How Many Sets Should I Perform in My Training Routine? |
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By: Parth Shah Posted: 2008-11-22 04:12:21 |
| I've come across a lot of different rep-set schemes. But not one of those schemes can be used in the practical world. In the practical world, we're busy and we don't have time to perform 20 sets per workout. Or do we? The way we find that out is we use time as our main variable. Follow this step by step process to figuring out exactly how many sets you have time to perform:Step One - How much time do you have to workout? Will your workout last 20 minutes for 60 minutes? Do you need to get to work in about a half hour, or are you training after work, and don't have any time limitations? For hypothetical purposes, lets assume you have 30 minutes to exercise.Step Two - How many exercises are you performing? Try to limit the total number of exercises to 4-6. I've done workouts using just two exercises. I can do this because I use compound movements over isolation movements. For hypothetical purposes, lets assume you have 4 exercises.Step Three - How many repetitions will you be performing? Based on a variety of goals, your repetitions may be between 1-3 for maximal strength, or 15+ for fat loss and conditioning. For hypothetical purposes, lets assume your goal is hypertrophy with a rep range of 8-12.Step Four - How long does each set last? Now that you have your exercises and repetitions taken care of, time how long it takes you to perform one set. For example, perform a set of 10 push-ups, and see how long that takes you. For hypothetical purposes, we'll say that this set of push-ups takes 10 seconds to perform.Step Five - How long does the average set last? Perform step four for the rest of the exercises. In other words, see how long each set lasts for each exercise, then find the average. Lets assume our average is 12 seconds.Step Six - How long will you rest? Based on your fitness level and goals, you may rest anywhere between 15 seconds to 3 minutes between each set. Hypertrophy is best seen with 60 - 90 seconds of rest, so for hypothetical purposes, we'll assume a 60 second rest period.Step Seven - Add your rest period to the average length of each set, and you get your total average length of each set. In our case, it's 60 seconds plus 12 seconds, or 72 seconds per set. This means that on average, it takes us 72 seconds to perform and recover from one set of an exercise.Step Eight - Convert your total time in minutes into seconds, and then divide by the total average length of each set. In our example, this would be (30 x 60)/72 = 25. We have a whole number, and know that we can fit in a 25 set workout in 30 minutes, as long we rest no more than 60 seconds between each set.Step Nine - How many sets per exercise? 25 sets spread over 4 exercises is 6 to 7 sets per each exercise, based on how you want to spread it out.Now, this isn't exact. Based on how often you go to the water fountain, whether you meet a buddy and chat with him or if you end up resting a little longer than expected, your workout may be shorter or longer than anticipated. The idea is to construct a workout around your busy schedule, not to construct your schedule around your workout, unless you're a competitive athlete. For the rest of us, we have lives to live.About the AuthorParth Shah is a Strength and Fitness Consultant specializing in developing practical, sustainable fitness solutions for his clients. His thoughts, ideas, and philosophy can be found on his website, http://shahtraining.com/ |
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