A few months ago, one of my clients messaged me saying her knees were feeling beat up from heavy squats, but she didn’t want to lose progress.
Instead of dropping squats altogether, we swapped to a slightly lighter load and bumped the reps up.
After a while, her knees stopped barking, and she didn’t lose any progress.
That’s the thing, lifting heavy for low reps is great for building muscle. You hit those 2–5 hard, growth-stimulating reps quicker, and that’s where the magic happens.
But that doesn’t mean higher reps are useless.
In fact, there are times when they’re the better choice.
One is after a long run of heavy lifting. If your joints are feeling it or little niggles are starting to creep in, switching to slightly lighter weights and higher reps can keep you progressing without beating yourself up.
Another is when an exercise requires a lot of control or setup, like glute med kickbacks. If you’re trying to grind those out for 4–6 reps, you’ll probably spend more effort just bracing than actually focusing on the kickback itself.
Bump the reps up, drop the load a bit, and the exercise starts working how it should.
And no, your whole workout doesn’t need to be either low reps or high reps. You can mix them, on purpose.
Personally, I like to program higher reps in two ways: either with a top set/back-off set combo, or a descending rep method. I’ll explain both in another email.
The takeaway is heavy lifting is great, but don’t ignore higher reps. Used well, they keep you training hard, and making progress without constantly smashing yourself.
By the way, here are 3 more ways I can help you improve your strength, physique and gym confidence:
1. Grab a free copy of my new book – Lower Body Workouts for Women
If you’ve been doing random exercises at the gym without a plan, this is for you. Steal one of my favourite workout templates to build strong and toned legs! Click here to grab your free copy.
2. Join Our Strong Not Skinny Program
I’m putting together a new Strong Not Skinny group at the end of this month… stay tuned for details. If you’d like me to create a brand-new strength program for you each month so you can build strength and muscle, join our WAITLIST HERE, and I’ll give you first access before spots open to the public.
3. Learn more tips and tricks on any one of my socials below:
