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Understanding sets, reps and tempo

When it comes to designing a workout routine, most people get caught up in the dogmatic advice of most fitness magazines (main stream ones in particular such as Mens Health) which usually suggest people follow the standard 3 sets per exercise at 10 reps a set. Such advise is very easy to dispense because it seems simple enough and its not hard to remember. Unfortunately this advise is far too basic for most bodybuilders and it is in no way geared torwards any specific bodybuilding goal. It basically a good routine for those who simply want to workout but don't care all that much for what they will acheive. If you are reading this right now chances are you want more then just the standard run of the mill, average joe routine. Good. Our first set is understanding how sets, reps and temp effect the kind of results we will see from our training.

Depending on your goal, you will want to pick a different amount of sets to do per exercise and in total for the entire workout. For example, a bodybuilder who is more concerned with size of strength will want to do only two exercises, in some cases even just one, per exercise. To make up for the lack of sets per exercise, you will want to pick a number of movements, between 3-5, depending on the bodypart. By doing less sets and more exercises you constantly hit your muscles from differents angles which is what you want to do if you want to grow. The reason that I suggest 2 sets instead of the standard 3 sets is simple. The first set of a movement is often not the best. You muscles have not yet had a chance to test the exercise and may not be neurologically prepared to give you all they got. During the second set is when you are most likely to go balls to the wall and really push yourself to complete and total muscular failure. After such a demanding set, your body will not require anymore sets at that particular exercise in order to grow. You have already pushed the muscle to its max, tested it, now its time to hit it from a different angle. If on the other hand you are training to improve your strength at a particular movement or your strength in general, you can do more sets, some bodybuilders doing as many as 5-10 sets at one particular exercise in order to increase their functional strength output.

The total number of sets you do per exercise is also dependant on the number of reps you have acheived per set. Most strength and conditioning coaches agree that there is an inverse relationship between the number of sets you do and the number of reps. For example, if you are doing 8-10 reps per set, you are going to want to limit your working sets to 1 or 2. If on the other hand you are doing 2 to 3 reps per set, you are going to want to increase the total number of sets to 3 to 4 and so on. Basically, muscle hypertrophy requires a certain amount of total working sets be completed before the muscle is adequetely stressed into new growth.

The number of reps you do per set is also dependant on your goals. If you want to get bigger, a rep range of 6-8 is usually optimal. Most strength athletes on the other hand (olympic lifters for example) find 1-3 reps to be optimal. Doing less reps will allow you to become stronger without getting much bigger. Although it is impossible not to build muscle over time while doing low reps, it will be a much slower process as low reps work more on making you neurologically efficient then they do at making you bigger. Although most bodybuilders find 6-8 reps to be a good range for putting on mass, some prefer, depending on the exercise, to work in the 4-6 rep range. Its probably a good idea to experiment with both rep ranges in order to work the greatest amount of muscle fibers.