Recommended NumberOf Set

[Classik]

What are the recommended number of sets per body part???

[Ironman1]

depends on your goals? bbing? strength? it is also very individual.

If you are a beginner i would say 2 exercises per body part and 3 sets per exercise.

[TRAZ]

It varys a ton from person to person...I personally feel that you have to figure that out for yourself. Try several different combos and see which one your body responds to the best.

[Fuse]

well also depends on how heavy the weights are to you, i always do 1 set of light or decently heavy weights for warm up then start abt 30-50 pounds from my max then work up to failure,

but like they said, it varies

[Classik]

Thanx guys, im not a beginner i just figured someone would answer the question with the basic amount of sets per bodypart... like

Biceps 6 cuz its a smaller muscle

Chest 10-12 Sets

Back 10-12 sets.... so on blah blah

[kenseth17cd]

This worked for me. 5-day split.
Monday-Chest+Triceps
4x6 Flat Bench
3x8 Incline BB Bench
3x8 Decline Bench
2x8 Close Grip Bench
2x8 DB butterflies
4 sets of pushups until failure

Tuesday-Legs
Squats 4x8-10
Leg Press 3x10
Leg Curls 3x10

Wednesday-Back
Deadlift 3x8
Seated Rows 3x8

Thursday-Biceps
Concentration Curls 3x8
Hammer Curls 2x8
Preacher Curls 3x8
Cheat Curls 3x8, on the last set strip off weight and go until you can't go anymore...

Friday-Shoulders
Front raises 3x8
Side raises 3x8
Lat pulldowns 3x8

I hope this helps you.

[Classik]

Originally Posted by kenseth17cd

This worked for me. 5-day split.
Monday-Chest+Triceps
4x6 Flat Bench
3x8 Incline BB Bench
3x8 Decline Bench
2x8 Close Grip Bench
2x8 DB butterflies
4 sets of pushups until failure

Tuesday-Legs
Squats 4x8-10
Leg Press 3x10
Leg Curls 3x10

Wednesday-Back
Deadlift 3x8
Seated Rows 3x8

Thursday-Biceps
Concentration Curls 3x8
Hammer Curls 2x8
Preacher Curls 3x8
Cheat Curls 3x8, on the last set strip off weight and go until you can't go anymore...

Friday-Shoulders
Front raises 3x8
Side raises 3x8
Lat pulldowns 3x8

I hope this helps you.

thanks

[hrpiii]

there is no specific "number of sets" ..or we would all be like Arnold. Every body is different and grows differently and muscles stimulated differently. You have to find what works for you. Mix it up, see where you muscles get fatigued.

Legs = lots of reps
Everything else = What works for you.

Today, I did triceps and biceps.
My tricep routine was tricep pushdowns, dips, nose breakers with DB, over head tricep ext. with cable, overhead tricep presses with curl bar, one arm reverse cable pulldown... then off to do biceps

to much?? over training?? .. maybe, but again, my biceps are 19"

[Classik]

mine are 14 lol and i havent worked out in 2 years

[_SaVvY_]

completely depends on the person and the intensity, any set answer for this will be wrong for lots of people

[soccergrub]

Here's a really good article I dug up from T-Nation talking about said topic:

Game Plan
How Often Should I Work Out?
by Christian Thibaudeau

So you want to gain as much muscle as possible, huh? Okay, what's your game plan? The first thing you need to decide is how many training days per week you want to devote to each muscle group. The experts all agree on this subject: they agree their ideas are right and everyone else's are wrong! It can get confusing.
Some say you should train each muscle group once per week; others will say twice and some even recommend training each muscle group three times per week. Who’s right? Well, everybody is, if you plan things out accordingly. To make optimal progress you must take some precautions when planning training frequency. These precautions will allow you to avoid the various pitfalls that await you.

Pitfall #1: Training too much and too often
You can either train a lot during a session or train often. Seldom can you do both! If you train a body part with a lot of sets and reps, you'll need more than a few days to recover. So somebody who likes to train a muscle group twice or three times per week shouldn't use the same volume per session as someone who's only training each muscle group once per week.
Simply put, if you train with a high volume and don't give your body enough time to recover, you won't progress. As you can see in the graphic, you only recover enough to avoid regressing, but you don't have large gains.

Pitfall #2: Not training enough or not frequently enough
If you have more than five days between workouts for the same muscle group, you need to use a relatively large training volume per session. Why? Because if you allow too much rest for the stress you placed on your body, you'll improve, but will soon return to baseline. This is called "involution." If you allow too much rest between two training sessions for the same muscle group, you'll lose much of your gains.
However, the proper training frequency is dependant on the volume per session. If you use a very large training volume in one session (lots of sets), you won't suffer from involution if you have five to seven days between workouts for the same muscle group.
On the other hand, if you increase the training frequency you must decrease volume. If you choose to train each muscle group only once per week, the volume per session must be high. This is illustrated in the following graphic: during the training session your capacities diminish only to improve during the recovery period, but then the gains are lost because of involution/detraining.

Dividing Volume, Not Adding It
For maximum progress, regardless of how many weekly sessions you have for each muscle group, you should do the same weekly training volume. For example, if you do 120 total reps per muscle group per week, you can do either one session of 120 total reps, two sessions of 60 reps, or three sessions of 40 reps. When you add weekly training sessions, don't double or triple total weekly volume. This will lead to stagnation.
The next three graphics show how your body will react to properly planned, once-per-week, twice-per-week and three-times-per-week sessions.
a) Properly planned once-per-week session for each muscle group

b) Properly planned twice-per-week sessions for each muscle group

[soccergrub]

c) Properly planned three-times-per-week sessions for each muscle group

How to Plan Volume
The following graphic illustrates how to set up training volume depending on your fiber-type dominance and the number of weekly workouts per muscle group. First though, here's a quick review of what I mean by "fiber type."
The fibers in your muscles are "typed" according to their oxidative capacities and how fast they fatigue. Typically, fast-twitch (Type-II) fibers respond best to heavy, low-rep training. In other words, fast-twitch fibers are recruited in the performance of high-intensity, short-duration bouts of work, like heavy lifting and sprinting. Usually, if you hear someone refer to a bodybuilder as "gifted," one of those gifts is an inordinate amount of fast-twitch fibers. If your goal is to be big and strong, then you probably long for a high fast-twitch fiber makeup.
Based on that info, you should be able to choose which fiber type you lean toward. If you don't think you lean toward either direction, just choose "mixed ratio" in the graphics below.

Step 1: Selecting the appropriate weekly volume

Step 2: How to divide the total weekly volume into sessions

[soccergrub]

Step 3: Selecting the proper training split
a) If you train each muscle group once per week…
First option:

Second option:

[soccergrub]

Third option:

b) If you train each muscle group twice per week…
First option:

Second option:

c) If you train each muscle group three times per week…

The Take Home Message
The important thing to remember is that the optimal training volume in a single session will vary depending on how many times you train each muscle group per week. If you train it once, the volume per session must be very high to prevent involution. On the opposite side, if you train each muscle group three times per week, the volume must be very low to prevent overtraining.
When properly planned, each type of frequency will yield great results. With a smart game plan, you'll avoid the pitfalls and reach your goals!

lmao nice...

do you even understand what youre posting though? lol

j/k

[soccergrub]

Originally Posted by dannyboy9

lmao nice...

do you even understand what youre posting though? lol

j/k

no..........me like pretty pictures

[CraigC]

Originally Posted by kenseth17cd

This worked for me. 5-day split.
Monday-Chest+Triceps
4x6 Flat Bench
3x8 Incline BB Bench
3x8 Decline Bench
2x8 Close Grip Bench
2x8 DB butterflies
4 sets of pushups until failure

Tuesday-Legs
Squats 4x8-10
Leg Press 3x10
Leg Curls 3x10

Wednesday-Back
Deadlift 3x8
Seated Rows 3x8

Thursday-Biceps
Concentration Curls 3x8
Hammer Curls 2x8
Preacher Curls 3x8
Cheat Curls 3x8, on the last set strip off weight and go until you can't go anymore...

Friday-Shoulders
Front raises 3x8
Side raises 3x8
Lat pulldowns 3x8

I hope this helps you.

Wow that routine is definatly... unique. Why do you do so many more sets and exercises for chest than you do for a larger muscle group like back? Lat pulldowns on shoulder day? No military press for shoulders? And an entire day decicated to biceps!?

This routine doesn't really make sense to me.. seems like there is a lot of room for improvement.

[kenseth17cd]

Reverse lat pulldowns by the way. They do hit your shoulders. My biceps are my worst asset. They need a whole lot of work. I don't have any ball in my bicep at all. That is why I have a whole day dedicated. I am up for any suggestions/improvements on the workout.

[CraigC]

Originally Posted by kenseth17cd

Reverse lat pulldowns by the way. They do hit your shoulders. My biceps are my worst asset. They need a whole lot of work. I don't have any ball in my bicep at all. That is why I have a whole day dedicated. I am up for any suggestions/improvements on the workout.

I think you are overtraining your biceps and that could be why they are not growing. I also find it a bit strange that you do not do barbell curls (unless you do your cheat curls on a bb). BB curls are the best mass building bicep exercise and IMO should be your first exercise. After those I would do a preacher curl followed by incline DB curls.

On chest/tri day I would drop the closegrip benchpress as you have already done a wide grip one (I know one is for triceps) and I would drop the decline bench press. Instead I would do weighted dips as these hit the lower chest and triceps. I would also add skullcrushers and wouldnt bother with the pushups.

Also your back day is lacking. Pullups, BB, bench DB and T bar rows are good exercises. After I started going heavy on back day my biceps started to grow. I now work back and bi's on the same day. My back/bi routine looks like this:

Wide grip pullups: 4 sets, 12,10,8,6 reps
DB rows on bench: pyramid reps, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 increase weight every set by 10 lbs/hand
Wide grip Tbar rows (for middle back): 3x8
Deadlifts: 2x8
BB curls: 3x6, last set to failure with minimal cheating


ps. sorry for the thread hijack

And for the original question I believe that the number of sets depends on how hard you are training, the amount of rest between training sessions and the bodypart being trained. soccergrub's post made sense so I would use something like that as a reference.