Part of the beauty of living a fitness lifestyle and challenging yourself to build muscle or lose fat is that quality physiques have been built using all different styles of techniques. There is no “one right way” that everyone should follow.
Things like rep range, rep tempo, frequency of training, machines vs. cables, and volume are just a few of the things that have been argued over, but one thing that no one argues is the fact that progression is the key to growth. I will say it again, In order to grow you need to keep progressing! That can mean increasing weight or increasing the number of reps.
It’s this overload that stresses the muscle and causes the body to repair the micro tears thus making a muscle stronger. Personally I like to train between 6-20 reps with the majority being between 8-12. One thing I always do is keep my body from adapting by manipulating rest time, volume, and exercises.
Through the use of different shocking principals (forced reps, drop sets, supersets, rest pause etc) I keep progressing. After a couple of weeks I change everything up again and shock the body in a new way.
Being able to listen to your body is huge. After training for years you learn to listen to signals that your body is sending. Sometimes it’s as easy as resting or adding calories, so when I plateau the first thing I evaluate is my diet and recovery. Other times I change up the split or throw in a new exercise. bottom line keep the body guessing and force it to adapt to new stresses. Live Fit, be Fit!