Ammount of exercises per body part?

Comando Tom

Im going for endurance strength/power so slightly higher than 10 reps. Whats the best ammount of exercises for each body part, how many isolate and how many compound?

Thanks

brickie

Thats a very open question. It really depends on why you want endurance strenght and power, ie. athletics, combat, footballetc. High rep compounds will increase endurance and strength, low rep compounds for power.

zx9rjas.

I always find that if I stick to doing 12 reps and above for anything more than 2-3 weeks and my strength drops. so you will only be getting endurance benefits.

Strength improvements have been tested to show that 5-6 reps are best between 75-85% 1RM at a 1 up 3 down tempo.

Power improvements have been tested to show 3 reps work best at 85-90% of 1RM at a fast 1 up 1 down tempo

As to amopunt of sets per bodypart if you are looking at endurance you want to decrease your rest periods and up the sets but as said this will have a severe effect on your strength/mass.

J

MrSkinny

would the 5th/6th rep be to failure J on every set for power so for bench say you would have to drop the weight to achieve 5 or 6 reps before you fail

Also, what about for size, do the same principles apply? Rest between sets/traing to failure but just higher reps

Cheers

Mr S

zx9rjas.

5-6 is for strength

3 is for power

For power training the weight is usually about 90% 1RM and isn't to failure. Power training also utilises plyometrics between sets. Also power training has rest periods of 5 minutes between sets

Strength training can be pushed to failure but only on the last set of each exercise. Aslo rest periods are between 2-3 mins

The further you move from mass building through to strength and then to power training, the total amount of sets in each workout decrease and the rest peroids increase.

Mass building, training wise, is different in everyone as to what works best. But anywhere between the 6-10 reps is the norm. Find out what rep range works best for each of your bodyparts as they will differ. Also experiment with training to failure. Try every set try, half the sets in each exercise and try failure at the last set only

I always go to failure on each set nowadays (except my 15 reps and 12 rep warm up sets) But remember food is the key to adding mass

J

MrSkinny

cheers J

Looks like I'm on the right track. I'm doing a 4 day split with about
3 set per exercises, not including warm up
4 exercises per body part for chest/shoulders/back, 2 set for tri / bis and 6 for the legs (leg press/exten/curl/inner/outer muscles/calfs)
6-10 reps all sets to failure, 8-12 for the legs

I used to only do the last set to failure but I remember feeling not that tired when I left so started doing all sets to failure.

One other question J

What about the legs. a lot of guys are telling me to increase the reps on the legs to 15 and above. What do you think of this as regards mass. I'm not to sure about it but I did try 4 sets of 20 on the calfs 2 days ago and boy I an sore today

Many thanks J


John

zx9rjas.

Calves are a similar muscle to that which is in the forearm and they both are very dense muscle tissues. I used to have problem calves but found that intense 20 reps sets built them nicely.

Currently this is working great on standing raises. I perform 10 reps to failure with a heavy weight (making sure I get the full range of motion and stretch at the bottom) and when I reach failure I continue to 20 using my own bodyweight.

Your quads however are different. Personally I find that heavy 6-8 rep sets have built my legs really well. When I competed at the beginning of this month I had the biggest legs there (easily), but to add that cut and definition I need to lighten the weight (which I will do for my next cutting). Some respond different, as I said, to different rep ranges on different bodyparts. At my best so far I squatted 430lb (maybe 450, cant remember) for 8-10 reps. Its down to about 400 for 6-8 at the moment as I'm just going back to bulking.

Play around with your reps/sets and see what works for you

J

MrSkinny

430lb :shock: At that weight you must haved the biggest legs, lol

Mr S

zx9rjas.

Yes but trying to get my calves to match my quads is going to be a neverending battle.

Did squats tonight actually and got 435lb for 10, well 8 with two partials

My training partner always lacked quads compared to his upper body, since training with me after only 3 weeks he's squatting 370-380lb for 8-10 reps and he's only 20 and his quads have really grown. I'm well happy for him, but I'm also competeing against him next year so one of us is gonna get first place and one second place!