NO - It’s about total workout volume and intensity.
What is total workout volume?
Total workout volume represents the amount of lifted tonnage in a workout. If you did 3 sets of 10 reps with 100 lbs thats – 30 x 100 = 3000 lbs lifted. This is a very important number that many people have never heard of. However, analyzing its values can make all the difference.
If your overall workout volume is increasing, you are subjecting yourself to more stimulus and as result your body is adapting. One of the ways to adapt to lifting is growing bigger and stronger. Pushing your total workout volume upwards should be your main priority – not doing a precise amount of reps.
However…
Some of you may get the impression that you should aim just to get the number up while sacrificing intensity. This is not the case.
Let’s say that your 1 rep squat max is 200 lbs. This means that your 5 rep max is about 150-160 lbs. If you do 5 reps with your 5 rep max that’s – 750 lbs lifted. At the same time, if you do 110 lbs 7 times that’s about the same – 770 lbs lifted. However, it’s much easier to do 110 lbs x 7 than 5 x 150 lbs. This is why should always take into consideration intensity and don’t sacrifice it for the sake of lifting more lbs overall.
The point is to keep both volume and intensity moderate to high. How you do that is a personal preference. You can do 5×5, 10×3, 2×8…etc. What’s important is that you increase your overall workout volume while keeping moderate intensity. If that rule is respected, progress will occur regardless of the rep range you follow. Remember: the body cannot count and does not know how many reps you’ve done. The language you use to speak to your body and tell it to grow is lifted tonnage and intensity, not exactly rep ranges.
