Why do people count reps?

Excuse me if this is a dumb question, I'm just getting into working out again. I find I do more if I just keep lifting until I physically can't anymore. Is this wrong? I'm seeing good newbie gains so far.

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If you lift to failure on the first couple of sets, you won't be able to lift as heavy overall volume for the whole workout if you had stopped a rep or two before failure.

>leaves some in the tank for the next set
never gunna make it

Most people count sets because they're following some sort of programming or guideline. I started counting less and less and just go by feel. I'll count every so often to make sure I'm not doing too many reps (like 25+) before I need to rest

because your net volume for the day is going to be less

going to exhaustion is taxing on the body. Holding 1 or 2 reps will let you do an entire extra set

If you can go to 25+, it's not heavy enough user.

counting reps allows you to measure progress

It's he same as counting weight on the bar, you don't just put on a random amount of weight and lift it

I believe you need to read sentences multiple times for proper comprehension. I count to make sure I'm NOT doing that many, and I'll compensate by adding weight.

The practical answer is because it gives you a measuring stick that cues you for when you need to up the weight. It's pretty useful for beginners.

Lifting to failure is fine, but might not be ideal for what you're trying to do. Also this user is right. Plan your workouts, know which muscle groups you want to hit, and what order you want to hit them in. Don't tax yourself out before you get a chance to work the groups you wanted to.

Thanks for the response, I just feel it. You can get good at it by feeling the lactic acid burn and knowing when there is so much that you will collapse within the next 2 reps or so. Alternatively I just lower the amount of weight.

Oh yeah, I'm a dipshit, my bad.

the only reason to count reps if for periodization

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What's that? Is that to maximize the amount of reps you do over a whole workout?

Not to sound like a fucking Mighty Boosh parody, but do you REALLY feel it?

You have to learn to differentiate between your brain bitching out and telling you to quit and your muscles actually not being able to handle it. But also don't push too hard (maintain control, not too much momentum/jerking) or else you'll fuck up your shit

Because you do different volumes of exercise to accomplish different aspects of training. Once you have a good idea of the max effort you can do, (1RM=1 rep max), you want to train various percentages of that effort and that requires increasing rep ranges.

Say I’m doing high reps at a low percent of my max and intend to do several sets, blowing my load doing double the reps just because I can is going to fatigue me too much to do the other sets. When I’m training low reps I’m doing it to build muscular and cardiovascular endurance, so i’m going to want to be able to apply consistent effort across several minutes with low rest.

As an analogy, you won’t get much better at long distance running by just sprinting until you collapse.

Counting sets is a necessity for asymmetrical exercises, or you might increase the gap in strength on your stronger side.
Otherwise working to failure and time under tension are your main goals, even when counting reps.

its to track progress for weight/reps in order to acheive progressive overload

when you're a beginner you can pretty much just lift a weight that's 65% of your 1RM with good technique without going too close to failure and get great gains, but as you get more advanced you have to play with reps, # of sets and weight. An ideal scheme would be going for low reps and high intensity (%1RM) on the first week, high reps and low intensity on the second week, and medium reps with medium intensity on the third week, and start again. This would help a more advanced trainee burst through strength plateaus

I thought about this before posting, and yes I know when I physically can't do anymore. You don't stop when you you first feel the lactic acid, you know when you're gonna collapse. I think it's easiest to tell when you do leg press.

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Hmmm, that's interesting. Do you have any additional info on what you are describing?

time under tension is a meme, you aren't just a walking bag of muscle for fucks sake. You are a system with a skeleton, joints and tendons, you need to move in biologically sensible fashion. That means quick explosive movement behind feats of strength. Sitting during squats is retarded as fuck.

Sure but weight would you use? How many times to exhaustion? How to divide time between areas. Rep and set structure is the means to calculate efficiency, measure improvement and organise your routine.