two sets per excercise ?????

glencol · 25-07-2005, 05:57 PM

can anyone offer advice,i have hit a stop in my training and wasnt gaining or increasing strength.i was doing about 3 hours 5 times a week.the 3 hours included 20 mins cardio.i decided today to pay for a personal trainer to work me a new programme .they are doing me a routine where you only perform 2 sets per excercise at very high weight.has anyone else used this method and does it work? when i questioned this method i was told its only neccesary to do two sets any more just burns calories! and they also mentioned super sets???? as i dont have the new programme yet i cant be more precise,but im used to pyramid sets 12,12,10,10,8,8.and doing as many different excercises i can manage in the 3 hours.im hopeing that being as there a trained personal trainer that what they say is true but you read so many different things.hopeing to hear from experiance.

zx9rjas. · 25-07-2005, 06:04 PM

3 hours?????!!!!!!

Try cutting it down to 45 mins to an hour and I bet you will see gains almost immediately.

All my experiences with personal trainers have always been bad. The advice they give always seem to be learned in a classroom. The best advice you can recieve about getting bigger and stronger is from people who have gotten bigger and stronger.

Supersets do work well but only if your muscles are developed enough to recieve the stress that supersetting puts them under.

Post a copy of your weekly routine that you were doing and also your daily nutrition. Hopefully we can get you on the right track and reach your goals.

J

garrilla · 26-07-2005, 01:10 PM

i staarted off just doing to heavy sets of an exercise its what mike mentzer based his high intensity training on so it sounds like it could be a good starting point for a new full body routine.

jasons right 3 hours is way to much and i have never rated pyramid training if youve pushed the muscle as hard as possible on set 1 how can you lift more weight on set 2 it never made sense to me.

Nick500 · 26-07-2005, 02:22 PM

again, 3 hours is too much, you are simply overtraining.

Pyramid training imo isn't a bad method of doing it, but ''doing as many different excercises i can manage in the 3 hours'' is awful - for your body to grow at all, it needs time to recover. You are probably causing the muscles to fatigue rather than stimulating them to grow.

try cutting your set amount in half (i wouldnt agree with just 2 sets), so maybe 4 - 5 sets on 3 different exercises. i.e. for bench, try decline press, bench press and flies, 4 - 5 sets each, varying reps from 6 - 10.

try and finish your workout within 1 1/2 hours, or even smaller amount of time.

not only will you leave more time for enjoyment in other areas of your life, you will make better gains, and be more happy !

divie · 26-07-2005, 05:23 PM

Christ, i tend to overtrain slightly at times, but 3 hours!, id waste away.
I also think 2 sets only isnt going to give your muscles a hard enougth workout or pump regardless of the routine.Id do at least 3 sets depending on if your doing a full body or a split, if your doing a split where you train each muscle once a week then do more sets in a session as they will have more time to recuperate, if doing a full body workout like me 3 times a week then 3 sets will be enougth but i go to positive failure on theese.
A lot of people seem to like pyrimiding, ive never tried it so i shouldnt really comment but i will.To me it seems your just wasting your first sets and using them just as a good warm up and only really pushing your muscles on the last sets im a bieliever that the last thew reps add the size and force the muscles to grow and if your stopping when it gets difficult on your first sets which must be the case or you couldnt up the weight then your not puting enougth strain on the muscles.However everyone enjoys different ways of training, i like the idea of lowering the weights as you go through the sets it may be a mental thing as well as physical so on every set from 1st to the last you are giving it all but pyrimiding i think is safer in preventing injury for obvious reasons and if you havnt got faith in your routine your not going to put all into it.glenco i started of using garys routine and its a good one ive only recently changed it a little, go on try it you might like it.

All the best glenco keep us updated on how you get on m8

razg · 26-07-2005, 05:34 PM

I think if you were doing a large amount of diff exercises, ie:

Flat bench press
Dumbell chest press
Incline barbell/dumbell press
Dumbell flyes

Then 2 sets per exercise ie 5x2 = 10 would be fine, on a chest day for example - but if its the case that the only real exercise you are doing for a given group is just done for 2 sets, that doesnt seem enough.

25-07-2005, 05:57 PM	#1 (permalink)
glencol Under Construction Join Date: May 2004 Location: derby Posts: 49 Rep Power:	two sets per excercise ????? can anyone offer advice,i have hit a stop in my training and wasnt gaining or increasing strength.i was doing about 3 hours 5 times a week.the 3 hours included 20 mins cardio.i decided today to pay for a personal trainer to work me a new programme .they are doing me a routine where you only perform 2 sets per excercise at very high weight.has anyone else used this method and does it work? when i questioned this method i was told its only neccesary to do two sets any more just burns calories! and they also mentioned super sets???? as i dont have the new programme yet i cant be more precise,but im used to pyramid sets 12,12,10,10,8,8.and doing as many different excercises i can manage in the 3 hours.im hopeing that being as there a trained personal trainer that what they say is true but you read so many different things.hopeing to hear from experiance.

25-07-2005, 06:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
zx9rjas. Legend Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 697 Rep Power:	3 hours?????!!!!!! Try cutting it down to 45 mins to an hour and I bet you will see gains almost immediately. All my experiences with personal trainers have always been bad. The advice they give always seem to be learned in a classroom. The best advice you can recieve about getting bigger and stronger is from people who have gotten bigger and stronger. Supersets do work well but only if your muscles are developed enough to recieve the stress that supersetting puts them under. Post a copy of your weekly routine that you were doing and also your daily nutrition. Hopefully we can get you on the right track and reach your goals. J ______________________ 50% of Training is nutrition 50% of Training is not overtraining If you cant gain see the above.

26-07-2005, 02:22 PM	#4 (permalink)
Nick500 Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Bristol Posts: 3,230 Rep Power:	again, 3 hours is too much, you are simply overtraining. Pyramid training imo isn't a bad method of doing it, but ''doing as many different excercises i can manage in the 3 hours'' is awful - for your body to grow at all, it needs time to recover. You are probably causing the muscles to fatigue rather than stimulating them to grow. try cutting your set amount in half (i wouldnt agree with just 2 sets), so maybe 4 - 5 sets on 3 different exercises. i.e. for bench, try decline press, bench press and flies, 4 - 5 sets each, varying reps from 6 - 10. try and finish your workout within 1 1/2 hours, or even smaller amount of time. not only will you leave more time for enjoyment in other areas of your life, you will make better gains, and be more happy ! ______________________ - Obsession is what lazy people call dedication -

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26-07-2005, 01:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
garrilla Banned Making Progress Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 431 Rep Power:	i staarted off just doing to heavy sets of an exercise its what mike mentzer based his high intensity training on so it sounds like it could be a good starting point for a new full body routine. jasons right 3 hours is way to much and i have never rated pyramid training if youve pushed the muscle as hard as possible on set 1 how can you lift more weight on set 2 it never made sense to me.

26-07-2005, 05:23 PM	#5 (permalink)
divie Making Progress Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: somerset Posts: 436 Rep Power:	Christ, i tend to overtrain slightly at times, but 3 hours!, id waste away. I also think 2 sets only isnt going to give your muscles a hard enougth workout or pump regardless of the routine.Id do at least 3 sets depending on if your doing a full body or a split, if your doing a split where you train each muscle once a week then do more sets in a session as they will have more time to recuperate, if doing a full body workout like me 3 times a week then 3 sets will be enougth but i go to positive failure on theese. A lot of people seem to like pyrimiding, ive never tried it so i shouldnt really comment but i will.To me it seems your just wasting your first sets and using them just as a good warm up and only really pushing your muscles on the last sets im a bieliever that the last thew reps add the size and force the muscles to grow and if your stopping when it gets difficult on your first sets which must be the case or you couldnt up the weight then your not puting enougth strain on the muscles.However everyone enjoys different ways of training, i like the idea of lowering the weights as you go through the sets it may be a mental thing as well as physical so on every set from 1st to the last you are giving it all but pyrimiding i think is safer in preventing injury for obvious reasons and if you havnt got faith in your routine your not going to put all into it.glenco i started of using garys routine and its a good one ive only recently changed it a little, go on try it you might like it. All the best glenco keep us updated on how you get on m8

26-07-2005, 05:34 PM	#6 (permalink)
razg Legend Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Birmingham/Bristol Posts: 886 Rep Power:	I think if you were doing a large amount of diff exercises, ie: Flat bench press Dumbell chest press Incline barbell/dumbell press Dumbell flyes Then 2 sets per exercise ie 5x2 = 10 would be fine, on a chest day for example - but if its the case that the only real exercise you are doing for a given group is just done for 2 sets, that doesnt seem enough.