How many approaches to do the exercises? Sets and reps in strength training What are sets and how to do them

If you go to the gym for a specific purpose, you should adhere to an appropriate training pattern, or in simple terms, a 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 repetitions are an important part of training.

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

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

If you do, for example, 10 repetitions and move on to the next exercise, there will be no progress either. The only thing you will get is a “preventative” load on the muscles. This approach is only useful if you do exercises in the morning. The goal of this method of doing exercises is to maintain the muscular and circulatory system in a normal state and nothing more.

But the most effective option is to first load the muscle, then give it a rest, repeat this until the desired degree of depletion of its resource. The rest period should allow the muscle to restore its energy reserves 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.

Typically the rest lasts from 30 seconds to 4–5 minutes. We’ll tell you later how to individually choose this time for you.

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

The reps and sets you perform depend on your training goals and training weights accordingly. There is a completely natural logic here: the higher , the fewer repetitions you can do with it.

That's not all: the heavier the weight, the longer you need to rest before doing the next set.

Different goals - different number of repetitions

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

For example, a bodybuilder must 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 out).

The number of repetitions per set depends on what you want to get out of your training.

1. To increase strength, usually perform 2-4 repetitions per set. In this case, the weights are taken to be large, close to the maximum.
2. To gain mass, the athlete needs to perform 5-10 repetitions. The working weight will be less than when working on strength, but still quite significant. The number of repetitions per mass should not be large. Often mass and strength gains are designated as separate training sessions. Although force grows along with mass, mass does not always follow force. It happens that a small muscle volume is more effective than pumped up mountains of muscles. You can find this in your life - it all depends on what percentage of muscle fibers are involved in the work.
3. When working on relief or losing weight, it is important to burn a lot of energy from fat. A large number of repetitions with average 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 working weights. You need to ensure that with this weight you can do exactly the planned number of repetitions. If you can't do even 1 extra repetition, that would be ideal. In practice, this rarely happens, so don’t despair.

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

When to increase quantity

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 quantity. You will have to forget about how many reps and approaches 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 have a good rest. Naturally, in each subsequent approach you will have fewer repetitions than in the previous one.
2. The second technique is various “ladders”. For example, increasing 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 time when your muscles will no longer be able to perform a single repetition.

Approaches

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

A set is a continuous exercise. For example, even one repetition can be called a set. When you put the bar down, the approach is over and rest begins. 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 into muscularly, and even better, it will give you the opportunity to grow further.

• So what to do to grow muscle mass: Perform 3-4 approaches, not counting warm-up ones.
• The same number of approaches should be done to lose weight. Warm-up in this case can be comprehensive for the whole body before starting the workout.
• And to increase strength, it is better to perform a couple more approaches.

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

Rest time between exercises

The standards say to rest for 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 own physical features. This manifests itself in differences in recovery time, speed of mass gain, and strength. Thus, we are all similar, but still different.

Your task is to develop your own time limits based on the standards.

The standards are:

• To gain muscle, rest for 60–90 seconds.
• To lose weight, try to rest for a minimum amount of time.
• And when you work on strength, you can rest for three or five minutes. Be guided by your feelings. It is important to allow the muscles to recover, but to begin the next approach 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 were planned, you took heavy weight or simply had very little rest.

For a beginner or an athlete after an injury

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

Beginners who first came to lift iron are recommended to start with two approaches for each exercise. You can immediately do as many repetitions as required.

Experienced athletes themselves know what is best after a break, so there is no point in recommending anything to them. If you don’t have enough experience to decide on this, do two approaches in the first workout, three in the next and then according to the usual program.

By the way, in a warm state, muscles do not feel damage so well. A muscle fiber rupture will only become clear when your muscle “cools down.” Until this point, other than 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 training, naturally, you cannot notice this. Therefore, a fanatical race for the number of approaches is dangerous to health. Monitoring will help you protect yourself own body– if you can no longer perform 1 repetition correctly, it’s time to finish.

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

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

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

And so, repetitions are when you start doing the exercises and count how many times you perform the movement. And an 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 biceps curls and lowered them), this is 1 approach (series), this means that you did 1 set of 10 reps.

If you rest for 1 minute and do it all over again (i.e. do 10 reps and lower the bar), that will be a 2nd set. Those. You have already made 2 trips. Do you understand?

I hope I explained it clearly, now let’s move on to another question, how many approaches should be performed per workout, how many approaches should be done for each muscle group in order to maximum benefit in the form of muscle growth?

The questions are very confusing, there is misinformation everywhere... one says that 1-2 sets to failure will be enough, another says 5-6 are needed, the third is making up something else... Everyone has their own opinion, and who is right, where the hell come on, the truth?

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

This whole thing depends on:

• genetics
• psyche

I'll explain why this is so. For some athletes, it’s easier psychologically to tune in and perform one high-quality approach, instead of 5, well, let’s say, haphazardly. I usually notice this among advanced athletes, because beginners are not capable of such a return.

Warm-up approaches

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

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

So, no matter what anyone tells you, tough fighters don’t warm up, etc. This is a misconception; 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 settle on the golden middle.

The golden mean: this is 3-4 working approaches, after 2-3 warm-ups in the first exercise (quite enough). Let's see what it looks like in practice on a flat bench press.

Let's say your working weight is 80 kg X 8 repetitions.

So the golden mean looks like this:

• Warm-up with an empty bar (20kg) is mandatory (we always start with an empty bar)
• 40kgX12 – warm-up
• 60kgX10 - 2nd approach warm-up again
• 70kgX8 - 3rd approach (introductory warm-up)
• 80kgХ6-12 — 1st worker
• 80kgХ6-12 — 2nd worker
• 80kg X 6-12 3rd worker

We do warm-up approaches with light weights and a high number of repetitions.

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

After which comes the introductory approach, and finally the working approach, which is also the most important.

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

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

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

The second working approach stimulates muscle development, it is also strength-based, the only thing is that most likely you will not be able to do the same number of repetitions as in the first, 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) one.

I think that in the following exercises on the same chest, there is no need to warm up.

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

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

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

• 60kgX6-8 – warm-up
• 80kgХ6-12- 1st worker
• 80kgХ6-12 — 2nd worker
• 80kgХ6-12 – 3rd worker

Why are several working approaches performed?

A novice athlete will not be able to achieve 100% returns from one approach to an exercise.

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

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

Only professional bodybuilders are capable of such efficiency, but even they never perform so few approaches, because they often train according to highly intense schemes (the so-called German training).

This training method is very useful (golden mean). Perhaps someday in the future you will discover the maximum effective complex strength exercises.

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

In absolutely any gym you will see people making a lot of mistakes during training - a guy on a bench press is beating the barbell off his chest, someone is doing leg curls and at the same time his pelvis is more mobile than his hamstrings, another is trying to bench press in the machine "butterfly". These visible imperfections can significantly hinder your progress in training, however, they are not the only thing you should worry about. What about the errors you don't see?

None of these mistakes will harm your training efforts as much as you would prefer. hard training train wisely. Many people can train hard, but it is training wisely 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 heavy weight and lift it 10 times. In both cases you will work hard, but one method is more effective in building muscle.

Efforts are important, but you need to use them wisely! In order to optimize your efforts in the gym, you need to understand what rep range will best achieve your goal. Fortunately, research has already been done on this topic. And today we'll 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 size, then you should select the weight in such a way that muscle failure occurs after 8-12 repetitions. In other words, after you've finished warm-up approaches- which will help you prevent injury - you should choose a weight with which you can do at least 8, but no more than 12 repetitions.

This means that if you only did 6-7 reps, then the 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 have reached failure - the point at which you can no longer do another set of the same type on your own - in the 8-12 rep range. If you can easily do more than 12 reps, add weight on the next set to reach muscle failure in the range we want.

Of course, the guy who bounces the barbell off his chest and the guy who lifts his pelvis off the bench to perform a barbell press are grossly violating technique. If your technique breaks when performing an exercise, perhaps the weight of the apparatus is too heavy for you. Learn and practice techniques from books.

By choosing the right load to build muscle mass, you will be able to effectively load fast muscles. muscle fibers who are more inclined to increase size and strength, combined with resistance training, will be enough to stimulate growth. However, these muscle fibers fatigue very quickly, so you shouldn't lift very heavy weights for high reps.

Train like bodybuilders: if you want to increase muscle mass, aim for 8-12 reps per set and choose multi-joint movements such as the bench press, squats, overhead presses, bent-over rows and deadlift. These exercises work more muscles than single-joint movements, allowing you to lift more weight.

Load the one you need 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 select weights to do 8-12 reps to build muscle, you are also training 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 only lift for 1-6 reps. Very heavy weights help you become stronger.

This is exactly the approach to training that the strongest men and women on the planet use, 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 competition. They usually use a 12 or 16 week periodization program, which helps them progress well. First they do a set of 5 reps, then 3, and finally 2 or 1 rep. Strength training also recruits fast-twitch muscle fibers. But it is aimed not only at increasing muscle volume and strength, but also at training the nervous system.

Train like a powerlifter: training athletes for strength differs from training bodybuilders in that they avoid failure sets 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 approach. After the main multi-joint exercises, auxiliary exercises are performed, which help strengthen weak spots in performing the main movement.

Muscular endurance training

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, to do this he develops muscular endurance. In the gym, this will mean lifting lighter weights and doing 15 reps or more.

Low intensity training usually involves aerobic exercise, because oxygen plays a key role in metabolic processes. This allows you to maintain your activity for a longer period of time. These energy processes occur predominantly in slow-twitch muscle fibers, so by performing low-intensity, high-repetition training, you create mechanisms inside muscle cell, which make it more adapted to aerobic exercise.

This type of training increases muscle endurance without necessarily increasing muscle size. Well-trained athletes can perform high reps for long periods of time without fatigue, but you're unlikely to see a marathon runner with the body of a sprinter.

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

The rest period should be short enough, because... Oxygen consumption and the process of removing lactic acid are not limiting factors in endurance training.

The relationship between reps and weight

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

I'm always surprised when I train with a new partner who is stuck on a certain weight and rep pattern - say, 36kg dumbbell bench press for 8 reps. I tell him to take 40kg, to which he replies, “I won’t be able to do that!” 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 touched a lot important point: You shouldn't train in the same rep range all the time. You can start your workout with heavy compound exercises for 5 sets of 5 reps. To focus on building muscle mass, you can add a few exercises in the 8-12 rep range. At the end of the workout, you can work the 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 for each exercise you do. It will help you a lot if you write down the weights and reps you did in a notepad. This is important because as you get stronger, you will want to lift heavier weights in the same rep range. When building muscle, once you can do more than 12 reps on a main exercise, it's time to increase the weights by 5 to 10 percent.

The weight you select from your strength curve should match the number of reps you need to do for your training goal. In this sense, your workouts shouldn't be random, where you just lift the same weight every session; there are more appropriate weights and optimal number of repetitions you should do. It all depends on the goal you set for yourself!

The number of approaches and repetitions in exercises is a fairly frequently asked question on various bodybuilding forums. Professionals have long learned to choose the right approaches and repetitions, so beginners are usually interested in this question. In general, this is a very controversial issue, which is discussed in many books on bodybuilding. Each author has his own opinion on this matter, today we will express ours.

There are two global opinions regarding sets and repetitions. One of them is classic, developed over years of training of many athletes; the other is scientific, more modern. You can read about them at. But for a deeper understanding, we decided to write this article - an examination of the myths created around the choice of the number of approaches and repetitions.

Repetition - performing a movement along a given trajectory with controlled adherence to the phases of the exercise.

Set (set) - a session of performing an exercise in which repetitions are performed.

Myth #1: All exercises should be done 8-12 reps per set.

This amount is ideal from a muscle building point of view.

Origin of the myth: In 1954, one of the works of Ian McQueen (a famous MD and bodybuilder) recommended performing 8-12 repetitions per set to effectively build muscle mass.

Refutation: this number of repetitions keeps the muscles at medium tension, which does not allow them to develop as much as possible.

Scientific point of view: the highest tension occurs when exercising with heavy weights, it is they that stimulate muscle growth. If you look from the other side, the total time during which the muscles will be tense ( big number repetitions) stimulates the structures around muscle fibers, which increases their endurance. Option with reps ranging from 8 to 12, somewhere between tension and weight. But if you constantly work with so many repetitions, you will not give your muscles high level tension, which you will only get if you work with heavy weights.

Result: vary the number of repetitions with different weights.

Myth #2: Each exercise should have 3 sets.

With such a load you will always progress, there is simply no point in doing more.

Origin of the Myth: In 1958, a report by Thomas Delorme stated that 3 sets of 10 reps would be no different in effectiveness than 10 sets of 10 reps.

Disclaimer: This is not true. Believe me, your muscles don’t care about the magic of the number “3”. You should know only one rule: the more repetitions in a set, the fewer approaches. That is, in general, the number of repetitions remains approximately the same, only the number of divisions into sets changes.

Result: Average weight? - 3 sets of 8 repetitions. Do you lift heavy weights and do 3 reps? - perform 6 sets.

Myth No. 3. You need to perform 3-4 exercises for each muscle group.

This is the only way you will efficiently load a specific muscle.

Origin of the Myth: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Postulate (1966).

Refutation: the same Arnie said that each exercise should be performed 8-12 times in 3 approaches. After average calculations, there are almost one and a half hundred repetitions for each muscle group. If you are able to withstand such a load, you are hacking. It is better to make training less voluminous, but more effective. Moreover, working on such advice, your training will take a lot of time, not everyone can stand it.

Result: settle on a figure of 50 repetitions (maximum) for each muscle group. It is more effective to do 1-2 exercises per muscle group, but with the correct load. You won't want to do more)

In this article, we began to learn about the number of approaches and repetitions of exercises. The question is very important when building training plan. You've already figured out a little what's what by looking at popular myths. To find out specifically how many repetitions and sets you should do, read the rest of the article.

I recommend not taking a specific number of repetitions (for example, 3 sets of 10 times), but a range from 6 to 12 so that you have room for maneuver. For example, if you are doing a back exercise, then you will be able to do, say, 9-9-9 (three sets of 9 repetitions) repetitions. Next workout will give you the option to do 9-9-10, then 9-10-10, then 10-10-10, etc. Those. Using this system you can monitor your progress. When it becomes easy to do 12-12-12, then you increase the weight to the point where you can do 6-6-6, then again 6-6-7, 6-7-7, 7-7-7, 7-7- 8…12-12-12, etc.,
The biggest mistake is constantly repeating the same exercises over time using the same weight. If it's not hard for you, then you're not achieving something new. Only new load makes you stronger

Will high reps help me burn more fat?
High reps don't actually burn more fat because no fat is burned at all during the workout. Yes, calories are burned during exercise, but fat burning occurs after exercise due to increased calorie expenditure. The faster your metabolism, the faster you burn fat, and the metabolic rate depends on the amount of muscle mass. A high number of repetitions does not provide the opportunity to gain muscle mass.

How long should I rest between sets?
The break should be about 60 seconds. Sometimes up to 120 seconds for large muscle groups in order to have time to rest and recover.
The universal duration is 60 seconds.
If your goal is to increase strength indicators, then the break should be increased to 120 seconds.
If your goal is maximum fat burning, then the break is reduced to 20-45 seconds, which adds an aerobic effect.

At what speed should I raise and lower the weight?
Perform the exercises slowly and carefully. Typically it takes 2-3 seconds to raise the weight and 3-4 seconds to lower it. Never make sudden, jerky movements. Pushing does not allow the muscles to be thoroughly worked out. Only a slow, even distribution of the load is correct for muscle development. Besides, sudden movements may cause injury.

What should be the intensity of the workout?
If you've chosen the right weight, the last two or three reps should be difficult to perform.
For example, 1-2-3 easy -4-5-6 normal 7-8-9 hard 10-11 limit 12 - impossible.

How should I choose exercises?
I believe that one of the best books ever written in the history of bodybuilding is the "Modern Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding" written by