Strength · 2 min read
Picking Your Working Weight for Any Rep Scheme
Try it: Working Weight Calculator — Estimate a 1RM from a real set, then get working weights and a warm-up ladder.
Once you have a max estimate, choosing weights stops being a guess. The percentages have been stable for decades and they apply to almost everyone within a few points.
The percentage table
| Reps | % of 1RM | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100% | Testing, competition |
| 3 | 93% | Strength |
| 5 | 87% | Strength — the workhorse |
| 6 | 85% | Strength / hypertrophy overlap |
| 8 | 80% | Hypertrophy |
| 10 | 75% | Hypertrophy |
| 12 | 67% | Hypertrophy / endurance overlap |
| 15 | 65% | Muscular endurance |
The working weight calculator applies these to your estimate and rounds to the plates you actually own.
These percentages are for a set taken near failure
That is the assumption baked into the table and the thing that most often makes it seem wrong. Eighty per cent for eight reps means eight hard reps, not eight comfortable ones. If you are programming three sets of eight and taking each one to genuine failure, you are doing something different from three sets of eight at 80 per cent — and you will not recover from it as well.
Reps in reserve, which is the useful adjustment
For most training, leave one to three reps in the tank on most sets. The stimulus is nearly the same, the fatigue is far lower, and the practical result is that you can train the lift more often — which is where the progress actually comes from over months.
A workable default: on your main compound lifts, aim for two reps in reserve on working sets, and take the last set of the last exercise closer to failure if you want. Reserve genuine failure for isolation work where the fatigue cost is low.
Warming up to a top set
The mistake at both ends is common: too little and the first working set is the warm-up; too much and the top set is the fourth-best set of the day.
A ladder that works, with percentages of your top working set rather than your 1RM:
| Set | % of work set | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-up 1 | 40% | 8 |
| Warm-up 2 | 60% | 5 |
| Warm-up 3 | 75% | 3 |
| Warm-up 4 | 85% | 1 |
| Work set | 100% | target |
Rep counts fall as weight rises. The purpose of the last two is to rehearse the pattern under load, not to accumulate work.
When the table does not fit you
Some people can do considerably more reps at a given percentage than the table predicts, and some fewer. It is an individual trait and it is stable. If you consistently get twelve reps at what the table calls a ten-rep weight, adjust your own table rather than concluding the estimate is wrong — and if you consistently fall short, the likelier explanation is that the max estimate came from a set that was not close enough to failure.
Progression, briefly
When you hit the top of your target rep range on all sets with your two reps still in reserve, add weight — usually 2.5 kilograms on upper body lifts and 5 on lower body. Reps drop, and you climb again. That is the whole mechanism, and it works for a long time before anything more complicated is needed.
Questions I get asked
Should I train to failure?
Rarely on compound lifts. One to three reps in reserve gives most of the stimulus at a fraction of the fatigue, which lets you train the movement more often.
How often should I re-estimate my max?
Every four to six weeks, from a real set. Estimates go stale faster than people expect, especially early on.
Read next
- How to Estimate Your 1RM Without Testing a Max Testing a true one-rep max costs recovery and carries risk. A set you have already done gives you an estimate that is good enough to program from.
- Strength Training While in a Calorie Deficit What to expect from your lifts during a fat loss phase, what to change in the programme, and which numbers you should stop chasing entirely.
- How Much Protein You Actually Need The protein range that covers almost everyone, why a calorie deficit raises it, and the one-week test that shows whether you are actually hitting it.