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Sets and reps for muscle hypertrophy

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Portillo

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Mar 30, 2006
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What are the ideal sets and reps for muscle hypertrophy? ATM im doing 3 sets of 10 for pretty much every exercise.
 
sets of 10 is probably a little too much, 5x5 is a good, simple one.

once you can do 5x5 on a particular weight, increase weight by 5 pounds
 
Hypertrophy actually comes in two flavors, myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic. People often are thinking of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy when they generically think of hypertrophy, but it's important to your workout programming to understand the difference between the two.

Myofibrillar hypertrophy is associated mostly with strength gain with some size gain. It occurs between 1 and 3 reps which is a typical powerlifting set.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is that which is generally thought of in bodybuilding style workouts and results mostly in size gain with some endurance benefits. It occurs mostly around 12 reps, which is a typical bodybuilding set.

Those numbers vary a bit individually and sets between 3 and 10 give varying amounts of both. If you want more information, wikipedia actually has a pretty good article on hypertrophy here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_hypertrophy
 
^ Thanks for the info and ive read the wiki article aswell. Maybe ill try 5x5 from now on.
 
5x5 is a good balance between the two types of hypertrophy, but remember that your body is an adaptation machine. If all you do is 5x5, your gains will drop off quickly. To sustain your gain, try varying your reps widely between workouts. 1's, 3's, 5's, 8's, 10's, 12's, 20's. Attack your muscles in every conceivable way to keep your body guessing...and adapting.
 
^ Yeah i did a bit of searching around and 5x5 seems more towards gaining strength, hence the whole 5x5 training program thingy.
 
I like four sets of eight, with the last set to failure...

Of course, this does not fit for all exercises...
 
3x8 works for me for most things

that will give a good glycogen response

3x5 works for strength gains for me

experiment yourself, everybody is different!
 
I like to start out with sets of 3 to 5 reps. I'll increase the weight each set and often max out at 1 or 2 reps by the last set.

If I can lift a weight more than 8 or 9 times in a row, it's too light for me to be lifting. Anything that light and you might as well just be doing body weight exercise.
 
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