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noahfor · 03-06-2006, 04:22 PM

How many sets and reps you do is up to you, and it depends on the exercise. I take it you are interested in muscle growth(hypertrophy) more than gaining strength, so you'd want to stay in the 6-12 rep range because that is the range of reps that will stimulate the most hypertrophy, or so they say. I'm sure it is way more complicated.

Then, and I don't know why, but this what I've read, you want to pick a number of sets so that sets x reps = between 24 and like 60 I think. That number refers to the volume of your workout. Alot of people will do alot of different things.

Intensity refers to how heavy of a weight you are using. If you are going to failure (the point where you can't do any more reps with good form) then you probably only want to reach that point on the last rep of the last set. Anything else will be too taxing, or so I've heard. Alot of people condemn going to failure, and you certainly don't have to in order to gain muscle.

You want to vary your volume an intensity. One month you might want to do high volume low intensity. Another, you might want to do the opposite.

In the routine I posted above it calls for 3 sets of 8 reps, which is like right in the middle of everything, so it's a good scheme to start off with. You just want to make sure you aren't over training.

One thing you want to keep in mind is that you should be increase the workload every single week. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as increasing the weight, increasing # of sets, increasing # of reps, decreasing rest in between sets.

So in the routine above, you'd pick a weight that would allow you to do three sets of 8 reps and will take you pretty close if not all the way to failure on the last rep, and then the next week add five pounds to that, and do the three sets of 8 reps.

03-06-2006, 04:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
noahfor Addict	How many sets and reps you do is up to you, and it depends on the exercise. I take it you are interested in muscle growth(hypertrophy) more than gaining strength, so you'd want to stay in the 6-12 rep range because that is the range of reps that will stimulate the most hypertrophy, or so they say. I'm sure it is way more complicated. Then, and I don't know why, but this what I've read, you want to pick a number of sets so that sets x reps = between 24 and like 60 I think. That number refers to the volume of your workout. Alot of people will do alot of different things. Intensity refers to how heavy of a weight you are using. If you are going to failure (the point where you can't do any more reps with good form) then you probably only want to reach that point on the last rep of the last set. Anything else will be too taxing, or so I've heard. Alot of people condemn going to failure, and you certainly don't have to in order to gain muscle. You want to vary your volume an intensity. One month you might want to do high volume low intensity. Another, you might want to do the opposite. In the routine I posted above it calls for 3 sets of 8 reps, which is like right in the middle of everything, so it's a good scheme to start off with. You just want to make sure you aren't over training. One thing you want to keep in mind is that you should be increase the workload every single week. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as increasing the weight, increasing # of sets, increasing # of reps, decreasing rest in between sets. So in the routine above, you'd pick a weight that would allow you to do three sets of 8 reps and will take you pretty close if not all the way to failure on the last rep, and then the next week add five pounds to that, and do the three sets of 8 reps.