If you visit the gym for a specific purpose, you should stick to the appropriate training pattern, or in a simple way, the program. And the program implies not only a set of exercises, but also how many approaches to do for mass, endurance, strength or relief, as well as how many repetitions should be in each of these approaches. Depending on what result you want to achieve, these values ​​will vary.

Why follow the rules

Sets and reps are important part workout.

In order to increase the effectiveness of the training, to achieve certain results, all training process divided into rest and work. Each muscle needs to be worked out several times, while giving it time to rest. Such cyclicity is necessary in order for the muscles to work as efficiently as possible.

If you just take the barbell and do the maximum number of repetitions, this will not bring much effect. Endurance and strength will increase too slowly from such an inefficient waste of the physical resources of the body.

If you do, for example, 10 repetitions and move on to the next exercise, there will be no progress either. The only thing you get is a “preventive” load on the muscles. This approach is useful only in the case of charging in the morning. The task of this method of performing exercises is to maintain the muscular and circulatory system in a normal state and no more.

But the most effective option is to first load the muscle, then let it rest, repeat this until the desired degree of development of its resource. The rest time should allow the muscle to restore energy for further work. However, if this interval exceeds the time after which the muscle begins to "cool down", such a break can lead to injury.

Usually rest lasts from 30 seconds to 4-5 minutes. How to individually choose this time for you - we will tell later.

Thus, sets and repetitions are needed to achieve best result from training.

The repetitions and approaches performed depend on the goals of your training and, accordingly, training weights. There is quite natural logic here: the higher, the fewer repetitions you can do with it.

That's not all: the more weight, the longer you need to rest to do the next set.

Different goals - different number of repetitions

You need to understand how many sets and reps to do in different situations.

For example, an athlete-bodybuilder must also know the number of repetitions for muscle growth, that is, how many repetitions to do for mass (if he is gaining weight), and how many approaches and repetitions to do for relief (if he is drying).

The number of repetitions in the approach depends on what you want to get as a result of training.

1. To increase strength, 2-4 reps per set are usually performed. In this case, the weights are taken large, close to the maximum.
2. To gain mass, an athlete needs to perform 5-10 repetitions. The working weight will be less than when working for strength, but still quite significant. The number of repetitions per mass should not be large. Often, mass and strength gains are labeled as separate workouts. Although the force grows after the mass, but the mass after the force - not always. It happens that a small muscle volume is more effective than inflated mountains of muscle. You can meet this in your life - it all depends on what percentage muscle fibers involved in work.
3. When working on relief or losing weight, it is important to burn a lot of energy at the expense of fat. A large number of repetitions with medium and light weights. Do 15-20 repetitions until your muscles start to burn.

Please note again that for optimal training, you need to adequately select the working weights. You need to ensure that with this weight you can do exactly the planned number of repetitions. If you can't even do 1 extra rep, that would be perfect. In practice, this rarely happens, so do not despair.

It is worth mentioning how many repetitions are done per mass with an increase in working weight. Everything is simple here. When you switch to new weight, first perform with it the minimum number of times in the range (that is, 5), and then increase to the maximum (up to 10).

When to increase the amount

There are times when a person participates in competitions where the maximum number of repetitions is required (for example, in CrossFit). Here you need to train for the quantity. You have to forget about how many reps and sets to do for mass, relief or anything else.

So, how to increase the number of repetitions. Here are a couple of techniques:

1. First - you need to work for maximum repetitions with good rest. Naturally, in each next approach you will have fewer repetitions than in the previous one.
2. The second technique is various "ladders". For example, increasing the working weight and working to the maximum in quantity. Or you can choose a specific weight and do 50 reps with it. Then increase the weight and do the same number of repetitions. One day there will come a point when your muscles will no longer be able to perform a single repetition.

Approaches

Everything about repetition is clear. But with how many approaches to do, the situation is more complicated.

An approach is a continuous exercise. For example, even in one repetition can be called a set. When you put the barbell down, the approach ended, the rest began. Then, when you start doing the exercise again, the next approach will begin.

So, the number of approaches is also selected individually. It will be very good if you find your own minimum. That is, such a number of approaches for each exercise that will not allow you to degrade in muscle terms, and even better, will give you the opportunity to grow further.

• So what do you do to grow? muscle mass: Do 3-4 sets, not including warm-ups.
• The same number of approaches you need to do for weight loss. The warm-up in this case can be complex for the whole body before starting the workout.
• And to increase strength, it is better to perform a couple of approaches more.

As you noticed, the number of repetitions decreases, and the approaches increase.

Rest time between exercises

Standards say to rest 45, 60, 90 seconds. But blindly following your stopwatch is stupid. Of course, from an anatomical point of view, all people are similar, and their bodies function in the same way. But every person has his physical features. This is manifested in the difference in recovery time, the rate of weight gain, strength. Thus, we are all similar, but still different.

Your task is to work out your own time limits based on standards.

The standards are:

• To gain mass, rest 60-90 seconds.
• To lose weight, try to rest the minimum amount of time.
• And when you work for strength, you can rest for three and five minutes. Focus on your feelings. It is important to allow the muscles to recover, but at the same time start the next set before they "cool down".

Based on these numbers, be guided by your feelings. If after the next rest you cannot do even 2-3 repetitions, although 10 are planned, you took heavy weight or simply rested very little.

Beginner or athlete after injury

After long break or when a person first comes to the gym, you need to train in an easy mode. This means not only light weights, but also a reduced number of sets.

For beginners who first come to lift iron, it is recommended to start with two approaches for each exercise. You can do as many repetitions as you need.

Experienced athletes after the break themselves know what is best, so there is no point in recommending something to them. If there is not enough experience to decide on this, do the same two sets in the first workout, three in the next and then - according to the usual program.

By the way, in a warm state, the muscles do not feel damage so well. A muscle fiber tear will only make itself clear when your muscle has cooled down. Up to this point, apart from minor discomfort, you may not feel anything.

This phenomenon is dangerous when you decide to do several additional approaches. The muscle is torn and damaged. During the training, of course, you cannot notice this. Therefore, a fanatical race for the number of approaches is dangerous to health. Keeping an eye on yourself will help keep you safe. own body- if you can no longer correctly perform 1 repetition - it's time to finish.

In other words, choose the number of sets and repetitions based not only on your goals, but also on your physical condition and well-being.

Hi all. Welcome to a blog without lies and falsehood, bodybuilding in its purest form. AT today's issue, we will talk about how many sets to do in bodybuilding exercises. The topic itself is very important, because it is in the first place in any training complex.

Before we dive into this issue, I would like to tell the youngest inhabitants of the gym, what exactly is the approach? (and the difference between the approach and repetitions, just in case).

And so, repetitions are when you start doing the exercises and count how many times you have completed the movement. And the approach (aka a series, a shortened set) is when you have completed the required number of repetitions and finished the movement (well, for example, you did 10 barbell lifts for biceps and lowered) this is 1 approach (series), which means that you did 1 set of 10 reps.

If you rest 1 minute and repeat all over again (i.e. do 10 reps and lower the barbell), this will already be the 2nd set. Those. You have done 2 trips already. Do you understand?

I hope I explained it in an accessible way, now let's move on to another question, how many sets per workout should be done, how many sets should be done for each muscle group in order to have the maximum benefit in the form of muscle growth?

The questions are very confusing, misinformation is everywhere ... one broadcasts that 1-2 approaches to failure will be enough, another says 5-6 is necessary, the third invents something else .. Everyone has their own opinion, and who is right, where the hell take it true?

There are athletes for whom 1-2 approaches are enough, for another, 5 approaches will not be enough.

This whole thing depends on:

• genetics
• psyche

I justify why. It is psychologically easier for some athletes to tune in and perform one but high-quality approach, instead of 5, well, let's say, anyhow. Usually I notice this in advanced athletes, because beginners are not capable of such a return.

Warm up sets

In any case, you will have to perform warm-up sets, of course, if you do not want to get injured and say goodbye to bodybuilding for a long time. Our muscles and ligaments need to be warmed up before hard exercises in the gym.

Moreover, warm-up sets prepare your psyche for maximum training.

So, whoever tells you that tough fighters don’t warm up, etc. this is a delusion, any athlete warms up when working with huge weights.

Personally, I performed both the maximum and minimum number of approaches, after which I decided to stop at the golden mean.

The golden mean: these are 3-4 working sets, after 2-3 warm-ups in the first exercise (quite enough). Let's see how it looks in practice in the bench press lying on a horizontal bench.

Let's say your working weight is 80kg x 8 reps.

So the golden mean looks like this:

• Warm-up with an empty bar (20kg) is mandatory (always start with an empty bar)
• 40kgX12 - warm-up
• 60kgX10 - 2nd approach again warm-up
• 70kgX8 - 3rd approach (leading warm-up)
• 80kgX6-12 - 1st worker
• 80kgX6-12 - 2nd worker
• 80kg X 6-12 3rd worker

We do warm-up sets with light weights, high reps.

This is done in order to prepare your muscles for the maximum working weights in the exercise.

After that, a lead-in approach follows, and finally, a working approach, which is the most important one.

As a rule, when the athlete is still fresh, it is in this 1st approach that one should try to regularly increase working weights (progress the load).

You can read more about load progression in the main articlesx:

• Bodybuilding training programs (here at the very beginning it tells step by step and chewed up how to use safe methods of progression i.e. increase in weights and repetitions, this is a must-read).
• German volumetric training (here again, the same safe methods are described, but also about the unsafe method of load progression, for professionals).
• Natural muscle bodybuilding without steroids (here, in principle, what progression is needed for, how to carry it out, etc., but not as chewed as in the first and second articles).

The second working approach stimulates the development of the muscle, it is also strength, the only thing is that most likely you will not be able to do the same number of repetitions as in the first one, because your muscles are already tired.

And finally, the 3rd working approach: here it is more than likely that you will do even fewer repetitions than in the previous (2nd).

I think that in following exercises on the same chest, you should not warm up.

Because our muscles are already warmed up and even more than tired.

But, if you feel that you need (just in case, so to speak), then one will be enough.

For example: if you have the 2nd exercise according to the plan bench press on an incline, your maximum is 80kgX8 then:

• 60kgX6-8 - warm-up
• 80kgX6-12 - 1st worker
• 80kgX6-12 - 2nd worker
• 80kgX6-12 - 3rd worker

Why are there multiple working approaches?

For a novice athlete, 100% will not be able to achieve a return on one approach in an exercise.

Moreover, even more advanced athletes will not be able to do this.

Because, you still feel your muscles very badly, you simply simply cannot make them work as they should. That is why, in several approaches you have a chance, unlike one.

Only professional bodybuilders are capable of such a return, but they never perform so few approaches, because they often train according to high intensity schemes (the so-called German training).

This method of training is very useful (golden mean). Perhaps sometime in the future, you will discover the most effective complex strength exercises.

But not now, that time has not yet come. All successful athletes who are now into a limited number of sets (and there are very few of them), or those who use a huge number of sets, started with simple methods training. You can’t just take it and jump over your head. Start small and go big.

Absolutely in any gym you will see people making a lot of mistakes during training - the guy on the bench beats the barbell from the chest, someone does leg curls, and at the same time his pelvis is more mobile than the hamstrings, while the other tries to press in the simulator "butterfly". These visible shortcomings can significantly slow down your progress in training, however, this is not the only thing you should worry about. What about errors you don't see?

None of these mistakes will harm your training efforts as much as choosing hard training over training smart. Many people can train hard, but it is training smartly that will help you get closer to your goal. For example, let's say you want to build muscle. You can choose light weights and do 50-60 reps, or take big weight and pick it up 10 times. In both cases, you will work hard, but one of the methods is more effective in building muscle.

Efforts are important, but they must be used wisely! In order to optimize your efforts in the gym, you need to understand what rep range is best for reaching your goal. Fortunately, research has already been done on this topic. And today we will talk about how to choose the right rep range for your goals.

Three Goals - Three Rep Ranges

Training to increase muscle volume (Hypertrophy)

If you are training to increase muscle volume, then you should select the weight in such a way that muscle failure occurs after 8-12 repetitions. In other words, after you've completed your warm-up sets - which will help you prevent injury - you should pick up a weight that you can do at least 8 and no more than 12 reps with.

This means that if you only did 6-7 reps, then that weight is too heavy and you should reduce it on the next set. On the other hand, the option when you can do more than 12 repetitions is also wrong. The correct set is when you hit failure - the point where you can't do another set on your own - in the 8-12 rep range. If you can easily do more than 12 reps, add weight to the next set to reach muscle failure in the range we need.

Of course, the guy who hits the barbell off the chest and the guy who lifts the pelvis off the bench to do the barbell press are grossly violating technique. If your technique breaks down when performing an exercise, the weight of the projectile may be too large for you. Learn and practice techniques from books.

By choosing the right load for muscle building, you can effectively load fast muscle fibers, which are more prone to increase in size and strength, in combination with weight training, and this will be enough to stimulate growth. However, these muscle fibers tire very quickly, so you shouldn't lift very heavy weights for high reps.

Train like a bodybuilder: if you want to increase muscle mass, aim for 8-12 reps per set and choose multi-joint movements such as bench press, squat, overhead press, bent over row and deadlift. These exercises engage more muscles than single-joint movements, allowing you to lift more weight.

Target the right muscle group different exercises with high reps and sets to stimulate growth. In general, the rest period between sets should be 1-2 minutes.

Strength training

When you pick up the weight to do 8-12 muscle-building reps, you are also building strength, no question. But this weight is not optimal for increasing strength. When your goal is to maximize strength, you should train with a weight that you can lift for only 1-6 reps. Very heavy weight makes you stronger.

This is exactly the approach to training used by the strongest men and women on the planet, especially powerlifters. They lift inhuman weights in competition and you can be sure they use a similar approach in training.

Of course, many of these athletes don't train hard all the time. They alternate high-intensity training (heavy weights) and low-intensity periods, which helps them reduce the risk of injury, keep their joints healthy, and reach peak strength for competitions. They usually use a 12 or 16 week periodization program to help them progress well. First they do a set of 5 reps, then 3, and finally 2 or 1 reps. Strength training also recruits fast muscle fibers. But it is aimed not only at increasing the volume and strength of muscles, but also at training the nervous system.

Train like a powerlifter: The training of athletes for strength differs from the training of bodybuilders in that they avoid sets in failure because they can negatively affect nervous system. The rest period between sets on working weights is quite long - 3-5 minutes - in order to fully recover before the next set. After the main multi-joint exercises, auxiliary exercises are performed that help strengthen weak spots in the execution of the main movement.

Muscle Endurance Workouts

You may be focused on getting as big or strong as possible, but not everyone is chasing those goals. Classic example of a runner on long distances(marathon runner), who needs to run 42 kilometers at one pace, for this he develops muscle endurance. In the gym, this will mean that you need to take less weight and do 15 reps or more.

Low-intensity training usually involves aerobic exercise because oxygen plays a key role in metabolic processes. This allows you to keep you active for a longer period of time. These energy processes take place predominantly in slow muscle fibers, so by doing low-intensity, high-rep training, you create mechanisms within the muscle cell that make it more aerobic.

This type of training increases muscle endurance without necessarily increasing their volume. Well-trained athletes can perform high reps for long periods of time without feeling tired, but you are unlikely to see a marathon runner with a sprint body.

Train for endurance: The basis of training for athletes whose sports require good endurance is most often not related to the gym, so it is quite difficult to repeat their movements with weights. Multi-joint exercises performed with light weights and high reps or even weightlifting exercises can build muscle endurance, of course, as long as you can maintain correct technique during execution.

The rest period should be short enough, because. oxygen consumption and lactic acid removal process are not limiting factors in endurance training.

Relationship between reps and weight

By understanding how many reps you should be doing, you will also understand how much weight you should be lifting. These things are inseparable. If you draw a graph, you will get a linear relationship: the more weight you add, the fewer repetitions you can do; with lighter weights, you will be able to do more reps.

I'm always surprised when I'm training with a new partner who is stuck on a specific weight and rep scheme—say, 36kg dumbbell bench press for 8 reps. I tell him to take 40kg, to which he replies, "I can't do it!". In fact, he can, just not 8 times. Inevitably, after working with 40kg dumbbells and feeling this new sense of strength, he will be able to lift 42kg, and even try 45kg.

We've touched on a very important point: You don't have to train in the same rep range all the time. You can start your workout with heavy multi-joint exercises for 5 sets of 5 reps. In order to focus on building muscle mass, you can add some exercises in the 8-12 rep range. At the end of the workout, you can work out slow muscle fibers and finish the session with isolation exercises for 15-20 repetitions.

Over time, you will understand your personal strength curve and weight-to-rep ratio in every exercise you do. It will help you a lot if you write down the weights and repetitions that you have done in a notebook. This is important because as you get stronger, you will want to lift more weight in the same rep range. When building muscle, once you can do more than 12 reps on a core exercise, it's time to increase the weights by 5-10 percent.

The weight you pick up on your strength curve should match the number of reps you need to do according to your training goal. In that sense, your workouts shouldn't be random where you just lift the same weight every session; eat more suitable weights and the optimal number of repetitions that you should do. It all depends on the goal you set for yourself!

Another of the most popular questions power form sports, especially among beginners, how many reps and sets to do. In order to study it most effectively, you first need to ask yourself a number of other equally important questions, the answers to which will help you understand the basic principles of drawing up a training program - correct and effective. You will be armed with scientific data that will help you improve and allow you to intelligently guide the less experienced in the gym.

And here is the list itself:

• Your level physical training?
• Body type?
• What are your goals?

Each of them is directly related to the answer, how many sets and repetitions you need to do. Let's start with the very first question and analyze each of them in order to better understand its importance and significance.

Your fitness level

This is a very simple question. Do you have any experience in physical activity and strength training in particular? At this stage, you need to clearly define your level: unprepared, beginner, amateur, professional.

If you have been training for 45 minutes 3 times a week, then you are a beginner. Maybe you visit the gym 4-6 times a week for 45 minutes? Then you are an average bodybuilder (amateur). When you participate in workouts lasting more than 45 minutes, more than 6 times a week, then you are participating in competitions and are considered a professional athlete.

Quite "green" need to start with aerobic exercise and some strength exercises with lighter weights to prepare your body and mind for more extreme workouts. It is very important to be patient and start small. The most unrestrained risk getting to know overtraining and injuries, after which they are unable or simply unwilling to continue to improve. Training is effective only when the body has time to adapt and recover. Beginners need to work at near-limit intensity in order to have time to recover from physical exertion. For the first 3-4 weeks, you should leave the gym feeling like you could have done so much more.

Beginners with little experience in bodybuilding should stick to high reps of 10-15 and 2 sets per muscle group (1-2 exercises per muscle group - mostly basic). This is necessary to create muscle coordination and chemical reactions in tissues. After 3 weeks, it's time to move on to the next step.

body type

Our bodies are divided into 3 main shapes: lean, muscular and full. In fact, they have scientific names, but for a change, let's leave it as it is. Most people who have a muscular physique will benefit the most from doing 6-8 reps. Naturally skinny people will benefit by only doing 6 reps. Well last group, overweight people, it is better to do 12-20 repetitions.

To find out how many approaches and repetitions you need to do, you need to decide on goals - they must be achievable and measurable.

There are three important moments that need to be taken into account:

• Strength and endurance cannot be optimally developed at the same time, as they are opposite to each other.
• By developing maximum strength, you increase the potential for maximum endurance.
• Strength takes longer to develop than endurance.

The repetitive continuum has STRENGTH at one end and ENDURANCE at the other. Strength is achieved by performing heavy reps in a low quantitative range, where 1 rep produces the most strength. Endurance, on the other hand, is achieved by doing low-weight reps in a high range, where being able to do 100 push-ups, for example, would be a great example of extreme endurance.

1. The program, aimed at developing strength, consists of 1-5 repetitions in the approach. This range allows you to use the maximum weight of weights and perfectly load the muscles. This type muscle growth called myofibrillar hypertrophy.
2. If used in a set of 9-12, then sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is maximized, which causes an increase in muscle volume.
3. Beyond 12 repetitions, anaerobic endurance is mainly developed, and muscle hypertrophy is reduced to a minimum.
4. Ideally, a muscle building program should be 6-8 reps per set. Such training has an excellent balance between myofibrillar (strength) and sarcoplasmic (mass) hypertrophy, develops both types of muscle fibers (fast and slow) and perfectly raises testosterone levels.
5. To maintain good shape, it is enough to train the whole body 3 times a week, doing 2-3 sets (from 2 to 3 exercises per muscle group) of 12-15 repetitions. You'll get a basic level of physical training, become more experienced and be able to set new, higher goals to achieve.

All of the above figures are generally accepted, well-established and have proven their effectiveness in bodybuilding more than once. But science does not stand still and offers us new knowledge about muscles, forcing us to reconsider our views on certain things. And this is true for reps and sets. Therefore, on this topic, you can talk for a long time, and study even longer.

From this follows a completely legitimate question - "So what to believe?". Basically, it's not that important. After all, there are NO USELESS repetitions and approaches! Each person is unique and differently genetically arranged and gifted. So, don't get carried away with theories, focus on strenuous and varied workouts in the gym, experiment and make mistakes, because that's how you can find out what works best for you.

Every time you come to gym we see that many do the load on the muscles with the same exercise many times. Often approaching the simulator, we ask, do you still have a lot?, And in response, 3 more approaches. Some do 3, others 5, others even more, here the question arises, how many approaches do you need to do in training ???

At the beginning, since this article is aimed mainly at beginners, I will explain that A SET is a set number of repetitions performed per exercise. For example, let's take it so beloved by beginners - they lay down on a bench and, for example, squeezed it 8-10 times from the chest, then got up and rest, this will be 1 APPROACH.

Let's find out once and for all how many approaches you need to do in one exercise per workout:

Warm-up approaches

It doesn’t matter what exercise you are doing and on which muscle group, at first they are always done warm-up approaches - they are necessary to prevent injury to muscles, ligaments and joints , thus setting up the muscles for the next physical activity, blood flow increases, and with it the amount of useful substances, due to which strength increases.

Any self-respecting athlete different levels, always warms up before hard work, because he knows about negative consequences if this is neglected.

The GOLDEN RULE is to do 2 warm-up sets followed by 3-4 working sets. .

For clarity, consider an example on:

2. Squat with an empty bar 20 repetitions, to pump blood into the muscles, warm up the knee joints and increase muscle concentration - does not count as an approach ;

3. 40 kg x 12 reps - warm-up set

4. 50kg. x 10 reps - warm-up set

5. 65 kg. x 8 reps - rolling approach

6. 85kg. x 8 reps - working set

7. 85kg. x 8-7 repetitions - working approach

8. 85kg. x 7-6 repetitions - working approach

According to the rules, the last 3 working sets are always performed with, should be performed for 8 repetitions, but in reality this
it doesn’t always work out, as the strength gradually goes away, but you still need to strive to complete 8 repetitions, this should be your goal.

Then, moving on to working out the muscles of the legs, for example, a leg press - you should not do a lot of warm-up approaches, the muscles are already warmed up, the 1st warm-up approach will be enough, after that you proceed immediately to the workers. Consider an example:

1. 50 x 12 reps warm-up set

2. 75 x 10 reps - rolling set

3. 100 x 8 reps - working set

4. 100 x 8-7 reps - working set

5. 100 x 7-6 reps - working set.

Working approaches

Many have asked me, and you yourself have wondered more than once, is it possible to get by with 1 working approach? After all, in this approach, the muscles are fully involved in the work, there is a release of growth hormone and useful micro-ruptures of muscle fibers, which are then healed with protein, they set the growth phase, so after all, can 1 approach and that's it ?!

NO and again NO, do not deceive yourself and do not look for easy ways. The use of 3 working approaches is necessary in order to feel and work out the trained muscle well. , in 1 approach it is almost impossible to do this, and IT IS UNREAL FOR BEGINNERS. Only professional bodybuilders are capable of this.

conclusions

We emphasize the main thing - you should not do more than 3-4 working approaches, remember! you must invest in, before working approaches, be sure to follow