sets

[big fig]

I started training with 12-15 sets a muscle and quickly rose to 15-20 sets. I burned myself out for a while although I did get gains. I was convinced to lower sets and now I'm doing 6-8 sets each. Now i feel bettr about my training and am getting better gains. But my question is ican I lower sets even more and possibly get better gains? I never had a beginner's routine and that seems to be just what I needed. I feel like I can lower sets without a problem but I just want other opinions.

[Siafu]

I started training with 12-15 sets a muscle and quickly rose to 15-20 sets. I burned myself out for a while although I did get gains. I was convinced to lower sets and now I'm doing 6-8 sets each. Now i feel bettr about my training and am getting better gains. But my question is ican I lower sets even more and possibly get better gains? I never had a beginner's routine and that seems to be just what I needed. I feel like I can lower sets without a problem but I just want other opinions.

Why not do both every once in a while, because they work for you.

Just remember to have your "light weeks", I'm not talking about tampons neither
I'm talking about no carb loading before training, just to maintain and not clearly go all the way with your sets. Ofcourse you still drink postworkout shakes, but with lower dosage.

[BOWIE]

Yea, switch it up. I used to do great on low-volume/high intensity training but recently my gains tapered off. Once I switched to high-vol my gains went through the roof. When my body adapts, I'll go back to low-vol.

[Jneves]

I think you would be much better off monitoring total volume and intensity instead of number of sets.

you say your doing 6-8 sets.... for the rep ranges I train in that could mean anywhere from 18 to 120 total reps, and the intensity would probably very from 60-95%... so you can see just monitoring and changing sets is probably an over simplified manner of changing your workout

[Tyrbolift]

Yea, switch it up. I used to do great on low-volume/high intensity training but recently my gains tapered off. Once I switched to high-vol my gains went through the roof. When my body adapts, I'll go back to low-vol.

Good idea--and you don't have to just do one or the other, you can alternate between the two each workout, or do something like, 1 hi, 1 hi, 1 lo, repeat. Especially if the specific workouts are more frequent than once every 7 days (once a week).

[BernieD]

well for smaller muscles like bi's, tri's and shoulders you could keep it to about 9-10 sets, but do like 12 for chest back and legs. That's pretty much what I'm doing now. Your smaller muscle groups don't need tons of sets to grow.

[big fig]

Thanks folks. I like the idea of mixing up the volume. I will try that.

[Defiant1]

Yea, switch it up. I used to do great on low-volume/high intensity training but recently my gains tapered off. Once I switched to high-vol my gains went through the roof. When my body adapts, I'll go back to low-vol.

Smart.

[BodySculpting]

I started training with 12-15 sets a muscle and quickly rose to 15-20 sets. I burned myself out for a while although I did get gains. I was convinced to lower sets and now I'm doing 6-8 sets each. Now i feel bettr about my training and am getting better gains. But my question is ican I lower sets even more and possibly get better gains? I never had a beginner's routine and that seems to be just what I needed. I feel like I can lower sets without a problem but I just want other opinions.

I wouldn't lower the sets anymore. IMO, one of the reasons I enjoy mid to high volume is because I get to incorporate different excercises. The more excercises you have, the more they will develop the muscle from different parts of it to give you a nice 3 dimensional shaped body part. What do you want to do, 3 sets for chest now? 6-8 sets is good enough.

[Dominik]

Yea, switch it up. I used to do great on low-volume/high intensity training but recently my gains tapered off. Once I switched to high-vol my gains went through the roof. When my body adapts, I'll go back to low-vol.

I agree with Defiant, it's smart.

There's a table of loading guidelines for a training year by Chernyak that you might be interested in which looks like this:

Weeks Volume Intensity
12-15 Medium ... Medium
9-10 Medium-High ... Low
6-7 Low ... Medium
3-4 High ... Medium
3-4 Medium ... High
3-4 Low ... High
2-3 High ... High
1-2 Low ... Low

As you can see, most of the year should be medium volume + medium intensity. At the bottom you've got 2-3 weeks of high volume + high intensity. 3-4 weeks of low volume + high intensity. It makes a lot of sense. A lot more sense than going flat out or half-assed all year.