sets vs reps & light vs heavy

L

leckbass

0
For almost year now, i've been switching my workout program month to month, i would do lower reps and higher weight for a month, then i would do lower weight and higher weight for a month. After about a month i would feel like my body would be used to it. I'm ready for a change

I've been thinking about having a heavy day where i would do 7 or 8 sets of 4reps, then a middle day where i would do about 4 sets of 10 reps, then a light day where i would do 3 sets of 15 reps.

I will try to keep the volume between 25 and 45. Dependant on the muscle group

Would you recommend this type of program? Would you alternate it each workout? each week? or each month?

These are just ideas, please share your opinion

Thanks
 
What is your goal?
 
I've had good luck with starting out a bit below my max at 10 reps, doing 3 sets with 60 seconds of rest between sets.

This way, every week you can move up 5lbs (if you work that muscle only once per week). It gets you the sense of constantly moving up in weight (read:gratification!), shocks your muscles with every week it getting heavier, and you actually are slowly recruiting more and more fibers and you move up in weight. I've also read in various places that 8-10 is "optimum" for building strength.
 
lol

I was hoping for a little more than that. Why are you recommending Tabatas to the OP given that he appears to be asking for our opinions on a strength training "program"?

I'm curious, is all.
 
Not tabatas exclusively. But timed sets would be something new to try. Why? Variety and something new (which seems to be the focus). Also because the words lose fat are used, which usually means the main goal is to "lose fat."

Time also allows you to create challenge workouts for yourself to keep things interesting. Doing varieties of timed intervals now, I dont know if I'd ever go back to regular set/rep schemes. Just my opinion. ;)
 
Which is fine, but I think some clarification is required when you throw a recommendation out there like that. Not that I'm the ruler of how anyone posts, lol.

If we're not exposing our muscles to sufficient intensity (as expressed by a percentage of 1rm) with adequate exposure (as typically expressed by volume) we're not going to grow/maintain optimally.

That's not to say you need to keep track of sets and reps. It simply means you need adequate intensity and sufficient exposure to said intensity.

Why do I say that?

I think without clarifying your position, many taking your advice would run around doing metabolic work in place of strength work. Not that there's anything wrong with metabolic work... but for those with goals of optimizing body composition, we need to be cognizant of the above.

Maybe I'm wrong about people opting for metabolic work at the expense of true strength work... but I know I was a little thrown off by your initial post. I know you're a smart guy and I'm not meaning to put words in your mouth. I'm sure you don't mean metabolic work.

Maybe you could help out the original poster (and me) by laying out a sample of how you typically set your strength sessions up?
 
I appreciate everyones opinions. I am not too famalier with tabatas.

With my first post, i dont want you to have the opinion that i strictly want to try this new program just for an increase in strenth or just for fat loss. I was thinking that if i change around the reps and sets that it would give a new and different "shock" to my muscles.

Right now i'm losing fat, so i've been manipulating my diet in that direction. I will continue for approx 4 more weeks. Next, in late Nov, i am going to increase mass. Would this idea (a variety of reps and sets) be benificial?

Thanks
 
leckbass said:
For almost year now, i've been switching my workout program month to month, i would do lower reps and higher weight for a month, then i would do lower weight and higher weight for a month. After about a month i would feel like my body would be used to it. I'm ready for a change

I've been thinking about having a heavy day where i would do 7 or 8 sets of 4reps, then a middle day where i would do about 4 sets of 10 reps, then a light day where i would do 3 sets of 15 reps.

I will try to keep the volume between 25 and 45. Dependant on the muscle group

Would you recommend this type of program? Would you alternate it each workout? each week? or each month?

These are just ideas, please share your opinion

Thanks
Click to expand...

It sounds like a good plan to me, I'm all for adding a bit of variation into your training. It keeps things fresh and interesting if anything and you get to hit your muscles in different ways every week. Not sure I'd ever do 8 sets of 4 though, I'd stick closer to 20 reps for heavy lifts as a max but people are all different I guess so it's whatever you can cope with that matters
 
leckbass said:
Typhon, would you recommend 4 sets of 5 or 5 sets 4 or at least something like that?
Click to expand...

TBH, Tony and Stroutman above are far better qualified than me to give training advice, Tony in particular has taught me massive amounts in the past and I gained a ton of strength following his advice so I'd hate to contradict him.

That said though, if I go heavy I go down to the 1-2 rep range for a couple of sets and have maybe 3-4 sets of 5 spread around those. I sometimes then follow that straight up with a set or two at about 10 reps as I find that the increased motor unit activation of the type 2 fibres makes my 10 rep max temporarily increase

That's just my theory of what works for me though

P.S. You look like a pretty strong guy in your avatar, have you thought about making a training log on here? I imagine you already have a good idea of what you're doing
 
Last edited:
I know you are right stroutman81, not much of a difference either way.

Typhon, i would like to begin a journal, but i dont want to commit to it right now
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top