I see alot of people that will do 3 sets of 8 on a certain exercise all of the time. what about doing 1 set of 8, 1 set of 12 and 1 set of 3 or 4. Just change the weights to match that with your 8, 12, and 4 set max. Would this help get up power, strength and hypertrophy at the same time verse just 2 of those?
Of course it works. Anything you haven’t been doing will work. Thib did an article about a few schemes that are like this: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1658436
I have just stopped doing a 5,4,3,2,1 style rep scheme with increased weight each subsequent set (goal was to increase 1 RM).
It worked for that goal.
[quote]Spry wrote:
I have just stopped doing a 5,4,3,2,1 style rep scheme with increased weight each subsequent set (goal was to increase 1 RM).
It worked for that goal.[/quote]
thats the best plan that has worked for me in regards to strength and mass, but especially strength. Bench went from 280 in May to 325 a few weeks ago. Gained 15 lbs, mostly lean muscle mass, as well in that time frame.
Yeah, it works. The difference in doing 12-10-8 and 3x10 is mostly academic or even mental, though. As a method of changing-up and for mental refreshment it works great. But don’t worry too much about whether you should do 15-10-6, or 12-10-8, or 5-4-3-2-1…tailor your workout to your goals and don’t expect to find a magic number.
I find 5-4-3-2-1 and 3-2-1 a lot of fun.
The other day my entire workout was 4x3-2-1 with one-arm DB clean and press. Clean and press 3 times on one arm, 3 on the other, 2/2, 1/1…rest…repeat 3 times more.
I know it will work, but will it be better for the majority of people or not?
Like I said, it will work. For the majority of people, if I had to choose between one and the other, I’d go with normal set/rep schemes over it. Why? Just because it’s simpler to progress and gives your body a more straightforward stimulus.
5-4-3-2-1, etc, belong under the “use every now and then” heading. It works great but you can only stick with it so long. They are very fun though. Again though, the number of reps per set are only so important, it’s more the overall loading and the overall number of reps per exercise or muscle group.
While we’re on the topic though, I prefer Waterbury’s brainchild - MRT - over either method.