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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StackGsMan" data-source="post: 1061325" data-attributes="member: 11872">The exact number of reps you do should be played by ear. You generally want to stick with less than 12 reps at an absolute maximum, and you probably want to do a weight where you struggle to finish 8 reps.That being said, IMO the exact number of reps should vary week to week. Let me give you an example that will be particularly relevant to someone like you or me that prefer to do dumbbell presses for chest as opposed to barbell work.Lets say on your chest day you start out one week with doing 90 lbs for each dumbbell on the flat bench. I forgot to mention IMO you should do the same weight throughout your 4 sets of that exercise UNLESS the weight is too heavy and makes you compromise form or it is too light and you are doing endless reps. Now, you do your first set and hit 10 reps at failure. Then 8, then 6, then 5. That is generally what all my exercises look like, with a rep or two different here or there. Now with something like a dumbbell chest press you can't manipulate the weight by a tiny amount like you can with a barbell because at the very least you have to increase the weight by 5 lbs in each hand. My recommendation would be that for the next week or two or three keep the same weight and just focus on pumping out more reps. You might end up doing 15 reps at that weight a few weeks later and that is above the number of reps you should be going for, but it is more than alright because you are both doing more work (causing muscles to work harder) and at the same time getting slowly prepared to move up in weight.It is for that reason that I say the exact number of reps doesn't matter per se, but yes you should be aiming to be near the 6-8 rep range for many of your sets.</blockquote>

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