REPS VS. SETS

sahilshah20 · Post by **sahilshah20** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 11:06 am

Yo guys, i want to gain muscle mass, and i am looking for some good workout routines. I looked at fittracker workout plans but they suggest that you should do 3 sets of 10 or 2 sets of 10 for each work out. I like their workouts but i dont know if i should be doing 10 reps for each set for strength traning. So what can i change the # of reps tot?. Should i increase the # of sets and decrease the reps.???

zerosktrkd · Post by **zerosktrkd** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 8:56 pm

in order to build mass you want low reps low sets.
stick to 8-12 reps 2-3 sets.
only work out 4-5 days a week.
muscle build while its resting, problem used to be that i would work out as much as i could and would do like 20-30 reps of everything and had little to no results, now i stick to hight weight(enough so that i can do 2-3 sets of 10 and have made a vast improvement since.

nitecrawler · Post by **nitecrawler** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:45 am

You should also be training with low rep range ie 1-5 which will lead to strength increase , coz if your are doing 10 reps you would be using sub maximal loads and wont help you gain strength, now why is strength important ??

consider for example your 1 RM on Bench is 100 KG and you can do 10 reps at 50 % RM so if you increase ur 1 RM then you would be able to use more weight for 10RM leading to more muscle gain....

Boss Man · Post by **Boss Man** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:31 am

I politely disagree. I believe strength gains are very possible in th e6-10 rep range. I won't dispute less than 6 has advantages, but I certainly beleve 6-10, is a beneficial range to use.

sahilshah20 · Post by **sahilshah20** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:39 pm

Arite guys thanks.. so stick to 6-10 reps and 2 two 3 sets for each workout.

Boss Man · Post by **Boss Man** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:07 pm

You can do 6-10 or 3-5, it's just a case of what you feel comfortable or safe doing. If you're not sure about risk of injury, go for 6-10. If you want to go more hardcore when you lift and you feel okay about it, go 3-5.

I used to an still go for a minimum of 6 reps, as I felt if for whatever reason I had a slight and uncommon problem, like a bit of fatigue on the last rep of something one time, I could give myself more time, to get mentally prepared for the possiblity doing 6 reps, so when I ended up going for a 6th, and occasionally hit 5.5 and it started to go, I knew what to do, to make sure a failed rep didn't result in injury.

If I sometimes did go for a 6th rep that didn't happen, I'd know after about 4 reps how I felt, so I could judge if a 6th might be possible or not, so when a 6th was attempted and not completed, I had mind focused on recovery of the situation.

For me if a set had started to go wrong once in a while, like a bit of fatigue perhaps, 3 or 4 reps for me would be inadequate time, to sense the possiblity, and take appropriate action if it did. Hence why I've never gone for a 3-5 range.

I'm not trying to persuade you to go for a 6-10 range, I'm telling you why I used to go for 6 minimum and still would. If you feel okay about going for a 3-5 range, go for it. You will benefit, and as long as you believe you can nail 3-5 without a problem, you'll be fine, and you won't need to use a spotter either

.

sahilshah20 · Post by **sahilshah20** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:14 pm

Arite Arite Thx a lot!!!!

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:45 am

strength can be attained in any rep range just about but it depends on training experience...the more you have the lower you'll need to go