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Tag: reps

  • Rep. Julia Brownley announces she will not seek reelection

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    Rep. Julia Brownley, a Democrat who has represented swaths of Ventura and Los Angeles counties for more than a decade, announced Thursday that she would not seek reelection.

    “Serving our community and our country has been the honor of my lifetime. Every step of this journey has been shaped by the people I represent, by their resilience, their determination, and their belief that government can and should work for the common good,” Brownley said, touting her efforts to expand access to healthcare, support veterans, fight climate change and other policy priorities, as well as constituent services. “We … never lost sight of the simple truth that public service is about showing up for people when they need help the most.”

    Brownley, 73, did not say why she was choosing not to seek reelection, but she joins more than 40 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have announced they are not to running for their seats again in November. Other Californians not seeking reelection are Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), who is running for governor.

    Brownley served on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board of education and in the state Assembly before successfully running for Congress in 2012. At the time, the district was nearly evenly divided between Democratic and Republican voters. But in years since, the district has grown more liberal.

    In 2024, when the 26th Congressional District included Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Westlake Village and a portion of San Buenaventura, the congresswoman won reelection with 56.6% of the vote over GOP businessman Michael Koslow, who received 43.4% of the ballots cast. At the time, the voter registration in the district was 42.5% Democratic, 29.6% Republican and 20.4% independent.

    The district grew more Democratic after the passage of Proposition 50, the redrawing of congressional maps California voters approved in November to counter President Trump’s efforts to boost the number of Republicans elected to Congress from GOP-led states. Simi Valley was excised from the district, while Hidden Hills, parts of Palmdale, Lancaster and nearby high-desert areas were added to the district.

    For Republican candidates had already announced plans to challenge Brownley this year, including Koslow, who called Brownley “out of touch” with the district’s voters.

    “The voters of the 26th Congressional District need a representative who isn’t afraid to vote his conscience in Washington,” Koslow said in a statement. “They can count on me to bring common sense to Washington.”

    On Thursday, Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for Brownley’s seat hours after the congresswoman announced she would not seek reelection.

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    Seema Mehta

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  • ‘It’s all at stake’: As Prop. 50 fight intensifies, Newsom, partisan influencers rally their bases

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    The multimillion-dollar jousting over redrawing California’s congressional districts to boost Democrats and counter President Trump was on full display in recent days, as both sides courted voters less than a month before ballots begin arriving in mailboxes.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom, national Democratic leaders including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and a slew of political influencers held an hours-long virtual rally Tuesday afternoon, urging Californians to support Proposition 50 in the Nov. 4 special election. Speakers framed the stakes of the ballot measure as nothing short of existential — not just for Democratic interests, but also for democracy.

    “It’s all at stake. This is a profound and consequential moment in American history. We can lose this republic if we do not assert ourselves and stand tall at this moment and stand guard to this republic and our democracy. I feel that in my bones,” Newsom said Tuesday afternoon.

    If passed, Proposition 50 would gerrymander the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats, bolstering the fates of several Democrats in vulnerable swing districts and potentially cost Republicans up to five House seats.

    California’s congressional districts are drawn by a voter-approved independent commission once a decade after the U.S. census. But Newsom and other state Democrats proposed a rare mid-decade redrawing of the districts to increase the number of Democrats in Congress in response to similar efforts in GOP-led states, notably Texas.

    Tuesday’s virtual rally, which was emceed by progressive influencer Brian Tyler Cohen, was a cross between an old-school money-raising telethon and new media streaming session. Popular podcasters and YouTubers such as Crooked Media’s Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor (alumni of former President Obama’s administration), Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch and David Pakman shared the screen with political leaders, with an on-screen fundraising thermometer inching higher throughout.

    Cohen argued that people like him had been “begging” Democrats to fight Trump. And now elected officials had done their part by getting Proposition 50 on the ballot, he said, urging viewers to donate to support the effort.

    Warren argued that Trump was a “would-be king” — but if Democrats could retake control of either house of Congress, that would be stopped, she posited.

    “And if we have both houses under Democratic control,” Warren continued, “now we are truly back in the game in terms of making our Constitution work again.”

    The exhaustive list of speakers represented the spectrum of the modern left, with standard-bearers such as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, alongside rising stars including Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.). A number of California delegates, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Reps. Ted. Lieu, Robert Garcia, Pete Aguilar, Jimmy Gomez and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, also spoke.

    The event had been scheduled to take place Sept. 10 but was postponed after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier that day.

    Jessica Millan Patterson, the former leader of the California Republican Party and chair of an anti-Proposition 50 committee, accused Newsom of “scrambling for out-of-touch messengers to sell his scheme.”

    “For Gavin Newsom, it’s all distraction and deflection. Instead of addressing the $283 million price tag taxpayers are stuck with for his partisan power grab, he’s hosting a cringeworthy webinar packed with DC politicians, out-of-state influencers, and irrelevant podcasters, all lining up to applaud his gerrymandered maps,” Millan Patterson said in a statement Tuesday.

    Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed the creation of the independent redistricting commission while in office and has campaigned to stop gerrymandering across the nation after his term ended, forcefully denounced Proposition 50 on Monday.

    “They are trying to fight for democracy by getting rid of the democratic principles of California,” Schwarzenegger told hundreds of students at an event celebrating democracy at the University of Southern California. “It is insane to let that happen.”

    The former governor, a Trump foe who has prioritized good governance at his institute at USC, said the effort to dismantle the independent commission’s congressional districts to counter Trump are anti-democratic.

    “They want to get rid of it under the auspices of we have to fight Trump,” Schwarzenegger said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me because we have to fight Trump, [yet] we become Trump.”

    And on the morning of Sept. 10, opponents of the ballot measure rallied in Orange County, speaking about how redrawing congressional districts would dilute the voice of communities around the state.

    “We’re here because Prop. 50 poses a serious threat to Orange County’s voice, to our communities and to our taxpayers. This measure is not about fairness. It’s about power grab,” said Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen during a rally at the Asian Garden Mall in Little Saigon, a Vietnamese hub in Westminster. “And it comes at the expense of our taxpayers, our small businesses and our minority communities.”

    She noted that Little Saigon would be grouped with Norwalk in Los Angeles County if the ballot measure passes.

    “Ask anybody in this area if they even know where Norwalk is,” Nguyen said.

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    Julia Wick, Seema Mehta

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  • Interactive: How California is reshaping its congressional districts

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    The Democrats, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are hitting back at the Texas Republican lawmakers with a proposed redistricting map of California. The Proposed Congressional Map aims to add five Democratic seats in the upcoming elections.Redistricting, which typically happens every decade as the census updates, has created a new battleground between the Democrats and Republican-led states. President Donald Trump first prompted Republican district representatives in the GOP stronghold of Texas to redraw congressional lines to give the party an advantage in the upcoming elections. What followed was a two-week standoff in which Democratic Texas House representatives fled the state to stall the vote.Texas’ new congressional maps were eventually passed in an 88-52 vote, creating five new Republican-leaning seats.California’s Democratic leaders Thursday moved forward with an effort to change the congressional district maps. California currently has 52 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives; 43 of these seats went to the Democrats, while nine went to the Republicans in the 2024 election.The five California Republicans targeted by the redistricting plan include Reps. Doug LaMalfa in District 1, Kevin Kiley in District 3, David Valadao in District 22, Ken Calvert in District 41 and Darrell Issa in District 48.Each of these five districts is shown in the maps below. See if you can guess how these districts will be redrawn by trying our puzzle game below.

    The Democrats, led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are hitting back at the Texas Republican lawmakers with a proposed redistricting map of California. The Proposed Congressional Map aims to add five Democratic seats in the upcoming elections.

    Redistricting, which typically happens every decade as the census updates, has created a new battleground between the Democrats and Republican-led states.

    President Donald Trump first prompted Republican district representatives in the GOP stronghold of Texas to redraw congressional lines to give the party an advantage in the upcoming elections.

    What followed was a two-week standoff in which Democratic Texas House representatives fled the state to stall the vote.

    Texas’ new congressional maps were eventually passed in an 88-52 vote, creating five new Republican-leaning seats.

    California’s Democratic leaders Thursday moved forward with an effort to change the congressional district maps.

    California currently has 52 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives; 43 of these seats went to the Democrats, while nine went to the Republicans in the 2024 election.

    The five California Republicans targeted by the redistricting plan include Reps. Doug LaMalfa in District 1, Kevin Kiley in District 3, David Valadao in District 22, Ken Calvert in District 41 and Darrell Issa in District 48.

    Each of these five districts is shown in the maps below. See if you can guess how these districts will be redrawn by trying our puzzle game below.

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  • How Democrats plan to reshape California’s congressional delegation and thwart Trump

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    A decade and a half after California voters stripped lawmakers of the ability to draw the boundaries of congressional districts, Gov. Gavin Newsom and fellow Democrats are pushing to take that partisan power back.

    The redistricting plan taking shape in Sacramento and headed toward voters in November could shift the Golden State’s political landscape for at least six years, if not longer. The outcome could also sway which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections, which will be pivotal to the fate of President Trump’s political agenda.

    What Golden State voters choose to do will reverberate nationwide, killing some political careers and launching others, provoking other states to reconfigure their own congressional districts and boosting Newsom’s profile as a top Trump nemesis and leader of the nation’s Democratic resistance.

    The new maps, drawn by Democratic strategists and lawmakers behind closed doors, were submitted Friday to legislative leaders by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the group that works to elect House Democrats.

    The maps are expected to appear on a Nov. 4 special election ballot, along with a constitutional amendment that would override the state’s voter-approved, independent redistricting commission.

    The changes would ripple across more than 1,000 miles of California, from the forests near the Oregon state line through the deserts of Death Valley and Palm Springs to the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding Democrats’ grip on California and further isolating Republicans.

    The proposed map would concentrate Republican voters in a handful of deep-red districts and eliminate an Inland Empire congressional seat represented by the longest-serving member of California’s GOP delegation. For Democrats, the plans would boost the fortunes of up-and-coming politicians and shore up vulnerable incumbents, including two new lawmakers who won election by fewer than 1,000 votes last fall.

    Under the proposal, Democrats could pick up five seats currently held by Republicans while bolstering vulnerable Democratic incumbent Reps. Adam Gray, Josh Harder, George Whitesides, Derek Tran and Dave Min, which would save the party millions of dollars in costly reelection fights.

    In a letter to the state Legislature, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee director Julie Merz said the map “serves the best interest of California voters, while also attempting to push back against the corrupt scheme occurring in Texas and other Republican-majority states.”

    The National Republican Congressional Committee, the group that works to elect House Republicans, said they are “prepared to fight this illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box to stop Newsom in his tracks.”

    “This is the final declaration of political war between California and the Trump administration,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego.

    How will the ballot measure work?

    For the state to reverse the independent redistricting process that the electorate approved in 2010, a majority of California voters would have to approve the measure, which backers are calling the “Election Rigging Response Act.”

    The state Legislature, where Democrats hold a supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate, will consider the ballot language next week when lawmakers return from summer recess. Both chambers would need to pass the ballot language by a two-thirds majority and get the bill to Newsom’s desk by Aug. 22, leaving just enough time for voter guides to be mailed and ballots to be printed.

    Approving the new map would be up to the state’s electorate, which backed independent redistricting in 2010 by more than 61%. Registered Democrats outnumber Republican voters by almost a two-to-one margin in California.

    Newsom has said that the measure would include a “trigger,” meaning the state’s maps would only take effect if a Republican state — such as Texas, Florida or Indiana — approve new mid-decade maps.

    “There’s still an exit ramp,” Newsom said. “We’re hopeful they don’t move forward.”

    Explaining the esoteric concept of redistricting and getting voters to participate in an off-year election will require that Newsom and his allies, including organized labor, launch what is expected to be an expensive campaign very quickly.

    “It’s summer in California,” Kousser said. “People are not focused on this.”

    California has no limit on campaign contributions for ballot measures, and a measure that pits Democrats against Trump, and Republicans against Newsom, could become a high-stakes, high-cost national brawl.

    “It’s tens of millions of dollars, and it’s going to be determined on the basis of what an opposition looks like as well,” Newsom said Thursday. The fundraising effort, he said, is “not insignificant… considering the 90-day sprint.”

    The ballot measure’s campaign website mentions three major funding sources thus far: Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign, the main political action committee for House Democrats in Washington, and Manhattan Beach businessman Bill Bloomfield, a longtime donor to California Democrats.

    The opposition is also expected to be well-funded. A representative of a coalition fighting the effort said that Charles Munger Jr., who bankrolled the 2010 ballot measure that created the independent commission, is committed to defending the electoral reform.

    What’s at stake?

    Control of the U.S. House of Representatives hangs in the balance.

    The party that holds the White House tends to lose House seats during the midterm election. Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House, and Democrats taking control of chamber in 2026 would stymie Trump’s controversial, right-wing agenda in his final two years in office.

    Redistricting typically only happens once a decade, after the U.S. Census. But Trump has been prodding Republican states, starting with Texas, to redraw their lines in the middle of the decade to boost the GOP’s chances in the midterms.

    At Trump’s encouragement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session to redraw the Texas congressional map to favor five more Republicans. In response, Newsom and other California Democrats have called for their own maps that would favor five more Democrats.

    Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state to deny the legislature a quorum and stop the vote. They faced daily fines, death threats and calls to be removed from office. They agreed to return to Austin after the special session ended on Friday, with one condition being that California Democrats moved forward with their redistricting plan.

    The situation has the potential to spiral into an all-out redistricting arms race, with Trump leaning on Indiana, Florida, Ohio and Missouri to redraw their maps, while Newsom is asking the same of blue states including New York and Illinois.

    California Republicans in the crosshairs

    The California gerrymandering plan targets five of California’s nine Republican members of Congress: Reps. Kevin Kiley and Doug LaMalfa in Northern California, Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley, and Reps. Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa in Southern California.

    The map consolidates Republican voters into a smaller number of ruby-red districts known as “vote sinks.” Some conservative and rural areas would be shifted into districts where Republican voters would be diluted by high voter registration advantage for Democrats.

    The biggest change would be for Calvert, who would see his Inland Empire district eliminated.

    Calvert has been in Congress since 1992 and represents a sprawling Riverside County district that includes Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Palm Springs and his home base of Corona. Calvert, who oversees defense spending on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, comfortably won reelection last year despite a well-funded national campaign by Democrats.

    Under the proposed map, the Inland Empire district would be carved up and redistributed, parceled out to a district represented by Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills). Liberal Palm Springs would be shifted into the district represented by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), which would help tilt the district from Republican to a narrowly divided swing seat.

    Members of Congress are not required to live in their districts, but there would not be an obvious seat for Calvert to run for, unless he ran against Kim or Issa.

    Leaked screenshots of the map began to circulate Friday afternoon, prompting fierce and immediate pushback from California Republicans. The lines are “third-world dictator stuff,” Orange County GOP chair Will O’Neill said on X, and the “slicing and dicing of Orange County cities is obscene.”

    In Northern California, the boundaries of Kiley’s district would shrink and dogleg into the Sacramento suburbs to add registered Democrats. Kiley said in a post on X that he expected his district to stay the same because voters would “defeat Newsom’s sham initiative and vindicate the will of California voters.”

    LaMalfa’s district would shift south, away from the rural and conservative areas along the Oregon border, and pick up more liberal areas in parts of Sonoma County. Democrat Audrey Denney, who lost to LaMalfa in 2018 and 2020, said Friday that if voters approve the new map, she would run again.

    In Central California, boundaries would shift to shore up Harder and Gray, who won election last year by 187 votes, the narrowest margin in the country.

    Valadao, a perennial target for Democrats, would see the northern boundary of his district stretch into the bluer suburbs of Fresno. Democrats have tried for years to unseat Valadao, who represents a district that has a strong Democratic voter registration advantage on paper, but where turnout among blue voters is lackluster.

    Democrats eye open seats

    Eight of the state’s 52 congressional districts would be left unchanged under the new map, including the three historic Black districts in Los Angeles and Oakland. Three districts with the highest number of Asian American voters would be preserved, while a Latino lawmaker would likely be elected from a new Los Angeles-area seat.

    That new congressional seat in Los Angeles County that would stretch through the southeast cities of Downey, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier and Lakewood. An open seat in Congress is a rare opportunity for politicians, especially in deep-blue Los Angeles County, where incumbent lawmakers can keep their jobs for decades.

    Portions of that district were once represented by retired U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, the first Mexican American woman elected to Congress. That seat was eliminated in the 2021 redistricting cycle, when California lost a congressional seat for the first time in its history.

    Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis has told members of the California Congressional delegation that she is thinking about running for the new seat.

    Another possible contender, former Assembly speaker Anthony Rendon of Lakewood, launched a campaign for state superintendent of schools in late July and said he is not interested in vying to represent the new district.

    Other lawmakers who represent the area or areas nearby include State Sen. Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), state Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera) and state Assemblywoman Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier).

    In Northern California, the southern tip of LaMalfa’s district would stretch south into the Sonoma County cities of Santa Rosa and Healdsberg, home to Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire. McGuire will be termed out of the state Senate next year, and the new seat might present a prime opportunity for him to go to Washington.

    Times staff writer Taryn Luna in Sacramento contributed to this report.

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    Laura J. Nelson, Seema Mehta

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  • How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do? | Nerd Fitness

    How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do? | Nerd Fitness

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    If you’ve ever asked yourself “Am I doing too little or too many reps and sets?” then this guide is for you.

    This article is part of our Strength 101 series, and we’ll show you exactly how to determine the number of repetitions and sets for specific exercises, so you can build your own workout routine.

    It sounds easy, but depending on your goals, the answer to “How many reps and sets should I do?” can vary greatly.

    This Muppet knows strength training will help him gain muscle and lose fat.

    We work hand-in-hand with our Online Coaching Clients to create the correct workout program that suits their goals, needs, and available equipment



    In today’s guide on workout programing, we’ll cover (click each to get right to that answer):

    The Correct Number of Reps and Sets for a Workout

    As Coach Jim mentions above, “Rep” stands for “repetition” and defines one complete motion of an exercise.

    And one “set” is a consecutive number of reps without stopping.

    And one “smorgasbord” is a buffet of food.

    (This has nothing to do with this article, but it’s a fun word to say.)

    As we mentioned throughout our Strength Training 101 series, how many reps and sets you should do is really going to be dependent on your goals.

    For example, is your goal to improve:

    • Muscular endurance
    • Muscular hypertrophy
    • Muscular strength
    • Muscular power

    Depending on what your goal is, the sets, reps, and rest intervals will change.

    Oh, you’re just starting your strength training journey?

    Well, make sure you grab our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know I’ll send it to you for free when you join the Rebellion (that’s us!). 

    Alright, let’s break down reps and sets for you, because I can see you still have questions.

    How Many Reps Should I Do?

    How many reps should this lego do?

    Remember, “Rep” stands for “repetition” and is more or less one complete exercise.

    Like a push-up:

    Here Rebel Leader Steve shows you the classic push-up.

    So “2 sets of 5 reps of push-ups” means, “5 consecutive push-ups, a rest, then another 5 consecutive push-ups.”

    Cool?

    If you don't know what reps and sets are, the rest of the article is going to be really confusing.

    Cool.

    When deciding on how many sets and reps to do, it begins by asking What am I trying to get out of this workout?!

    We’ll group different rep ranges into different goals, for:

    • Muscular endurance
    • Muscle size
    • Overall strength

    I’m going to share with you the commonly accepted answers, but they ALL come with a HUGE caveat that I’ll share at the end of this article.

    I’m going to start with the “widely accepted numbers here.”

    Let’s chat about the following:

    1) MUSCULAR ENDURANCE (long-lasting muscle)

    Endurance means encouraging and training your muscles to perform for an extended period of time. This means doing a LOT of repetitions. 

    People targeting muscular endurance will aim for a range from 12 to 20+ reps.

    Obviously, you won’t be able to lift heavy amounts of weight for 20+ reps, so you’ll be lifting lighter loads.

    Also, because you’re targeting endurance improvements, you want to decrease the amount of rest between sets: 30 seconds to a minute.[1]

    If you are a runner or cyclist, strength training with higher repetitions can help your muscles develop more endurance as well![2]

    I wonder if this kid is biking to go squat?

    Reps for increased muscular endurance: 12+

    2) MUSCLE SIZE (“sarcoplasmic hypertrophy”) 

    This is for folks looking to build larger muscles.

    The scientific term here is “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy,” as it focuses on increasing the amount of sarcoplasm, the non-contractile fluid found in your muscle.

    Up to 30% of your muscle’s size is attributed to the sarcoplasm, so focusing on this type of hypertrophy helps build overall size (i.e., increased cross-sectional area of the muscle).

    If you’re looking to get bigger:

    • Target a rep range of 6 – 12 reps per set.
    • Aim for 3-5 sets.
    • Rest time between sets should be short, about 60 to 90 seconds.

    Reps for increased muscle size: 6-12[3]

    3) STRENGTH AND POWER (“myofibril hypertrophy”)

    If you’re training for specific sports and just want to get stronger with more power – but not necessarily get bigger, this is the strategy for you.

    This type of training focuses on strengthening the myofibril, the contractile part of the muscle, hence the name “myofibril hypertrophy.”

    For this, target reps in the 1-5 range. And yep, that means you’re going to be picking up heavy weights, focusing all that concentrated effort into just one or a few reps.[4]

    A scene from the Simpsons, someone throwing bleachers through the roof.

    Something to note when lifting for strength and power: not only are you shocking your muscles, but you’re also putting a lot of pressure on your body’s central nervous system (CNS).

    So what does this mean?

    In a way, it means your body’s ability to communicate with its muscles has grown fatigued, and performance may suffer.

    That’s why you may want to rest between 2-5 minutes in this range.

    Oh, and your CNS will adapt and become stronger, which will be critical for building strength and power.[5]

    This is how powerlifters train:

    • Low reps
    • High weight
    • Long time between sets

    Since powerlifting really taxes the central nervous system, you may be waiting 3-5 minutes between sets when training in this fashion.

    TO RECAP, these are the rep ranges you should be considering:

    • Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.
    • Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.
    • Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.

    I realize this is a lot to figure out, so if you are somebody – like me – who just wants to be told what to do and outsource all the worry of “am I doing the right workout for my goals?” I got you covered!

    I’d love to learn your story, and then build a custom program that fits your goals. We’ll help you with your nutrition, your workouts, and even check in regularly to keep you accountable!



    How Many Sets Should I Do?

    How many sets should this lego do?

    As explained above, a “set” describes a group of repetitions performed for an exercise without stopping.

    For example, if you do 10 squats right now, you just did 1 SET of 10 reps of squats.

    So let’s talk about the “correct” number of sets per exercise.

    The simple answer: “Do 3-5 work sets of a given exercise.”[6]

    Just make sure you’re not compromising your form.

    Steve Rogers doing a push-up (with bad form)

    At least he’s trying!

    The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) will break this down, suggesting the following set ranges:[7]

    • 2-3 will help build muscular endurance (12 to 20+ reps)
    • 3-6 build muscular hypertrophy (6 to 12 reps)
    • 3-5 build muscular power (3 to 5 reps)
    • 2-6 build muscular strength (less than 6 reps)

    “STEVE, JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO.”

    FINE! Pick a weight that feels light to you, and then do 3 sets of 10 reps.

    (Learn how much weight should I be lifting”).

    And then next time?

    Do more than last time:

    • Did 3 sets of 10 reps of a 65 lb bench press? Do 3 sets of 8 at 75 lbs this week!
    • Did 3 sets of 5 pull-ups last week? Go for 3 sets of 6 this week.

    That’s the key to progressive overload, as Coach Jim explains in this article:

    If you’re not sure if “3 sets of 10” or “5 sets of 5” is right for you, we got you covered.

    We’ll build a program that fits your goals, and then adjust it each month based on your progress. Never guess or wonder what you should be doing again.



    How to Build a Workout Routine!

    Batman knows how many reps and sets to do.

    Now that you have “edumacated” yourself on how your specific goals influence the number of reps per set, and what sets actually are, you can build your workout program around this info.

    TO RECAP, aim for 3-5 sets in the following rep rangers per exercise based on your goals:

    1. Endurance: 12+ reps per set.
    2. Hypertrophy (bigger muscles): 6-12 reps per set.
    3. Strength (dense, powerful muscle): 1-5 reps per set.

    Two points worth mentioning:

    • A recent study showed that heavier weight for low reps created more muscle mass than a higher volume (lower weight for more reps).[8]
    • Studies show that bodyweight training exercises can build muscle, but require a LARGE number of sets per rep, and pushing oneself to absolute failure.[9]

    What this means: studies suggest targeting heavier weight with fewer reps for big lifts like squats and deadlifts to build muscle, while targeting high reps to absolute failure with bodyweight exercises for muscle building.

    Just remember to rest enough between sets so you don’t fatigue your central nervous system too bad.[10]

    One last point: Nutrition is still 90% of the equation!

    Your rep range doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think, so don’t overthunk it!

    Don't overthink your sets and reps! Just do more than last time.

    Here are some examples:

    1. If you’re trying to build muscle and get bigger, doing sets of 3 or sets of 5 or sets of 10 will ALL help you get bigger, if you’re eating enough to get bigger![11]
    2. If you’re trying to lose weight, it doesn’t matter if you do sets of 15 or sets of 5 if you are consistently overeating by 1,000 calories a day. You need to eat the right number of calories.[12]
    3. It doesn’t matter if you train like a bodybuilder, you ALSO need to eat enough food to provide your muscles with enough calories to rebuild themselves bigger and stronger! This is the biggest mistake I see skinny people make when trying to bulk.

    This brings me to my final point: because nutrition is 90% of the equation, your sets and reps don’t matter nearly as much as you think they do!

    All that matters? Doing MORE this workout than the last workout.

    Remember, how you build muscle and strength and burn fat: “progressive overload.”

    One more rep than last time.

    Even Marshall knows to go for One More each time you try your workout

    Doing one more set than last time.

    Picking up a weight that’s 5 lbs. heavier than last week.

    So get out of your own head, and START TODAY:

    1) GET HELP: If you want expert guidance and accountability so you don’t have to figure out all of this stuff on your own, I got you. 

    Click the red button below to get the details about our amazing online coaching program:



    2) FIGURING IT OUT OUT ON YOUR OWN!

    Download our free Strength Training 101 Guide! You get it free when you join our Rebellion (the name of our awesome free online community). Sign up in the box below:

    3) WORKOUTS YOU CAN DO NOW:

    Remember: the goal should be to get stronger each workout.

    Write down what you did last time, and then do MORE this time.

    By continually challenging your muscles to do more, they’ll have to adapt by getting bigger, stronger, burning more calories, etc.

    There are a lot of different truths and fallacies on plateaus and how your muscles can get “used” to working out and stop growing.

    If that’s something you’re battling, here’s a way to continue making progress:

    Spend a week in a different rep range with different amounts of weight.

    This will introduce a little chaos into the system, which could be a good thing…unless you’re Batman.

    Joker knows how to bring chaos into a system.

    What we’re talking about is muscle confusion theory, which is a preplanned period of variation.[13] Not, you know, wandering into the gym with no plan and just doing something different every time (whatever you feel like doing at that moment).

    That won’t help.

    But spend a week deliberating mixing it up. Then go back to your regularly scheduled routine and you’ll be right back on track.

    Make sure you know what you want, and then design a plan to get there.

    -Steve

    PS: If you want a nice shiny app to tell you EXACTLY how many seps and reps to do, our shiny new app will do just that!

    You can sign-up for a free 7-day trial to Nerd Fitness Journey, which will build a workout around your experience level!

    Jump in right here:

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    All photo citations: Evel Knievel, Me riding a bicycle, Bicylelifter, Project Story 1/3

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    Steve Kamb

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