Hitting the gym will make you fitter and happier, but not all strength work is equal. Gym culture is changing. Once the preserve of musclemen whose veins looked ready to pop, now muscle-strengthening activities are recommended for all adults at least twice a week, according to the UK’s chief medical officer. That’s because an increasing body of evidence links strength work with wellbeing and longevity, including a 2024 study that showed 90 minutes of strength training a week resulted in four years less biological ageing. Maybe that’s why about 15% of the UK population is now a member of a gym. Part of the appeal is accessibility - it’s not as technical as swimming, for example - but despite its simplicity, there’s a huge amount of misinformation and conflicting advice. Low or high reps? Strength-training exercises are structured into a number of sets made up of repetitions. For instance, eight lifts, rest, followed by eight further lifts equates to two sets of eight.

Finding the optimal combination of sets, reps and rest for gaining strength is a well-worn gym debate, but science is beginning to settle on an answer. "Building muscle - hypertrophy - can occur across all rep ranges, from low, moderate and high," says Chris Peden, a former Royal Navy physical training instructor and now a strength and conditioning coach to professional and amateur athletes. Peden adds that finding your one rep maximum (1RM) isn’t essential for Prime Boosts Pills beginners, especially as you could strain a muscle through inexperience. Just go on what feels tough but not dangerously so. Alternatively, you can use an app such as Hevy or Stronglifts to create a programme, calculate your 1RM, track your progress and suggest when you’re ready to upgrade to a heavier weight. Peden stresses that a high rep number isn’t the most efficient way to increase strength. A 2015 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that compared a high-rep (25-35 reps), low-weight group and a higher-weight, lower-rep (8-12) group, and discovered that muscle size for both groups was similar.

However, the heavier-weight group enjoyed the greatest strength gains because of the greater recruitment of muscle fibres. How much rest do I need? When it comes to strength gains, what you do between lifts matters as much as what you do during them. "Generally, you should enjoy 90-150 seconds’ rest between sets for hypertrophy and 3-5 minutes’ rest for building strength," says Peden. "If time isn’t an issue, I’d recommend resting a little longer if you can because it cranks up quality across all reps and sets. Free weights or machines? When it comes to choosing machines or free weights, take heed of the legend of Milo of Croton, a six-time Olympic champion wrestler in the sixth-century BC, whose training is said to have involved lifting a calf over his head every day until it became a fully grown cow. Milo’s beefy exploits show that your workload needs to progress if yen better. Am I too old to start? Thinking of hitting the gym but put off by your advancing years? Don’t be. "It’s never too late to start," says Peden. "We can still build muscle and grow stronger in later life, which helps to offset the rate of the ageing process. Muscle mass declines with age - a process that can begin in your 30s - and the resulting reduction in strength can lead to frailty and falls. But studies have shown that strength training can reverse this process and is associated with a variety of other benefits, including reductions in belly fat and blood pressure, and improved cholesterol readings. Additionally, strength training has been shown to slow age-related decline in testosterone in men. And resistance training increases bone density - particularly beneficial for women at risk of osteoporosis. Older gym-goers should think about increasing their protein intake. This is important for all ages but especially the over-60s because of an age-related anabolic resistance to protein. One study showed that protein absorption and assimilation was much slower in those over 60 compared with 20- to 25-year-olds, leading to reduced strength gains. Evidence suggests a minimum of 1 gram of protein per day for every kilogram of bodyweight is a good starting point as you age.