Reps and Sets

[oHUTCHYo]

Just interested as to how the majority of people are working out in terms of reps and sets. A couple of years ago I used to go with 3x12. The past year or so Ive been using 3x8 and have noticed bigger differences.

I also keep hearing the terms pyramid and 5x5, can anyone elaborate please?

Is there any REAL difference in terms of how your mucles will shape?

 

[Buffman]

Just interested as to how the majority of people are working out in terms of reps and sets. A couple of years ago I used to go with 3x12. The past year or so Ive been using 3x8 and have noticed bigger differences.

I also keep hearing the terms pyramid and 5x5, can anyone elaborate please?

Is there any REAL difference in terms of how your mucles will shape?

Pyramid means to up the weight then down it IIRC eg:
Bench press (all 8 reps)
10kg
12kg
14kg
16kg
14kg
12kg

and 5x5 is 5 sets of 5 reps which is mainly used to gain strength.

 

[oHUTCHYo]

Pyramid means to up the weight then down it IIRC eg:
Bench press (all 8 reps)
10kg
12kg
14kg
16kg
14kg
12kg

and 5x5 is 5 sets of 5 reps which is mainly used to gain strength.

Thanks Craig. So what does benefit does pyramiding have? I think Im so used to lifting heavy everytime that I wouldnt feel pumped afterwards?

 

[semi-pro waster]

Thanks Craig. So what does benefit does pyramiding have? I think Im so used to lifting heavy everytime that I wouldnt feel pumped afterwards?

Doing a lot of volume will probably mean you feel just as pumped and the fact that you are changing your routine is good, your body will tend to adapt to the loads you put it under so variation every so often will stimulate growth because you are now stressing it differently - at least that's the general idea.

 

[oHUTCHYo]

Great, Im going to have a go tomorrow on my back/bicep routine

(Im assuming your supposed to pyramid on all excercises?)

 

[semi-pro waster]

I would guess so but it's not something I've really looked into seriously so if you're unsure then you might wish to wait for those more experienced than me to comment.

As a note though I've always understood normal pyramiding (is that even a word?) to be high rep/low weight moving to low rep/high weight, what The Craig has described appears to be a variation on double pyramiding - here's a quick description.

 

[Buffman]

I would guess so but it's not something I've really looked into seriously so if you're unsure then you might wish to wait for those more experienced than me to comment.

As a note though I've always understood normal pyramiding (is that even a word?) to be high rep/low weight moving to low rep/high weight, what The Craig has described appears to be a variation on double pyramiding - here's a quick description.

Oh yeah that looks like the proper thing. I tend to just do 1 light warm up set for ~10 reps then hit the weight I normally do for 5 sets of 6-8

 

[alx]

It all depends on what you want to achieve long term and what your body repsonds best to.

In general higher reps are better for achieving better muscle hypertrophy (ie size) and lower reps (<6) working near a % of your 1rep max are better for strength.

However different things work better for different people and often the reps/sets people use will vary depending on the specific exercise they are doing (ie squats, bench, row etc).

There isn't really an easy answer as to what works best due to amount of different rep/sets variations there are - it's best to use trial and error and see what works for you.