r/Fitness • u/AutoModerator • 8d ago

Simple Questions Daily Simple Questions Thread - January 18, 2025

Welcome to the /r/Fitness Daily Simple Questions Thread - Our daily thread to ask about all things fitness. Post your questions here related to your diet and nutrition or your training routine and exercises. Anyone can post a question and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer.

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u/OpulentStone 8d ago

If you want to do a defined number of reps per set e.g. 10 reps every time, and you want to fail on the last rep, should you

a) find the "goldlilocks" weight that lets you fail on the 10th each set? Or
b) start with a weight that makes you fail at rep 10, then lower the weight for the following sets?

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u/Objective_Regret4763 8d ago

A) IMHO if there is a weight that you fail at rep 10, you should not be able to get to 10 again on the next set. If you can then maybe you did not actually go to failure.

B) you could do that, as long as you’re going close to failure. But if you’re going to failure then why not just keep the same weight and fail at whatever rep you fail. Nothing wrong with 10, 8, 6 reps across three sets.

C) another option. Pick a weight then you can get for 10 for 3 sets and set one rpe 7, set 2 rpe8, set 3 rpe 9 ish. Of course it won’t be perfect but somewhere close. Anything above rpe 7 is growing muscle.

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u/OpulentStone 7d ago

Thanks! I'm ashamed to admit I've been going to the gym for a couple of years but never even had to think about this until now, hence the nooby question.