Weight Lifting?

Question

What is the best number of sets to do when lifting repititions of 10, if you want to gain alot of muscle mass. Also, about how long will it take for other people to see results in me.

Answer 1

For muscle mass, I would stick to 8-12 reps range with about 3 sets. Sometimes, people can overtrain by doing too many sets. I heard the first and second sets cause the most muscle damage..whereas the third and subsequent sets don't push the muscles as much because you can't lift as much weight.

There are two philosophies to it. One is to keep doing reps until you cannot do another (cheating or otherwise). Another is to keep doing reps until technical failure. I personally think that doing reps until technical failure is safer especially if you do not have a spotter. Try to maintain form for all your reps.

Also, low reps and heavy weight tend to give you more strength gains than muscle mass. If you want to gain strength, stick to low reps and heavy weight with increased rest periods of about 2-3 minutes between sets. For muscle growth stick to medium amount of reps, with moderate weight, and about 1 minute rest periods between sets.

If you are a beginner, you will see results in a few months. If not, you will not see as much...and you will have to vary your workouts to break through plateaus.

Answer 2

When you start weight training for the very first time and you do it right, you will gain a lot of muscle. You will se a big difference in your body after about a month and you will continue to see cahnges for about 2-3 months. Then it's going to slow down, the longer you do weight training the hard it gets to gain muscle. Just because you won't see much change doesn't meen there isn't. So don't give up. Try to drink a gallon of fresh water each day, cut out jusnk food and soda. Eat more nutrional meals and get at least 8-9 hours of sleep each day. Workout only once every other day, trust me. Don't over do it, it hurts and it won't help.
When you weight train, train your muscles to fatigue and try to get help from an experienced weight trainer. I could go on forever on how to weight train but these are just bout the basics. If you want lots of muscle building than eat about 50 grams of protein each day. You can also use steroids but then can have some ugly side effects. I don't recommend it.

Answer 3

I usually do 3 sets. The first set is my warm up weight, the middle set is the heaviest, and the third set is in-between.

However, if you are serious about building muscle, you might consider doing fewer than 10 reps, and adding more weight instead. Also, doing very slow reps is rumored to help with this, but it can be excruciating.

If you couple your excersize with a good diet that's high in protein, I think you'll see results very quickly. With your shirt off, you'll appear more toned within the first week or two. Give it a couple of months, and there'll be noticeable gain in muscle mass. The bathroom scale should hopefully agree.

Answer 4

If you want to gain mass then you should be doing less then 10 reps, with max effort. Between 6-8 is good, with 5 sets is usually average. If you are steady in the gym others will notice after a month, you should notice about a month and a half. Don't over work yourself. Beginning 1 body part a week. Day 1 chest, day 2 back, day 3 arms, day 4 shoulders, day 5 legs. Abs every other day. That is a good beginning routine.

Answer 5

Usually 4-7 is for strength, 8-12 is for size, and anything above that is for tone, just do sets as you can, you should try atleast 10 sets per muscle, 1-2 muscle groups a day. Best weight gains ive found are from, eating breakfast, lunch, supper, and in between each meal a thick peanut butter and jelly, so a total of 6 meals a day. You'll have gas but you'll gain weight lol...

Answer 6

Ideal way to gain Muscle mass would be to start at repetittions equal to the weight you r lifting till you reach 35 for chest ,10 for biceps,30 for shoulders.then move onto multiples of 10 .sets don't matter initially as you can do as many sets as you can manage without strainin your self.

Answer 7

i use to weight lift.. i would do 3 sets of 10 reps with heavy wieghts.. then take a break or focus on another muscle..it should take a few months.. but i depends on your body type as of now.. if your skinny it would show right after you work out.. but if your on the fatter side your fat will slowly turn into muscle

Answer 8

I do 4 sets of 10 reps.....took me about 6 months for others to notice the difference

Answer 9

If you want the best result, you will have to put forth the extra effort. Ten sets of twelve reps is what I do, and you should start to show within a few weeks.

Answer 10

To build muscle mass, go for heavy weights with fewer reps (no more than 8) per set.

If you're finishing the set with not much difficulty at the end, put on more weight. (To the barbell or dumbbell, I mean ... )