Muscles and volume?

[Barry]

Generally my upper body responds much better to more sets than my lower body.

Too much on my legs and I'm going backwards, not enough up top and I stand still.

Some people are the other way around!

Have you noticed different needs (volume wise) for different muscles?

Barry
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[GALTONATOR]

not really have have noticed that the less volume i used and the more intensity the better my gains in muscle (dorian yates style)

[Barry]

Quote

not really have have noticed that the less volume i used and the more intensity the better my gains in muscle (dorian yates style)

How many sets would be your minimum, GALTONATOR?

I might only do 5 sets of squats total!!
But each would be to total failure with forced reps?

But say chest might get a total of 10 or more!

[GALTONATOR]

working sets 3 shoulders
3 chest
2bis and tri
4 back
and legs 3 quads 2 hams 2 calves
i do warm up sets and working sets are est paused after i fail 15 deeps breaths then fail agin except on squats and deads
Hope this helps

[Resurrected]

I agree with Galtonator, I do a max of 3 sets for all body parts other than back and chest and I only do a max of 6-8 reps apart from for calfs.

[JJP]

That's how I do it also-max 3 sets, 6 reps for all except calves and abs. JJP

[James Copping]

I do ~25-50 sets for upper body a week and 20-35 for lower

[Barry]

6-8reps? That really is strength training.
I gotten into the habit of minimum 10 reps.
Any less and I barely get the feel for the exercise.
I don't think 10 is too much.
With all upper body exercises I usually go to failure 5-10 times.
This might seem excessive but it gives an almightly pump!
I'm doing very few reps at this stage: 5-8 each time.
With about 10-15 seconds rest in between.

Legs are entirely different.
Quads/Hams never get more than 5-6 sets total.

[Resurrected]

In my experience 6-8 reps is NOT strength training. This is a total misconception. Although the debate on reps and sets is always ongoing.

Below is an article stolen from **********.co.uk

NOTICE: THIS ROUTINE ASSUMES AT LEAST 6 MONTHS OF BREAK IN TRAINING FOR BEGINNERS.

THIS ROUTINE IS INTENDED FOR THE NATURAL TRAINER ONLY

Several of you have asked me for a good mass building program, so here it is. I've used this routine with many natural bodybuilders as well as professional football players looking to add some bulk in the offseason.

How many days a week? I've seen the best results with natural bodybuilders in a bulking phase on 3 days a week, training each exercise once a week. I know almost every program in the magazines you guys read will say 4 days a week, training each muscle twice a week, but my experience with hundreds of guys is that guys that train 4 days a week never make the same gains as the ones that train 3 days a week. If you train a muscle hard enough, you just can't recover in less than 6-7 days. Just because the soreness is gone doesn't mean that the muscle is recovered. 4 and 5 day splits are fine for cutting phases but not for bulking.

How to split things up? Push, pull, and legs seems to be the best split for most guys. Working shoulders with legs doesn't yield good growth in the shoulders because they end up overtrained. On push shoulders get hammered, on pull shoulders get hammered, and even working legs shoulders get hit.

Sets and reps? Like I said before, if you want to gain mass you need to stay around 5-6 reps. 4x6 or 5x5 are both good combinations. In my experience the guys that make better gains on 8-12 reps are advanced bodybuilders or are on drugs. I don't care if you feel a pump or a burn or whatever. That has nothing to do with size or strength, only momentarily pumping blood into a muscle.

Increasing your weights? You need to add weights to the bar every workout if you can. Going up in 2 ½ or 5 pound increments is great. You won't be able to add more weight each week, but that needs to be your mentality. Don't think about anything else but adding weight.

How long to stay on a routine? My experience is that around 8-12 weeks is best. Some guys say that after 6-8 weeks they've hit a plateau and need to change their routine. That's hogwash. Most of the time they've hit a plateau because they're not training hard enough or because they've added in more exercises than what's in my program and hinder their recovery.

[Tom]

good post, and for all excercises i stay in the 6-8 rep range,