Sets Per Bodypart?

Hey. I’ve got 2 weeks of time on my hands… I was hoping to increase the volume and or frequency during this time period. In these two weeks I really want to blast my body…

I have recently started to do full-body workouts after reading a lot of Chad Waterbury articles.
They’re going great and I’ve put on a few lbs already in a month so I think it’s fair to say the extra frequency is doing me some good.

I would be open to training in the morning and afternoon. Do any of you guys have any experience with adding extra frequency and volume, I mean should I work up to adding it in gradually over the two weeks or just dive in? I don’t want to injure myself or anything.
Of course I am open to suggestion if you don’t think this is the best approach then please point me in a better direction.

I’m Meso-endo or endo-meso I think hell I may even be completely meso I was training with so little frequency and volume for so long it was hard to tell and my recent results have shocked me. How many sets per bodypart should I be going for during these two weeks? If I split it into morn and afternoon then how many per workout? This is my main confusion… I’ve read some of Arnold bodybuilding encyclopedia at my friends and I was surprised to see him recommend 16-20 sets per bodypart for a Mesomorph… For my chest I do like 5 sets if I’m doing 5x5 you know… 16-20 seems insane to me but if I get results I will do it no matter how long it takes.

Since I am slightly endo and hold a fair bit of fat around my gut… I read on and Arnold suggests higher rep sets. So is his advice really to do say 16-20 sets for my chest at 8-12 reps each? Like I say I’ll do it… Arnold being one of my many idols… I don’t want to question his ways but it seems almost completely the opposite of what some guys here suggest.

Thanks.

BLF

Fuck I do double sessions and probably top out at 20-24 sets for back, chest or legs.

12 sets for biceps and triceps and 16 for shoulders.

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Fuck I do double sessions and probably top out at 20-24 sets for back, chest or legs.

12 sets for biceps and triceps and 16 for shoulders. [/quote]

That’s pretty much what I do… OP do this

[quote]yusef wrote:
Best avatar I’ve ever seen. In fact best thing I’ve seen period.[/quote]

I dunno, yours is pretty good.

I typically do 12-15 sets for the larger muscles (3-4 work sets) and 6 sets smaller (arms).

wonder if I should be upping that next gaining cycle.

Number of sets/total doesn’t really tell much though… Are those all work sets? Are 75 percent of those sets warm-ups? Rep ranges? Straight sets, pyramid sets, rest-pause?

Set number alone is a rather worthless piece of information…

If someone tells you that he does 12 sets per exercise, what are you going to do? 12x10? 12x3?

Also, it wasn’t clear if the OP intended to stick with the full-body crap^z^z^z^zmethod or not.

If so, no, one doesn’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart and do all bodyparts in the same day.

If you actually want to destroy yourself for 2 weeks do this.

[quote]VikingsAD28 wrote:
If you actually want to destroy yourself for 2 weeks do this.

Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION [/quote]

That shit is nasty…and you need to be in shape if you are going to give that a try.

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
Also, it wasn’t clear if the OP intended to stick with the full-body crap^z^z^z^zmethod or not.

If so, no, one doesn’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart and do all bodyparts in the same day.[/quote]

It was my intention to stick with full-body. It does make sense that you don’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart on a full body day haha.

How many sets do you personally advise to aim for during a full body session?

Of course I’m still considering doing two sessions a day in which case both sessions wont be full body… Unless… Naaa lol

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Fuck I do double sessions and probably top out at 20-24 sets for back, chest or legs.

12 sets for biceps and triceps and 16 for shoulders. [/quote]

[quote]ucallthatbass wrote:

That’s pretty much what I do… OP do this[/quote]

Do you guys care to elaborate a little more… What do your sessions actually look like etc.
How many warm up sets? What rep ranges? How much of your 1RM %?

[quote]yusef wrote:
Oh and if you’re a Waterbury monster, you might want to try that 50 pull up + 100 press up per day protocol? Shouldn’t interfere with your workouts if you do it at night.[/quote]

I’ve been trying this out actually… I’ve done it twice now and I just add it in once a week on my session when I use much lighter weight in my session.

Of course I’m probably going to use this as recommended and do it more often… I’ll tell you it does make me sore…

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Fuck I do double sessions and probably top out at 20-24 sets for back, chest or legs.

12 sets for biceps and triceps and 16 for shoulders. [/quote]

Weekly? All working sets, 0-2 reps short of failure etc.?

[quote]BruceLeeFan wrote:
Bill Roberts wrote:
Also, it wasn’t clear if the OP intended to stick with the full-body crap^z^z^z^zmethod or not.

If so, no, one doesn’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart and do all bodyparts in the same day.

It was my intention to stick with full-body. It does make sense that you don’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart on a full body day haha.

How many sets do you personally advise to aim for during a full body session?

Of course I’m still considering doing two sessions a day in which case both sessions wont be full body… Unless… Naaa lol[/quote]

First, the qualification that as Cephalic_Carnage said, not all sets are the same and some types of sets allow quite different amounts of work to be performed than other types of sets.

But for fairly typical work, I find it best to look at it in terms of total sets per week rather than per workout.

72 sets per week (not that the figure is a remarkably precise one) is generally a challenging but doable total for the non-chemically-enhanced.

The figure can be higher when using brief rest periods and using protocols where many sets are done for reps well short of what could done fresh with that weight. And some have hardened themselves to greater workloads.

I don’t know how many days per week you had in mind. Let’s say, training every other day (3.5 times per week.)

That would give about 20 sets per workout.

Or if training 2x/day on those days, then about 10 sets each such workout.

Those are not hard-and-fast figures: depending on what exercises are used – is the focus unusually heavy on big compound movements or is a major portion isolation work; is every set done for as many reps as possible or are there ramping sets, etc – the numbers could be somewhat more or less.

[quote]yusef wrote:
Best avatar I’ve ever seen. In fact best thing I’ve seen period.[/quote]

Bro, how much did it take to capture that screenshot?

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
BruceLeeFan wrote:
Bill Roberts wrote:
Also, it wasn’t clear if the OP intended to stick with the full-body crap^z^z^z^zmethod or not.

If so, no, one doesn’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart and do all bodyparts in the same day.

It was my intention to stick with full-body. It does make sense that you don’t do 15-20 sets per bodypart on a full body day haha.

How many sets do you personally advise to aim for during a full body session?

Of course I’m still considering doing two sessions a day in which case both sessions wont be full body… Unless… Naaa lol

First, the qualification that as Cephalic_Carnage said, not all sets are the same and some types of sets allow quite different amounts of work to be performed than other types of sets.

But for fairly typical work, I find it best to look at it in terms of total sets per week rather than per workout.

72 sets per week (not that the figure is a remarkably precise one) is generally a challenging but doable total for the non-chemically-enhanced.

The figure can be higher when using brief rest periods and using protocols where many sets are done for reps well short of what could done fresh with that weight. And some have hardened themselves to greater workloads.

I don’t know how many days per week you had in mind. Let’s say, training every other day (3.5 times per week.)

That would give about 20 sets per workout.

Or if training 2x/day on those days, then about 10 sets each such workout.

Those are not hard-and-fast figures: depending on what exercises are used – is the focus unusually heavy on big compound movements or is a major portion isolation work; is every set done for as many reps as possible or are there ramping sets, etc – the numbers could be somewhat more or less.[/quote]

Thanks Bill Roberts that clears a lot up. :slight_smile:

BruceLeeFan, you’re dead to me.

After being in the T-Cell and being surrounded by people who have tried to help you, and I hear that you are training TBT style now, it makes me cry a little bit inside.

I hope you are ashamed of yourself.

lol

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Fuck I do double sessions and probably top out at 20-24 sets for back, chest or legs.

12 sets for biceps and triceps and 16 for shoulders. [/quote]

I’m curious how you split the day up. I’ve got some extra time and was thinking of doing the same thing. Do you go heavy/light or do you have different exercises in each session? I’m assuming your working the same body part twice in the same day.

[quote]BulletproofTiger wrote:

Goal: Maximal hypertrophy without maximal strength:

Set/Rep Volume (36-50)
Loading (70-80% of 1 RM)
Rest Between Sets (60-120 seconds)
Sessions per Week per Muscle Group (2-4)