Sets of 8 to 12 Reps” Might Be Killing Your Gains
Here’s a much better (science-backed) approach
If I ate a toffee every time I’m asked, “How many reps for the best gains?”, I’d be morbidly obese.
Drawing in a deep breath, I launch into an explanation of progressive overload — and how the exact rep numbers don’t matter much.
While most zone out and get back to their 3 sets of 8–12 reps, a few inquisitive folks listen.
God bless their gains!
Through this article, I want to settle the reps-question once and for all.
The Only Factor that Matters for Continuous Muscle and Strength Gain
Legend has it that Milo of Croton shouldered a bull calf and carried it around every day.
As the calf grew heavier, so did Milo’s strength and muscles.
This myth illustrates the power of progressive overload — gradually (over)loading your body with higher and higher resistance.
Your body gains strength and muscle mass through neuromuscular adaptations.
When you struggle to curl 10 lbs or squat 100, your biceps and legs undergo damage — and during repair, the muscle fibers fuse to grow thicker and stronger.
So the only way to steadily gain new muscle and strength?
By continuously increasing the resistance and challenge you subject your body to.
But Wait, There’s a Massive Caveat
Progressive overload needn’t mean solely jacking up the reps or weight. It can also mean:
- Slowing down and controlling your reps.
- Pausing and squeezing at peak contraction.
- Being faster and more explosive with the positive phase of every rep.
- Hitting the same reps and weights — but with better form.
- Resting for shorter durations between sets/reps.
- Doing more sets of the same reps and weights.
Our core idea is to increase the demand we place on the muscles we’re targeting — how you do it is only limited by your creativity.
But as Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
So, overloading through reps and/or weights is still the best way — since it’s easily trackable.
Forget Reps, Do This Instead
Breezily curling 5 lbs for 8 without breaking a set — and curling 5 lbs for 9 next time isn’t progressive overload.
That’s progressive lazyload — if you aren’t training hard, no amount of overload will do jack.
So, forget reps and concentrate on pushing close to failure — where it becomes a near-impossible challenge to eke out another rep.
This doesn’t mean throwing form to the dogs — it means using perfect form until you can’t. Here’s a video that illustrates true failure.
“When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% in to what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.”
— David Goggins
No wonder most keep complaining they aren’t gaining muscle — when they’re barely breaking a sweat.
If you’re not grunting, going red, gasping, or making ugly faces when lifting, you’re probably not going hard enough.
Train hard — and train harder the next time.
A Simple Thumb Rule to Decide The Rep Ranges
The larger the muscle groups involved in an exercise, the lower the reps.
For full-body compound movements like deadlifts, front squats, and clean-and-jerks, use a rep range of 4 to 8.
For upper-body compounds like bench presses, OHP, and weighted pull-ups, go with 4 to 12 reps — the same for lower-body compounds like barbell back squats and lunges.
For big-muscle isolation exercises like cable flies, tricep extensions, and dumbbell shrugs — go with 8 to 15 reps.
For small-muscle isolation exercises like face pulls, forearm curls, and preacher curls — you can go beyond 20 reps.
Final Thoughts
You can still build muscle with 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps — provided you train close to failure and progressively overload.
But it isn’t the most optimal, instead:
- Choose your rep range based on the exercise — the larger and more the muscles involved, the lesser the reps. Even then, don’t venture below 3 reps or above 30.
- Try to perform “perfect reps” — explode the positive, pause at peak contraction, and slowly control the negative.
- Mix up rep ranges and see how your body reacts.
- Add in intensity techniques like drop sets, super-sets, rest-pause reps, and forced cheat reps.
In the end, working out is highly personalized — and only with experimentation will you find exercises and reps that are perfect for you.
May the altar of iron bless you with the gains you desire!