Getting a good rep (page 1 of 2)

Other terms you may hear are sets, supersets, movements, rest, and tempo. All of this terminology is designed to help you better understand resistance training workouts. This article will describe these weight-lifting terms in greater detail.

A rep refers to a single resistance training movement. It is composed of two phases, known as the positive or concentric and the negative or eccentric. The positive face occurs when your muscle is contracting. It is when your chest muscles contract to propel the barbell away from your body in a bench press or when your thigh muscles are contracting to drive your body up during a squat. The negative phase occurs when you are returning to the start point - i.e. lowering the bar back to your chest or returning to a squat position.

The rate at which you resist the weight is known as tempo. Tempo is typically written with three or four numbers, like this: 311 or this: 4242. The first number is the negative phase of the lift. The second is an optional pause, and the third is the positive phase of the lift. The optional fourth is again a pause between the position and negative phases. 311 for a bench press would mean "take three seconds to lower the bar (negative), pause for 1 second, and then push the bar back up fast (1 second)." 4242 for a squat would mean "take four seconds to lower into a squat position, pause for 2 seconds, then drive the bar up in a controlled fashion, taking 4 seconds to stand upright, then pause another 2 seconds before lowering again."

The combination of repetitions is known as a set. Most of the time you will perform multiple sets - typically a warm-up set, or a light weight designed to get your blood flowing, followed by several work sets at the actual target weight. Sometimes you may even perform a cool-down set with a lighter weight designed to allow your heart to slowly return to its resting heart rate. The tempo can help you estimate the duration of the workout. A 311 tempo, for example, is 5 seconds total. If you are doing 3 sets of 12 repetitions, you will spend 3 x 12 x 5 = 180 seconds or 3 minutes lifting. This may also involve 1 - 5 minutes of rest between sets, so the entire sequence could take up to 15 minutes to complete.

The term intensity refers to how heavy the weight is compared to your 1-rep max. A 1-rep max (1RM) is the maximum weight you can lift one time. For example, if you can lift a 90kg barbell one time for a bench press, your 1RM would be 90kg. A workout using 90kg would then be 100% intensity, while a workout using only 45kg would be 50% intensity.

The combination of intensity and repetitions typically indicates the type of workout. This assumes you are doing a controlled, rapid tempo. Slower tempos will force you to lift lighter weights for that repetition range and will change the dynamic of training.

The following guide is a general "rule of thumb" for training

Again, these ranges are guidelines. A slower or faster workout or change in intensity from the suggested ranges can change the dynamic of the training. For example, a slower tempo in the 16 - 20 rep range may be more of a hypertrophy (muscle gain) workout while a more explosive workout at the 20-rep range could be neural (strength) based rather than endurance.

The actual exercise you perform is referred to as the exercise or movement. You typically pick several movements per body part. In a back workout, this would mean a rowing movement (cable rows) and a vertical pulling movement (pull-ups or lat pull-downs).