Why not more reps?

Question

when you are doing, body weight workouts like pushups, pull ups or squats what are the points of reps i mean people do 3 sets of 20 and such i don't know why they don't just do it until there arms or legs are on fire. Same thing with light weight workouts they do like fifteen reps of a few sets. I would appreciate if someone could tell me why not just keep going and going, lets be honest the more reps you push out the more tone and solid you are going to become. Like i said i don't see the point could someone explain it to me.

Answer 1

if you are going to do that it will be better to get you some water dumb-bells and work out in the water. In the water you can go till you get tired and quit, but it's probably not good to do it that way with the other exercises you mentioned - just due to impact, etc.

Answer 2

To the future Arnold Schwartzenegger: not everyone wants to be built like that. Ladies like long slender muscles for themselves, not bulging ones. A lot of reps with light weights will tone without bulge. Also, a person can tear their joints apart, especially when you're older. Also, time is involved. Some people have to allocate time and they can just do so many on each machine before having to go and ...pick up kids, run errands, etc. Some people just add 1-5 reps each time they go so they can keep time that way. Just a few of the many reasons not everyone works out until they drop. As a side-point, if you're in Springfield, MO--Gold's Gym is the body-building gym for you.

Answer 3

More reps will increase endurance, but is not as effective at building up muscle. Doing a lot of reps will burn up glycogen stores in the muscle tissues, and after a certain point, the body will start eating into its own muscle for energy, which is counterproductive for building muscle.

This is why long-distance runners look sick most of the time.

To bulk and tone, progressive resistance is needed. That is, more weight and less reps.

Love Jack

Answer 4

When I Arm-Curl doing 30 lbs. each arm......I 'have to count' or I might cheat myself out and do Less than what I had hoped when Arm-Curling my Biceps.

3 sets of 10 reps is way more than enough.
If you can do More than 30 reps total per arm.....that's a great Sign you need to Add More Weight.

Hopes that helps, dude.

Answer 5

The more reps you do, the more ripped you get. The less reps you do BUT with more weight, the bigger you get.

So if you do 50 bench presses of 20KG you will be ripping/toning your muscles.

If you do 20 bench presses of 30-40KG, you are making your muscles struggle alot more, and therefore you are building muscle instead of toning.