Does “3 sets of 10 reps, done 3 times a week” sound familiar? It’s often the default exercise dosage recommended by rehabilitation professionals when prescribing strength training exercises. While 3 sets of 10 reps is certainly better than doing zero exercise it’s not ideal for all circumstances and you can often do much better. Exercise prescription should be specific to your injury, activities, and goals to ensure optimal recovery and performance.
Exercise volume dosages can be tailored to target the various properties of muscle whether that be hypertrophy, strength, power, or endurance. Doing 5 sets of 5 reps with a 2 minute rest interval will produce different muscle adaptation than 3 sets of 15 reps with 30 seconds of rest.
Specifically training the appropriate muscle property is what separates an average recovery from an optimal one. Beyond just the volume of the exercise, it is also critical that a certain intensity be reached in order for the body and our tissues to adapt positively. Our physiotherapists can use various tools such as percent of 1 rep max, ratings of  perceived exertion, or reps in reserve to advise you on how to achieve optimal rehabilitation results. As always, our team will take these guiding strength training principles and adapt them to the person in front of us.
With any training program you need to ensure proper exercise form to decrease your injury risk.
Our team is highly trained in assessing and correcting your exercise movement patterns. On top of this, it’s important to mention that if you are strength training through pain this is a special circumstance that should absolutely be guided by a rehabilitation professional to ensure that you are not causing further injury to sensitive tissues.
Come see one of our highly qualified physiotherapists or sports chiropractors to ensure that your exercise dosage is right for you!
Helms et al (2016). Application of the Repetitions in Reserve-Based Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale for Resistance Training