How do you guys recover from 10-20 sets a week?

Training Beginners
1

I am a novice and I made a program full body 2x a week because I just rather chill after work than go to the gym. I do all my sets to failure with good form. I seem to only be able to recover from 1 set per exercise, otherwise I feel like crap 24/7 and start regressing hard.

I read all these guys saying they do 10-20 sets per body part a week. How tf do you do that?? Do you just not go to failure? I am making gains perfectly fine just 2 sets to failure a week per exercise.

My program:

DB OHP/BB OHP (1x5-8)

N grip pullups (1x8-12)

Overhead Tricep (1x8-12)

JM Press (1x5-8)

Incline Curl (1x8-12)

Pinwheel Curl (1x8-12)

Cable Lateral Raise (1x12-20)

BB RDL (1x8-12)

Leg Curl (1x8-12)

Leg Extension (1x5-8)

BB Bench (1x5-8)

Rows to chest (1x8-12)

I do that tuesday and friday, everything to 0RIR. The RDL and BB OHP may not be to true muscular failure but I try my best.

I sleep right, eat right, low stress. I tried making everything 2 sets but 3 weeks into it I crashed and now I am back to 1 set, making gains.

I am just curious what people really mean when they say they do 10-20 sets per body part a week. They have to be just fluff and pumping it.

2

If you are making progress just keep doing what you are doing.

Once you hit a plateau that you just cannot overcome, revisit your plan.

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3

If you split the body up, and train more days per week, you don’t need to do as much each day.

Trying to get more sets into 2 full body workouts makes the workouts long and strenous pretty quickly.

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4

Thanks. Will do. I was doing well on 1 set but I figured hey I might as well make it 2 sets, well it buried me. I’m still learning about all this stuff even after 15 years of lifting for 3 months, burning out for the rest of the year and repeating that. But now I am understanding recovery more and it’s actually half the reason I just could never keep myself lifting all this time. I have a very puritan work ethic so whatever I do I go all in, so I would do programs that were just too much for me and burn out. Well not this time.

5

Well the problem is I feel like shit outside of the gym if I do 2 sets to failure on everything. I can do the workout fine (if I can muster up the motivation through the burnout) but I don’t want to do it if it’s going to make me feel like crap and also stop me from recovering/progressing.

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