sets

bondie · Post by **bondie** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:37 am

Hi,can anyone explain to me why you have to do 3+ sets to build muscle?,and does that mean 3+ each exercise, ie - for biceps
3 x 10 dumbell curls
3 x 10 preacher curls
3 x 10 hammer curls
or 1x10 of each which would add up to 3 sets for biceps

Hope this can be cleared up.

THANX

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:13 pm

it's not the number of sets it's the number of reps that matter...you want 24 - 36 total reps per muscle group / movement for muscle gain which can be broken up into whatever sets and reps you want so long as the total reps fits in the 24 - 36 range (10 x 3, 4 x 7 etc)

bondie · Post by **bondie** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:55 am

Thanx, does that mean i would be over training arms by doing original sets/reps?ie
3x10 dumbell curls
3x10 preacher curls
3x10 hammer curls

as this means im doing 90 reps for biceps ?

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:27 pm

yes it would...choose 1

bondie · Post by **bondie** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:41 am

BUT SURELY BY DOING THOSE 3 DIFFERENT EXERCISES FOR THE BICEPS IM HITTING BICEPS FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES,WHICH I WOULD THINK BETTER DEVELOPS THE BICEPS.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:45 pm

it's not as simple as that although bodybuilders would have you believe it...whichever curl you do, you'll hit all the "angles", you can't train one side and not the other...if you want you can do 1 set of 3 different variations in one sessiopn or 3 sets of 1 variation each sessiop...either way you'll always end up doing 3 x 10 for 3 exercises just like you do now...oh and just a heads up, curls don't build big arms