October 29, 2004, Newsletter Issue #126: How Many Sets?

Tip of the Week

There have been a lot of studies that show results almost as good with one set as with the traditional 3. Further studies show that one set is sufficient for beginners but advanced weight trainees need more. In general, you start to see diminishing returns with more than 4 sets, and are better off switching to another exercise for that body part. Exceptions would be if you are doing very short sets, or if you are a bodybuilder and know what works for you and it`s more sets.

I always gave my beginner clients 3 sets with lighter weights than would represent a real challenge for a couple of weeks, because I wanted them to practice and learn the exercises and lay down the neural patterns. When you get some experience, you can switch around and do more sets for the exercises you want to emphasize, and maybe only 1 or 2 for assistance exercises. The 1-set studies tend to be closely supervised and push to failure. This isn`t what most people are going to do. Do 1 set per exercise if you want--you will get results--but it doesn`t take much more time to do 2 or 3, at least for some exercises.

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