How to Increase Reps
This is the secret to getting past your plateau
If you’ve been on a plateau of exercise and don’t know how to get out of it, you are in the right place. These methods that I’m going to discuss can help you increase your reps fast and efficiently.
How to increase Reps
So if you can do 5+ reps of an exercise I would incorporate EMOM(Every Minute On the Minute) into your routine doing 25–35% of maximal capacity. For example, if you can do 20 pull-ups 25–35% of that would be 5–7 pullups. Do this for ten sets every minute to help increase your reps.
When trying to increase repetitions you can also focus on a strength-based exercise. As your strength increases so does your endurance to a certain point.
Circuit Training
There are also combination sets. This is where you take multiple exercises and follow them back to back to increase reps.
For example:
Muscle up workout
3x5 High Pullups
Explosive chest-to-bar pull-ups 3x8
Weighted pull-ups 3x5
Weighted straight bar dips 3x TF
I recommend testing yourself twice a month to see where your progress is at. This can look like taking a set of an exercise to failure. Make sure you don’t test too frequently because failure training is strenuous on the CNS.
Tempo
Speed isn’t always key. Sometimes slow and steady wins the rest.
You can also change the tempo to help increase the proficiency of an increase. A 1– 3–1–1 tempo for pushing and a 1–1–3–1 for pulling. During the eccentric portion, it's very important to go slow and during the concentric portion, you explode holding the staring and endpoint position for 1 second. This is more so for increasing overall strength in an exercise, but you can also increase the overall speed throughout the movement for endurance.
Instability
Instability can also help increase reps. And no I’m not just talking about using the rings, you can do push-ups with one foot raised or do decline medicine ball pushups.
Weak-Points
If you notice during your failure to set test that your grip strength is fatigued faster than your other muscle groups, or your triceps or chest or fatiguing faster than one another you need to address these issues. The best way is by adding isolation exercises.
For grip strength, you can just train it at the end of the session for endurance.
Conclusion
When trying to increase reps make sure to write down training progress in a notebook, and I don’t mean your phone. Your phone is used for too many things besides training progress. It’s important to incorporate EMOM, tempo change, or circuit training if you plan on increasing your reps. If you enjoyed this article, share it with a friend.
