This evening I did 4 sets of pullups, 4 sets of benchpress, 4 sets of bent over rows, and 4 sets of Incline benchpress. All sets had reps to failure in the 8-12 rep range. 1-2 Minute rest between all sets (I think, I don’t time it)…
This took exactly an hour. I feel good and feel like I hit my back pretty hard, but I got this feeling that I didn’t do enough sets for a chest/back day (I’m not going to train these muscles again for a week or more.) 16 just seems kinda low compared to what I used to do…
Is this enough sets to induce optimal hypertrophy? Noting that I didn’t really do all the back muslces, only the lats I believe… What muscles groups would it be logical to work traps with? And how many sets of shugs should the traps need to be trained best?
[quote]Iron_pump wrote:
This evening I did 4 sets of pullups, 4 sets of benchpress, 4 sets of bent over rows, and 4 sets of Incline benchpress. All sets had reps to failure in the 8-12 rep range. 1-2 Minute rest between all sets (I think, I don’t time it)…[/quote] you shouldn’t it’s alright.
[quote]This took exactly an hour. [/quote]and what if more?
[quote]I feel good and feel like I hit my back pretty hard, but I got this feeling that I didn’t do enough sets for a chest/back day (I’m not going to train these muscles again for a week or more.) 16 just seems kinda low compared to what I used to do…[/quote] They are big muscles man, I’d give them a day alone, or with a small muscle (not shoulders).
[quote]Is this enough sets to induce optimal hypertrophy?[/quote]well 8 sets each should be optimal, but it’s really individual. You’ll know 3 months from now if a set range was optimal for you, but focus more on intensity (load).
[quote]Nothing that I didn’t really do all the back muslces, only the lats I believe… What muscles groups would it be logical to work traps with? [/quote] traps with shoulders or with lats and teres.
[quote]And how many sets of shugs should the traps need to be trained best? [/quote] with back about 5, with shoulders about 7, but again focus on intensity. How many sets is not priority, exercise selection is important too.
I think 8 sets for back is perfectly ideal for me. I usually hit 5 exercises for back (1 pull-up exercise, 2 rows, 1 is directed at trap training and 1 on lowerback) and 3 for chest(Dips,flat or incline Dumbbell Press,some kind of flye or crossover) for 1-2 sets per exercise. So thats only 5-10 sets for back and 3-6 sets for chest so you should be doing plenty if you are truely working to failure and with good form.
[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
I think its user specific. I hit back with at least 20 and chest with at least 16. But maybe its just me. I’m off to the trough[/quote]
I get to do 8 exercises for back sometimes! (no deadlift obviously, can barely make 4 ex. with that one). One thing I would like to have is energy for 16 chest sets, I get burned with 3 heavy exercises.