No of Reps for progressive sets

[benishiryo]

Hi guys, I'm 60kg & 178cm tall. Trying to gain weight & look toned, so I'm tryin to get some advice here.

1. When people say 4 sets of 6-12 or 3 sets of 8, what is the 2nd & 3rd set's repetition supposed to be? I rest a min between the sets & there is not one exercise I can do the same reps as the 1st set. So am i supposed to decrease the weights to reach that or so as long as it's near that range?

2. Do I stick stubbornly to the weights I'm doing until I improve or lighten it a little? Sometimes I reach a bottleneck for weeks. For eg, I do 70 pounds for the Preacher's Curl at 12 reps. There was no improvement for 3 weeks, so I changed it to 65 pounds. I made slight improvements & when I switched back to 70 pounds after that, I was able to do 13.

 

[Jrahien]

1) You should aim for the same amount of repetitions and weight for every set. If there is a big difference between the amount of weight that you can do 10 reps or so of between your first and last set, then you may want to decrease your overall weight. If, by the last set, you feel you need to just decrease the weight by a few pounds, then that's fine.

2) You should stick with whatever weight that you can do enough sets with without reaching absolute muscle failure. That being said, it has been noted that training at high intensity for a a while and then taking a week of general, lighter exercise has shown some benefits.

 

[benishiryo]

thks for the info, Jrahien!