By John Romaniello
Early this morning, I was working with a client doing some heavy benching, and we were interrupted by another gym member during a set.
Now, I normally don’t appreciate interruptions, but this chick was pretty cute and happened to be complimenting my client on his progress, so I let it slide and was happy to take a break while they dialogued for a bit.
Then another person came over—the admirer’s boyfriend. Lame.
I appreciate boyfriends even less than I appreciate interruptions.
On the other hand, the boyfriend was also pretty complimentary towards my client, which made me feel proud. He’s gained a significant amount of muscle in a pretty short time—just over 10 pounds in 6 weeks.
We keep careful records, and the numbers are always right in front of us, but having a few people notice is great. Especially for me, because it shows what an awesome trainer I am. Which, for the record, is Quite Awesome.
Anyway, emboldened by our receptiveness to his adoration, Cute Girl’s Boyfriend starts asking all sorts of questions which I did not, at that moment, have the time to answer. I asked him to wait a few minutes while we wrapped up our training session.
Three sets of bench press later and I’m seated at a table answering rapid fire questions from a kid who clearly has been getting the wrong information from all the wrong sources. He’s asking questions in earnest, as his training has not been productive lately.
He happened to ask me what the “best” set and rep scheme was for gaining muscle, and I inwardly groaned as I realized that this wasn’t going to be a short conversation. Without committing to a definitive answer of what I think is best, I gave him a rundown which I’d like to share with you.
If the question is, “which set/rep range is best for muscle gain?” the simple answer is “all of them.”
Unfortunately, that is also the most complicated answer.
You see, it’s like this: your muscles are made up of various types of fibers, and which rep ranges you best respond to is going to be a factor partially determined by your particular fiber make up.
Of course, without dissecting you (which, while undoubtedly fun, would not be very efficacious in terms of your training), there really isn’t any way to tell you what your general fiber make-up is, or what type of rep and set schemes you’re going to respond to. None of which really answers the question, of course. I know, just wait a tick, I’m getting there.
Let us assume for a moment that the training focus is entirely on growth, and not at all on strength. In that case, your concentration should be on the higher rep ranges; sets of 10-12, 12-15 or even as high as 20 are on the menu. As for the number of sets: well, that is something that will be determined by the number of exercises you for a particular body part.
It helps to think of things in terms of total volume. If you are training with higher reps, I would try to limit a specific muscle group to around 120 reps per work out, preferably just under.
Here is an example using chest:
Bench Press – 4×15 (60 reps)
Incline Dumbell Press – 3×12 (36 reps)
Dumbbell Fly – 2×10 (20 reps)
We’re looking at a total of 116 reps there, give or take any extras your were able to squeeze out, or reps you were unable to complete.
The reason for the high reps if your focus is primarily on hypertrophy is, once more, fiber make up. You are training for what is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, or fluid hypertrophy.
High rep training is the simplest, fastest, and most visibly obvious way for beginners to pack on mass. The drawback is that the higher rep schemes used in this type of training necessitate very light (in relative terms, at least) loads to complete the set.
That being the case, strength tends not to increase. In fact, in some cases you may even notice a decrease if you attempt heavier training.
This is typical “bodybuilder” type training – all show and no go, as they say. You’ll look strong, but you won’t be strong. However, if all you’re going for is a good look in a tight shirt, this may sound like something you might be interested in.
In most cases, when new trainees hit the gym, they do some incarnation of this. They progress a bit, and then stall out. As with all things: when it comes to training everything works, but nothing works forever.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss another way to structure your sets and reps to increase not only size, but also allow for rapid gains in strength.
Early this morning, I was working with a client doing some heavy benching, and we were interrupted by another gym member during a set.
Now, I normally don’t appreciate interruptions, but this chick was pretty cute and happened to be complimenting my client on his progress, so I let it slide and was happy to take a break while they dialogued for a bit.
Then another person came over—the admirer’s boyfriend. Lame.
I appreciate boyfriends even less than I appreciate interruptions.
On the other hand, the boyfriend was also pretty complimentary towards my client, which made me feel proud. He’s gained a significant amount of muscle in a pretty short time—just over 10 pounds in 6 weeks.
We keep careful records, and the numbers are always right in front of us, but having a few people notice is great. Especially for me, because it shows what an awesome trainer I am. Which, for the record, is Quite Awesome.
Anyway, emboldened by our receptiveness to his adoration, Cute Girl’s Boyfriend starts asking all sorts of questions which I did not, at that moment, have the time to answer. I asked him to wait a few minutes while we wrapped up our training session.
Three sets of bench press later and I’m seated at a table answering rapid fire questions from a kid who clearly has been getting the wrong information from all the wrong sources. He’s asking questions in earnest, as his training has not been productive lately.
He happened to ask me what the “best” set and rep scheme was for gaining muscle, and I inwardly groaned as I realized that this wasn’t going to be a short conversation. Without committing to a definitive answer of what I think is best, I gave him a rundown which I’d like to share with you.
If the question is, “which set/rep range is best for muscle gain?” the simple answer is “all of them.”
Unfortunately, that is also the most complicated answer.
You see, it’s like this: your muscles are made up of various types of fibers, and which rep ranges you best respond to is going to be a factor partially determined by your particular fiber make up.
Of course, without dissecting you (which, while undoubtedly fun, would not be very efficacious in terms of your training), there really isn’t any way to tell you what your general fiber make-up is, or what type of rep and set schemes you’re going to respond to. None of which really answers the question, of course. I know, just wait a tick, I’m getting there.
Let us assume for a moment that the training focus is entirely on growth, and not at all on strength. In that case, your concentration should be on the higher rep ranges; sets of 10-12, 12-15 or even as high as 20 are on the menu. As for the number of sets: well, that is something that will be determined by the number of exercises you for a particular body part.
It helps to think of things in terms of total volume. If you are training with higher reps, I would try to limit a specific muscle group to around 120 reps per work out, preferably just under.
Here is an example using chest:
Bench Press – 4×15 (60 reps)
Incline Dumbell Press – 3×12 (36 reps)
Dumbbell Fly – 2×10 (20 reps)
We’re looking at a total of 116 reps there, give or take any extras your were able to squeeze out, or reps you were unable to complete.
The reason for the high reps if your focus is primarily on hypertrophy is, once more, fiber make up. You are training for what is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, or fluid hypertrophy.
High rep training is the simplest, fastest, and most visibly obvious way for beginners to pack on mass. The drawback is that the higher rep schemes used in this type of training necessitate very light (in relative terms, at least) loads to complete the set.
That being the case, strength tends not to increase. In fact, in some cases you may even notice a decrease if you attempt heavier training.
This is typical “bodybuilder” type training – all show and no go, as they say. You’ll look strong, but you won’t be strong. However, if all you’re going for is a good look in a tight shirt, this may sound like something you might be interested in.
In most cases, when new trainees hit the gym, they do some incarnation of this. They progress a bit, and then stall out. As with all things: when it comes to training everything works, but nothing works forever.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss another way to structure your sets and reps to increase not only size, but also allow for rapid gains in strength.
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