Set-Rep Scheme Advice Needed

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Dear friends!

Hope you are feeling fine! How was the pump today? :slight_smile:

I have been thinking of a new training regime for myself.

I am in my early to mid twenties, 5’11’’ about 200lbs. My main goal is size (muscular size and hypertrophy). I do not care about strength really. Have been training for quite some time: 5 years altogether, one year very seriously.
What I would like to try is some crazy volume - two hours a day for 4 to 6 times per week.

In my opinion the whole “workouts shall last no longer than 45-60 minutes” thingy is a total myth. Look at boxers like Mike Tyson as it was discussed on this board some weeks ago: dude training many hours six days a week, looked like a tank and could hit like a bull. Don’t think he was overtrained.

I am planning to go for total body training.
Barbell Rows
Deadlfts
Squats
Incline Benchpresses
Dips
Barbell Curls
Laterals

  • some auxiliary work such as crunches and rotator cuff stuff.

What set-rep scheme(s) would you recommend for hypertrophy?
I was thinking about maybe 5 sets of 10 with about 60 seconds rest - same weight for every set, or maybe 8 sets of 8.

Thanks in advance! I appreciate any input. :slight_smile:

2

In my experience, you won’t be able to lift heavy weights with such short rests, and such high volume/frequency. I know that I can only do a small amount of volume when I’m pushing myself with max weights.

But maybe this will be fine as you’re just after size. It sounds similar to “German Volume Training”. You’ve got to be gentle on yourself outside of the gym, though, you’ve got to give your body the time/food it needs to recover and grow.

3

I would advise against doing really long fullbody routines. While they can be done I personally find it really hard to go strong on squats or deads and then continue on to barbell rows or barbell bench press. Your knees will be shaking and with the BP my lats always felt fried after doing deadlifts.

When going for long training sessions I tend to only work 1-2 muscle groups. Even then 2 hours might be a little to long.

4

So is volume and short rest periods the key to growth?

5

I wouldn’t do it with full body.

A body part split is excellent for the kind of training that you’re talking about.

IF you can keep it going with fully body training, I’m sure you’ll see excellent results, but 2hrs a day, 6 days a week, i think you’ll burn out quickly.

6

Remember that the question is not whether you can do it, it’s whether you get the size gains that you’re looking for.

Sed26- no. It’s not.

7

Thank you, everyone. :slight_smile:

Do you think this would be better?

Chest, Tris, Shoulders:

Barbell Benchpress - 8 sets of 10, 60 secs
Barbell Inlcine Benchpress - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Dips - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Dumbbell Decline Flyes - 6 sets of 10, 30 secs
Side Laterals - 8 sets of 10, 45 secs
Front Raises - 6 sets of 10, 45 secs
Rear Delt Laterals - 6 sets of 10, 30 secs

Back, Bis, Forearms:

Barbell Rows - 8 sets of 10, 60 secs
Pulldowns to Chest - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Dumbbell Rows - 6 sets of 10, 45 secs + other arm
Dumbbell Shrugs - 8 sets of 10, 30 secs
Barbell Curls - 8 sets of 10, 60 secs
Hammer Curls - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Wrist Curls - 4 sets of 20, 45 secs

Legs, Calves, Abs, Rotators:

Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 15, no rest
Barbell Back Squats - 8 sets of 10, 120 secs
Leg Presses - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Leg Curls - 8 sets of 10, 45 secs
Calf Raises - 8 sets of 15, 30 secs
External Rotation - 5 sets of 20, 45 secs
Internal Rotation - 5 sets of 12, 45 secs
Sit-Ups - 6 sets of 25, 60 secs

8

52 sets for chest/tris/shoulders? That’s just wrong.

9

[quote]Bull-chacha wrote:
Thank you, everyone. :slight_smile:

Do you think this would be better?

Chest, Tris, Shoulders:

Barbell Benchpress - 8 sets of 10, 60 secs
Barbell Inlcine Benchpress - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Dips - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Dumbbell Decline Flyes - 6 sets of 10, 30 secs
Side Laterals - 8 sets of 10, 45 secs
Front Raises - 6 sets of 10, 45 secs
Rear Delt Laterals - 6 sets of 10, 30 secs

Back, Bis, Forearms:

Barbell Rows - 8 sets of 10, 60 secs
Pulldowns to Chest - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Dumbbell Rows - 6 sets of 10, 45 secs + other arm
Dumbbell Shrugs - 8 sets of 10, 30 secs
Barbell Curls - 8 sets of 10, 60 secs
Hammer Curls - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Wrist Curls - 4 sets of 20, 45 secs

Legs, Calves, Abs, Rotators:

Leg Extensions - 3 sets of 15, no rest
Barbell Back Squats - 8 sets of 10, 120 secs
Leg Presses - 6 sets of 10, 60 secs
Leg Curls - 8 sets of 10, 45 secs
Calf Raises - 8 sets of 15, 30 secs
External Rotation - 5 sets of 20, 45 secs
Internal Rotation - 5 sets of 12, 45 secs
Sit-Ups - 6 sets of 25, 60 secs[/quote]

Quite simply no.

You claim that you don’t care about strength, only size. But that is a complete misunderstanding of the process of gaining muscle (either that or I’m just misunderstanding what you mean :wink: ).

Sure, as several authors (CT comes to mind) have stated in the past, some guys like going for “the pump”, while others prefer focusing MORE on strength. But, if you think that any bodybuilder who has ever built an impressive body winds up using the same weights as they did when they first started, then you need to go back to square one and rediscover just why our bodies build muscle in the first place.

I’m going to spell this out as simply as I can.

Building muscle = progressive overload + caloric surplus + sufficient rest and recovery

It really doesn’t matter what program design you choose to follow, what exercises you choose to use, how many sets of how many reps you prefer to do, whether or not you go to failure, etc… If you’re not applying the above formula to what you’re doing, it’s not going to result in bigger muscles.

Your above suggested program is ridiculously too high in volume to be able to add progressive resistance. At best it’ll just leave you wiped out and improve your strength endurance. At worst it’ll lead to overuse problems like tendonitis and wind up causing you to actually lose muscle.

If you really wanna try high volume then I’d suggest doing Poliquin’s GVT program. Now while I’ve never actually done it myself (doing low volume high intensity right now) there have been many testimonials as to it’s effectiveness.

Here is the basic idea:

  1. Do ten sets of ten repetitions
  2. Do only one “money” exercise for each body part
  3. Try to pair antagonist body parts

An example would be to do chest and back on the same day. A sample chest/back day might look like this.

Monday: Chest and back
BB Flat bench- 10x10
BB Bent rows- 10x10

Once you can do all ten sets of all ten repetitions then it’s time to increase the load. You should be trying to at least do more repetitions each workout than you did the last workout.

Good luck and good training,

Sentoguy

10

If you want to do that kind of volume, why don’t you look at training twice a day?