Weight lifting - 3 sets or 12 sets?

auticus

So as a football player, in my time in the army, and as a wrestler for many years, I developed my own gym routine based off of my coaches and fitness instructors. The core was essentially get in, knock out 15 min of cardio to warm up and then lift for 45 minutes or so doing 6-8 exercises at 3 sets or so a piece. Sometimes on heavy days I'd do 4 sets.

Anyhow I notice at the gym guys will get on the bench and do 12 sets or so, spending 20-30 minutes on the bench press alone. Then they get up and move to an incline press and do 10-12 sets. Then they spend another 30 minutes doing 10-12 sets of bicep curls with a barbell. Then they pick up dumbells and do 10-12 sets of bicep curls with those.

The point being that they spend about 3 hours in the gym doing 10-12 sets of these exercises. In my 45 minutes of being in the weight room, some of these guys will have spent most of the time I am there in total on just one or two areas and they are there long after I leave.

Now I'm no body builder obviously, and I mainly lift for functional strength and run to keep my weight down, I'm not worried about stacking 3 plates on each end of the barbell and benching massive amounts of weight. My question is... what are people achieving by spending so much time in the weight room like that?

FullOfWin

The only people who would have any business whatsoever doing 10-12 sets for a body part in one day would be advanced bodybuilders. Not to be confused with power lifters. I mean straight up going for as much mass as possible bodybuilders. Sounds like your gym has some typical bench "n" curl bros.

Chief_Rocka

My question is... what are people achieving by spending so much time in the weight room like that?

Developing a crappy, imbalanced physique based on the "mirror muscles."

ArroganceInStep

If you have the time to do it, and assuming you have the capacity for that kind of work, it's not a bad thing. Most people have limited time to dedicate though and want to focus on the most efficient way to go about doing things.

Rock has a good point that they're not really going for a balanced workout if all they do is bench and curls, but assuming a balanced routine, high volume, high intensity isn't a bad thing (you do have to eat and sleep enough for it though).

Most people (myself included) don't have that kind of time though. I miss my college days when I could skip class and spend four hours in the gym.

ilovedeadlifts

The only people who would have any business whatsoever doing 10-12 sets for a body part in one day would be advanced bodybuilders. Not to be confused with power lifters. I mean straight up going for as much mass as possible bodybuilders. Sounds like your gym has some typical bench "n" curl bros.

this.

I might do 8-10 sets of an excercise, but thats warming up, not that many working sets.
With squats I may do
3 sets of 95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5
335x3
225x10

That's 10 sets, but as you can see most of the time was spent warming up.

auticus

Let me give you an example of one of my workouts:

DAY 1 - Chest & Triceps

15 minutes on the eliptical for warmup
Bench Press - 3 sets of 10 then a last set with more weight on it (going for 2-4 reps)
Inclined Bench - 3 sets of 10
Seated Flys - 3 sets of 10
Tricep pulldown - 3 sets of 10
Dips - 3 sets of 10
Tricep extension - 3 sets of 10

This takes roughly an hour to get through. I can move faster and knock it to 45 minutes but typically I average between 45 - 60 minutes with all of the above.

I've done this for years. Now granted I don't powerlift and I don't have the world's most impressive physique, but lately I've seen and read a couple of articles expousing a ton of sets and was pondering.

FullOfWin

That looks pretty normal for a body part split routine hitting muscles once per week. Of course that begs the question of whether such a split is best for you or if you would be better served by higher frequency.

msbeeblebrox

I've had pretty great success with doing 3 sets of 5. I warm up with lighter weights before starting to lift heavier.

auticus

True. Comes down to time though. I have to put in a lot of cardio to maintain my weight unfortunately so 3 days are lifting, 3 days are running 4-5 miles, one day is set aside to rest. Taking time out of running to lift more would cause me weight gain barring readjusting my diet to lower my calories which I don't want to mess with.

Mighty_Rabite

I don't think people generally really need to hit any singular body part for more than 3-4 sets at a given time. Just as an example, this is what I'll usually do:

Any Given Weighted Exercise
Set 1: light warmup
Set 2: bit more involved warmup
Set 3: heavy set (varies)
Set 4: heavy set (varies)

On bench press for example my warmups are always 12x115 and 10x135 - I cycle my heavy sets every 5-6 times that I hit bench press. Right now my heavy sets are 4+ reps of 200lbs, but once I'm through this cycle, my heavy sets will be 12+ reps at 175, then 8+ reps at 195, then 4+ reps at 215.

If I do leg press for example, I do a much more gradual progression - light warmup is 400lbs, then I go to 490, 580, and 670lbs - leg workouts I try to hit 12 reps when possible. In fact, aside from bench press, I use this general idea for pretty much every other exercise - I have fairly specific bench press goals but everything else my general idea is just to improve over time.

IronSmasher

My question is... what are people achieving by spending so much time in the weight room like that?

Developing a crappy, imbalanced physique based on the "mirror muscles."

This.

sleepytexan

silly. 5 x 5.

paijing

They might be warming up, or they might be using a "reverse pyramid" technique.

When I lift weights, I do 3 sets per muscle group, but it might not appear that way to an outsider. For example, for bicep curls I will do 5 reps of 25lbs, which maxes me out. Then I pick up the 15lb weights and keep going to failure (which might take another 8 or 10 reps). So while I'm really just doing a single set till failure, it looks like more than one set.

Or they might just love being brahs and killing time in the gym. Shrug.

ArroganceInStep

silly. 5 x 5.

It really isn't that simple. 5x5 is a great program, but it's not the only one.

auticus

I am not familiar with 5x5

ArroganceInStep

I am not familiar with 5x5

5 sets of 5 repetitions, usually the same weight across. Once you can do 5 sets of 5 at a given weight, increase the weight.

MoreBean13

12 sets? Jeezus. How do you spell OVERKILL? Squats can take me 20 minutes to do 5 working sets, warm up sets, and a burnout set, but I cannot imagine doing 12 sets of anything. Maybe 12x1 deadlifts, including warmups. Don't follow whatever those bro's are doing- it's called f*ckarounditis.

ArroganceInStep

12 sets? Jeezus. How do you spell OVERKILL? Squats can take me 20 minutes to do 5 working sets, warm up sets, and a burnout set, but I cannot imagine doing 12 sets of anything. Maybe 12x1 deadlifts, including warmups. Don't follow whatever those bro's are doing- it's called f*ckarounditis.

Try it out, you might find you like it . 3x5 and then 5x20 right after is a real killer.

MoreBean13

12 sets? Jeezus. How do you spell OVERKILL? Squats can take me 20 minutes to do 5 working sets, warm up sets, and a burnout set, but I cannot imagine doing 12 sets of anything. Maybe 12x1 deadlifts, including warmups. Don't follow whatever those bro's are doing- it's called f*ckarounditis.

Try it out, you might find you like it . 3x5 and then 5x20 right after is a real killer.

I have no problem with high volume....but 12 sets? C'mon. My workout would take 6 hours!

Capt_Apollo

i have hypertrophy weeks we're i'll lift my 5/3/1 sets at high weight/low rep, but then i'll have weeks where do 10 sets of ten at a lower weights for muscular endurance.

Vonwarr

I might do 8-10 sets of an excercise, but thats warming up, not that many working sets.
With squats I may do
3 sets of 95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x5
315x5
335x3
225x10

That's 10 sets, but as you can see most of the time was spent warming up.

Exactly this.

Lift_hard_eat_big

It's not uncommon for body builders to do 30+ sets per muscle group. Not my cup of tea, but it's very common.

ArroganceInStep

12 sets? Jeezus. How do you spell OVERKILL? Squats can take me 20 minutes to do 5 working sets, warm up sets, and a burnout set, but I cannot imagine doing 12 sets of anything. Maybe 12x1 deadlifts, including warmups. Don't follow whatever those bro's are doing- it's called f*ckarounditis.

Try it out, you might find you like it . 3x5 and then 5x20 right after is a real killer.

I have no problem with high volume....but 12 sets? C'mon. My workout would take 6 hours!

It's why most people shouldn't do it (at least not for everything), they don't have the time. Only point I was making was that it's not always just someone being dumb (if all they're doing is bench and curls, it almost certainly is), but it can be useful.

I was talking with Paul Carter about it: basically take less time between sets. I'm going to try to limit my rest between sets to 30 seconds or so. I know it won't allow for maximal exertion, but his argument was to get in better condition. I can't really argue that logic until I at least give it a shot. Doing that, I could get 10-12 sets on one or two main movements, and 3-5 high rep sets on two accessory movements, and still keep my workout to 60-90 minutes.