Hypertrophy: Adaptation Mechanisms & Training Guidelines

In many traditional strength training paradigms, there is a dose-response relationship ascribed to different rep ranges. They say 1–5 reps are for building strength, 6–10 for functional hypertrophy, 10–15 for non-functional hypertrophy, and 15+ for muscular endurance. However, when you dissect the current body of training literature, this concept doesn’t seem to hold its own weight. Training with very light loads to failure can produce similar muscle gains than training with heavier loads. The only real difference between a set of each of these is the number of reps you’ll be able to hit before you reach failure. Based on the current body of research, it looks like repetition range isn’t all that important for hypertrophy as long as you take your sets within zero to five reps of true muscular failure.

Somewhere along the lines, coaches began to espouse the idea that there is an optimal rep range for hypertrophy. Which, they claim, happens to fall perfectly between eight to twelve repet…