Do reps count? I've been doing a lot of reading and it is all over the place. Some claim you should aim for 8 - 12 reps while others claim that 4 - 5 at the heaviest possible weight is good too. Or is it more to do with your goals? For cutting and definition more reps at a more manageable weight and for size/power the heaviest you can go while doing a modest amount of reps.
It is not all over the place, there is very clear guidelines.
Strength = Do 3-5 reps
Hypertrophy (eg. BodyBuilding) = do 6-10 reps
Endurance = do 11-20 reps or even more
Most guys are interested in growing bigger, which is where hypertrophy is at. There are however times where you should first consider 3-5 rep programs vs 6-10 rep programs for hypertrophy.
These are:
1. when you are new to bodybuilding, and first need to get a solid base for strength, without strength hypertrophy can only get you so far
2. if you want strength with size, then you combine the powerlifting programs with a bodybuilding bulking eating program.
Endurance with 11-20 reps have it's place, eg. when you want to cut, endurance cause more calorie burn, and then eating at a slight calorie deficit at the same time, you should see some excellent progress with the cutting.
Edit:
I must add, most programs you see, will combine the above guidelines, to give you a bit of strenght, endurance and hypertrophy, so don't go and modify the program according to the above guidelines, there is most probably a reason why they combine the different types of rep ranges. Sometimes you want some endurance, sometimes you want the strength, and the mostly you will probably want the hypertrophy.
