Increase the load or do more repetitions?

To stimulate muscle growth, you need to constantly challenge your muscles to do more work than in the previous workout. To do this, it's common to try increasing the load or doing more repetitions with the maximum weight you can handle.

For example, if you bench press 80kg for 8 reps today, your goal for your next workout might be to try to increase the load to 82kg or to maintain the 80kg load and try to do 9 or more reps.

But which variable is more important: increasing the load or increasing the repetitions?

Both and below you will understand why.

Gaining muscle mass becomes progressively more difficult as you progress. The ratio of effort to progress essentially stabilizes after a few years, so if you want to keep progressing, you should strive to lift increasingly heavier weights and increase your training volume to continue challenging your body.

See, in the beginning, when you first start training seriously , you'll probably be able to increase the load on your main exercises every week (sometimes every workout). This rapid progression can happen over a few months.

However, increasing the load every week will eventually become impossible. A year has 52 weeks. Just imagine that if it were possible to progress linearly, every week or every workout, by the end of the first year everyone who trains would be able to lift loads worthy of an Olympic weightlifter.

Unfortunately, things don't happen that way. After a few months of heavy training, progressing in weight will become extremely difficult (if not impossible), at which point you'll have to add more reps.

In other words, there will come a time when you can't add more weight to a given exercise. In this case, you maintain the maximum weight and try to squeeze out extra reps.

For example: imagine you're doing free squats for 8 reps and you've plateaued at 80kg. By maintaining that 80kg, your goal will be to be able to do 9 or 10 reps.

If other variables (like diet) are in order, after a while you will be doing more reps with your maximum weight and when you return to the initial number of reps, your maximum load will inevitably be higher.

In short, to continue challenging your muscles, you can train in a range of 6 to 12 repetitions, always trying to increase the load (even in small increments). When this isn't possible, try doing more repetitions (even if it exceeds 12).

Exercise matters too

The main point has already been explained. However, to avoid errors and confusion, it's worth explaining that this "rule" can change slightly depending on the exercise you're doing. In some cases, focusing solely on load or repetitions may yield better results or safety.

Compound exercises involve multiple muscle groups and joints, allowing you to naturally use heavier loads and making it easier to increase weight over time. In other words, these exercises are more conducive to weight progression. Therefore, you should pay more attention to increasing the load in these exercises.

Isolation exercises, on the other hand, target specific muscle groups and usually involve a single joint. These exercises are not conducive to increasing load. In fact, in some cases, it's unsafe to constantly try to increase the load.

Examples include barbell curls and lateral raises. In these exercises, it can be more difficult to continually increase the load due to limited isolated muscle strength, making it more productive to focus your energy on increasing repetitions while improving technique.