Quote (Balla @ Sep 2 2010 06:01pm)
How much volume per body workout for a body part would you reccomend for mass gains when hitting a body part twice a week..
like say a chest/back leg/shoulder bi/tri rest repeat split..hitting everything twice
how much volume would you say for chest for example for each workout? i was thinking 12 sets both days..but then i thought about it and thought 24 sets for that week might be too much?
iso some input
Hey there.
The key isn't so much number of sets as quality and duration of sets.
For PURE mass gains (not strength gains but mass gains) the golden standard is FAILURE.
That means when you train each bodypart 2x per week you are going to want to do something like this:
5 sets per exercise - 1st set lighter weight for 15-20 reps (warmup), 2nd set go up to 50-60% of your max weight for as many reps until failure, 3rd set go up to 75-80% of your max until failure, 4th set go to your max weight and try to force it out for 2 reps instead of just 1 rep. From there, the 5th set should be 50% of your max weight until failure, and then the 6th set should be 25% of your max weight until failure.
Example:
For bench press with a max of 315 x 1 you would do:
Set 1 - 135 x 15
Set 2 - 185 x 10
Set 3 - 225 x 8
Set 4 - 315 x 2
Set 5 - 185 x 10
Set 6 - 95 x 20
(the reps on here are just for sample, you are going to want to go until failure)
Do at least 4 exercises per muscle group with at LEAST 5 sets per exercise done in the same format as above.
You will know when your muscle groups are nearing total failure...the pump will be unbelievable and your skin will feel like it's going to tear.
On this routine you will need tons of nutrition, and plenty of PWO simple carbs with creatine and of course proper macros throughout the day including enough PWO protein and so forth.