Reps and Sets for mass gains...

[Bradz1192]

I know its a question thats often asked but I'm still sorta confused on the reps and sets you should be doing to achieve muscle mass?
Also how many times should you train your arms a week?

I'd appreciate any advice pointing me and anyone reading in the right direction because I'm sure like everyone, no one wants to be wasting time doing things wrongly and I've been working out a good few months now and not seen as much progress as I'd thought.

Thanks in Advance!

[~AK49~]

As far as reps/sets, its not as much of a rocket science that some people make it out to be. As far as sets, it depends on what your hitting. If you are doing a major compound, such as squats/chest/etc, your big muscle groups, 4-6 sets is more than enough. If you havent acconplished what you set out to accomplish (break down your muscle) by six sets, you need to rexamine your workout. ^that also includes a warmup set or two. As far as iso lifts, or smaller muscle lifts like your biceps, 3-4 sets are good. By that time, move onto the next exercise for your biceps.

As far as reps per sets, its not too complicated. Basically the name of the game is to break your muscle down --->making them work more than ever before. As a rule of thumb, 2-5ish reps is for strength gain, 6-12 for muscle gain. Thats just a general rule of thumb that has factors such as diet involved.

As far as getting bigger, simply put you need to eat more. You need to be taking in more calories than you are burning. You need to have a surplus, so that your broken down muscles can grab nutrients and rebuild/get bigger. If you dont have your diet in check, you are only defeating the purpose. Youll stay the same size, might even shrink some. But ya, diet is crucial to getting bigger. You also need to give your muscles time to rebuild/get bigger, hence the two times a week max stated above. There are more things that you can invlove/focus on as far as your diet is concerned, like macronutrient intake, but just giving you the short and sweet. Eat more, youll get bigger. Up to you if you want that to be muscle or fat. So id focus on setting up a split staying consitent to it and consistent to you diet.

3 keys:
Eat
Lift
rest

^youll get bigger. Im probably all over the place, so ill stop talking

[sammiza567]

^ that. gaining mass isnt really about the training its about calories in vs. calories out. you need to be in a caloric surplus. higher reps will be for more muscle and hypertrophy. low reps for strength. compound lifts. dont worry about how much you can curl worry about how much you can row/how many strict pullups you can do. dont worry about **** like isolation tricep kickbacks focus on your bench and overhead press. squats and deadlifts ftmfw.

[Bradz1192]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I sorta had that in mind but as you'd say, it aint rocket science, but when people put it in that way and complicate things rather than keeping it simple, it seems like it is lol.

When you mention about 1-5 reps for Strength and 6-12 for Muscle gain, What if you done 2 sets 6-12 reps then 2 sets of 1-5, would you get the best of both worlds?

[sammiza567]

^ ive taken a break from boxing and have been lifting the past 6 months. i usually start my sessions with 3-4 exercises with low reps high weight. i then move on to 1-3 exercises of higher rep to promote more muscle gain. so yes you can have both. im not saying not to do stuff like curls and isolation, but dont make it the bread and butter of your program. and always work your heaviest, hardest movements first, you need to be fresh for those. on a normal back day i would do deadlifts, heavy barbell/bumbell rows, weighted pullups, with relativley low reps(less than 6). then moving on to some stuff like normal pullups/ lat pulldowns and if i feel like it i'll throw in some curls at the end. this of course is not an ideal routine if your boxing competitively.

[~AK49~]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I sorta had that in mind but as you'd say, it aint rocket science, but when people put it in that way and complicate things rather than keeping it simple, it seems like it is lol.

When you mention about 1-5 reps for Strength and 6-12 for Muscle gain, What if you done 2 sets 6-12 reps then 2 sets of 1-5, would you get the best of both worlds?

Ya, thats generally what i do. For example; on bench ill start with throwing a couple 25's on for warmup, will do 10-12 reps. Ill take those off, throw on a couple 45's and do 8-10. Then ill Throw on a couple 25's, and do 4-7 reps. Then throw on a couple 10's, and can only bust out 2-4 reps. Then after all this, ill do a drop set (usually take off all the weight, and put a couple 25's or 35's on the bar) and bust out a set in the 6-12 rep range. Its a killer pump, and my chest is destroyed by then.

In general, you need to push more weight than youve ever pushed to 'shock' ou muscles, to tear then down and make then grow. Thats where those strength reps come in handy.

With that saidd, as previously mentioned, diet is crucial to growth. You can do whatever rep/set scheme wise, and as long as you have a caloric surplus, youll grow.i have just found that that is what works best for me.

Do you have a good split set up, for example one day pushing exercises, the next pulling, and the thrid day legs? Just fyi, there are a couple key exercises that will really kickstart muscle growth for you; squats and deadlifts. These are heavy conpound movements, that tax the body like hell, forcing it to release chemicals/up its testosterone production, etc. Form is key, you can get hurt really easy on these, but theyre killer exercises.

[Bradz1192]

Much obliged guys.
Im sure this advice will help myself and anyone reading with weight training.
Im not a Boxer myself but love the sport and all there is to do with it.
I started going Gym a few months ago sorta for something to do and to try 'fill out' a bit being Im 6ft 2 with a pretty slim build.
I started to see slight improvements in terms of muscle size and fitness levels and haven't looked back since. Im not looking to be a bodybuilder but to try build a nice physique.


I've not really been in a serious regime nor have I been going consistently but enough to see some results.
I've just gotten myself a bench and have always had a pair of dumbbells laying about.
So as of this monday Im looking to try get into full swing of things with a little plan hence the reason I needed a bit of advice.
I know most exercises and try keep things original, the classic barbell & bench, dumbbells and some decent weight is good enough.
As I said im not looking to be a bodybuilder or Boxer but imo theres a lot of crap and nonsense surrounding getting bigger and keeping fit as im sure most of you know and being a beginner I guess you can say, it makes things ten times harder.

[Joe Frazier]

I wouldn't take this as 100% golden standard, but I've found that when building mass it helps to cut my cardio down to 2-3 times per instead of daily.

I find that when I up the intensity of my daily weights and couple it with a higher amount of protein in my diet that by hitting cardio daily I just burn out and strain areas before I get to hit them hard during my workout.