Which do I increase?

October 30, 2006 10:43 AM

Exercisefilter: More reps or more weight? Looking for advice on using weight machines.

I use the weight machines at my gym once or twice a week, mainly to burn calories and tone muscles, not to really build muscle. Right now I do 2x15 at a reasonable weight on each machine, and am wondering if I should increase the weight and do fewer reps, or increase the reps at the same weight. I've been working out with the same amount of weight for several months now, increasing the reps from 2x10 to 2x15 over that time.

I also do cardio exercise once or twice a week, and yoga once a week.

posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

I don't quite understand the question. If you don't want to build muscle then why increase the weight? I'm not sure what your goal is or why you're worried that you're not doing things right...
posted by ob at 11:32 AM on October 30, 2006

General rule:
Fewer Reps / More Weight = gain muscle mass
More Reps / Less Weight = maintain mass and gain tone
posted by youngergirl44 at 11:35 AM on October 30, 2006

Sorry - more info: Depending on what weight you are using for the reps you're talking about, it may be time to increase that weight to give your muscles more resistance. This should help the tone in the muscles you already have. You want to 'feel the burn', as muscles are built by actually tearing and then healing. Stay with a weight you are comfortable with, but where you still feel like you are working hard. There's no need to max out your weight to a point of only doing 5-7 reps. When I was weight training I would do three sets of 15-20 reps (depending on which muscles I was working on) three times a week.
posted by youngergirl44 at 11:42 AM on October 30, 2006

I think it is best to tailor your weight training to what you are hoping to accomplish... From what you said, it sounds like your best bet would be to vary your workouts, mixing low rep strength training with high rep low weight training like you are doing now. Your muscles "learn" a lot over time and you constantly have to challenge them in new and different ways to keep growing stronger over time. oga and Pilates will help with flexibility and the core strength required for good lisfting form. I'd recommend learning how to lift free weights after you've been on machines for a while because free wieghts with challenge you through the whole range of motion for a certain exercise, and help you to develop the "helper" muscles, not just the main muscle worked by the machine.

Good diet and good cardio is the only way to get good definition. Of you aren't concerned with appearance as much, work strength training-- it develops your bone strength as well.

WikiPedia has a great article here.

I've found that very low reps (1-3) using high weight..."is highly effective at making a muscle stronger. Start off with a weight you absolutely know you can get at least three singles with. Remember, it's better to start off too light than too heavy. Make sure you warm up well for the lift using very low reps.

Then after three minutes rest, go directly into singles. Perform a single, rest three to five minutes and then do another single. If you manage to do eight singles, stop performing the lift, add 2.5 to 5 pounds at your next workout and start the progression again.

If you goal is simply to be stronger, then end the workout at this point. " (from BodyBuilding.com)

Have fun and good luck!
posted by wonderwisdom at 11:48 AM on October 30, 2006

Repeat after me: toning is a myth.

All the info you need should be there.
posted by Loto at 11:50 AM on October 30, 2006

Yeah, I didn't check my spelling. Booooo!
posted by wonderwisdom at 11:50 AM on October 30, 2006

ob, I'm figuring that either increasing the reps or the weight is going to help me burn more calories. I just wanted to stress that I'm not trying to bulk up with muscle mass (a la a bodybuilder) but simply looking to burn calories and tone what I've already got. If I build a bit of muscle, that's fine, but it's not my primary goal.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér at 11:54 AM on October 30, 2006

You can't really tone muscles, you can only really increase muscle mass and loss fat to make your muscle tone more visible.

The general rule of thumb for adding mass (though there's a lot of different systems and philosophies out there) is to do three sets in the 8-12 rep range, at a weight that causes you to fail on your last rep. At lower rep ranges your effecting brute strength more, and at higher ranges, muscular endurance (resting time between sets has an effect on this, too).

If you continue to add reps and not increase weight, at a certain point what you're going to getting is a fairly inefficient aerobic workout, and you're time is probably better off spent doing cardio.

So, if you're really happy with muscle size/strength, your probably best maintaining your current weight training (or cutting it back to once a week), and adding additional cardio or sports.

That being said, adding muscle mass is great, because it increases the amount of calories you burn all the time, and it increase the size/definition of your muscles, so it has a compound effect on gaining a toned look. And when you get to the point that you feel good about where you are, you just stop increasing weight, and maintain.


On preview... beat to it by everybody.
posted by cosmonaught at 11:54 AM on October 30, 2006

Ahah, sorry I wasn't clear. Well yes indeed, gaining muscle mass will burn more calories at rest, so it's a good thing. You should look at strength training rather than body building, but the general rule is that you should do about 8-12 reps and then about three sets of those. If you can easily do more than twelve it's time to start adding more weight.

I would also recommend using free weights and doing supersets once every few weeks. Your body is very good at acclimatising (for want of a better expression) and supersets help to stop that happening and ensure that you don't get bored with your routine.

I've suggested it here before, but I'll suggest it again: if you're interested in a good workout that's not about body building but about strength training you could do much worse than to check out Sylvester Stallone's book Sly Moves. I'm honestly not trying to sell this book but it's worked out well for me...
posted by ob at 3:21 PM on October 30, 2006

I agree that toning is a vague concept that is better defined as losing fat and/or increasing muscle mass. Unfortunately these are, without the aid of steroids, opposing goals!

To reduce body fat, here's two basic points to consider:

1) What matters most is that you are excercising your largest muscle groups for a significant amount of time. About 70% of your muscle mass is in your abdominal core and upper legs, so the best way to burn calories is to do lots of squats and deadlifts, or use cardio machines that involve leg action (any of bike, treadmill, stairclimber, etc will do).

2) It's common knowledge that as excercise intensity increases, you approach or exceed the aerobic/anaerobic threshold. It's also well known that your body mainly burns fat when excercising aerobically, and mainly burns sugar when excercising anaerobically.

So to burn fat, I'd say it's best to focus on high reps at moderate intensity.

As for building muscle, the optimal method depends on your genetics and your lifestyle. Most people who aren't Kenyan marathon-runners have more fast-twitch than slow twitch muscle fibres. You can't significantly change the ratio of slow/fast twitch fibres in your muscle (it's a function of your genetics), you can only strengthen what you have. Now, fast-twitch tissue is best strengthened through high-intensity, low-rep workouts. Slow-twitch tissue responds best to moderate-intensity, high-rep workouts. So if you want big muscles, for most people it's better to do fewer reps of bigger weights.

As you can see, the types of excercise suited to burning fat (moderate, high rep) are opposite to those suited to most people for building muscle (intense, low rep). That's just life, and any personal trainer who has been educated in mainstream sports science and isn't trying to sell you something will acknowledge this. As a result, a proper long-term workout plan is cyclical: a few months focused on building muscle, a few months focused on losing fat. Repeat once or twice, and after a year or so you will achieve that holy grail of being "toned". Only teenagers (thanks to all those hormones) can really build muscle AND lose fat at the same time -- the only way for adults to do this is to resort to doping.

If you are serious about your workouts, you should seek out the advice of a trainer who has a university degree in sports science. It won't be cheap, but it'll be very enlightening.
posted by randomstriker at 5:50 PM on October 30, 2006 [1 favorite]