The goal is to complete 100 reps of these primary exercises within 30 minutes. Feel free to distribute the reps as you see fit — you can do sets of 10, 15, or 25.
You want to perform 100 total reps, resting as often as you need to get there. Keep the rest periods short and sweet. Catch your breath, regain your composure, and then knock out a few more reps. Depending on the exercise, 100 reps might take you 20 minutes or 45 minutes.
The 5/3/1 Method Training Cycle
Week one: For each workout, perform three sets of five reps (three x five) of one lifting exercise. So for example, on Monday, do three x five of bench presses, Wednesday three x five of squats, Friday three x five of shoulder presses, and Saturday three x five of deadlifts.
So, yes, in terms of lasting gains, strength and endurance, the 100 rep workout will contribute to your muscle growth and sporting performance going forwards.
A research review from 2015 found that a fairly wide range of rep durations (1-8 seconds) can be used to maximise muscle growth, but training at very slow speeds (longer than 10 seconds per rep) can actually reduce the effectiveness of the exercise and is not the best way to achieve hypertrophy or muscle growth.
The good news is that you can't go wrong with slow or fast reps if your goal is to get stronger. The researchers behind the International Journal of Sports Medicine review concluded that both fast reps and moderate-slow reps help improve muscular strength (think: how much weight you can lift).
As long as a total rep duration of two to eight seconds is maintained, muscle growth is more likely to occur – so there's no need to sweat it over exact tempo durations for muscle growth. What's most important is that you adjust it to suit your needs and goals.
Low Weight, High Reps Is Good for Overall Health
Strength-training workouts that employ low weights and high reps are good for your heart and lungs as well as building muscles.
Training with higher reps can help you get ripped as higher rep training allows you to achieve higher volumes by increasing the amount of reps you perform, which can increase your overall workload. So, do high reps help you get ripped? Yes, but getting ripped with weights is not exclusive to higher rep training.
So, performing 200 reps of a movement repeatedly over an extended period will let you build strength and muscular endurance. With workouts like these, bodyweight is more than enough resistance to create fatigue and force your body and muscles to adapt.
The rule that both NSCA and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommend is the “2-for-2 rule.” After a few workout sessions, you can increase the weight for a certain exercise once you can perform two more repetitions beyond your repetition goal for the last set for two weeks in a row.
Shifting stubborn fat comes down to the 70/30 rule: only 30% comes from exercise whereas 70% comes from making changes to what you eat. It is the most important factor in a shredding fat.
The frequency of deloading depends on the individual's training history, goals, and the intensity of their training program. Most athletes benefit from deloading every 4-12 weeks. However, if an athlete experiences symptoms of overtraining or fatigue, they may need to deload more frequently.
We know that any set taken to failure between 5-30 reps will give us similar levels of muscle growth. Sets in the upper range of 25-30 may not be practical due to lower levels of recruitment at the start and therefore really having to push to failure.
Remember that what works for me might not be right for you and your body, and if you're returning to exercise following an injury, or you're completely new to hammer curls, doing 100 a day isn't recommended. It's also a good idea to check your form with a personal trainer before adding weight or reps to the move.
If you are looking to build strength, use a weight which is heavy enough, but not too heavy so you can manage at least 3 - 6 reps. If you're looking to build muscle, you need to be lifting heavy enough that you can manage 8 - 12 reps.
Rest between set durations should be based on sets/exercise (volume), and not load or training goal. General recommendations include moderate (2 min) rest between sets if performing 2 sets/exercise, long rest (3 min) if performing 3 sets/exercise, and very long rest (> 4 min) if performing 4 sets or more/exercise.
The Ideal Ab Workout Frequency
For someone who is new to working out (or at least working out their abs), a goal of completing 12-16 challenging sets (of 8-12 repetitions) in their ab workouts per week may be sufficient to produce gains in strength and muscle volume.
All your muscles are made up of tiny individual fibers, and those fibers can be grouped into two different types: Type I (slow-twitch) and Type II (fast-twitch). “Type I muscle fibers, which are slow twitch, respond better to high rep training because they're more resistant to fatigue,” says Adrian.
They sometimes think they can't train hard anymore, but if they just go lighter and do more reps, they can build muscle too.” Bottom line: “It's the effort you put in that matters most,” Hyson says. “Lifting heavier builds more strength, but lifting to failure with any weight can build bigger, more aesthetic muscles.”
This holds that regardless of whether you're trying to build muscle, strength, power, or endurance, performing three sets of 10 reps per exercise is a good place to start. The scheme mostly works, especially if you're just starting out with strength training—because everything works in the beginning.
The one-repetition maximum test, also called a one-rep max or 1RM, is used to find out the heaviest weight you can lift just once (but not twice).
Another study found that lifting with a faster tempo on the concentric portion (1 second vs. 3 seconds) was better for muscle gain. With respect to the eccentric portion of a repetition, there is evidence to suggest that slower (4 seconds vs. 1 second) is better.