Therefore, during a long training period, 5 sets per exercise is superior to 3 sets per exercise and 3 sets per exercise is superior to 1 set per exercise to cause increases in upper-body strength, local muscular endurance, and hypertrophy.
Studies show around 12-20 sets per week per muscle group is around the optimal range for muscle growth. Doing 5 sets might mean that you can't go to the gym as often, doing 3 might mean you can go more days per week. So long as you get those sets in per week, you're generally going to be just fine.
If you're talking about the same weight, then 5 sets will typically take longer because the time for two extra sets will exceed the time to do 2 extra reps on 3 sets. Plus there will typically be brief rest period between sets, and you'd have twice as many of those for 5 sets as you would for three.
The 5/3/1 Method Training Cycle
Week one: For each workout, perform three sets of five reps (three x five) of one lifting exercise. So for example, on Monday, do three x five of bench presses, Wednesday three x five of squats, Friday three x five of shoulder presses, and Saturday three x five of deadlifts.
For any isolation exercises, you could do just 1-2 sets per exercise and get the job done well. There's no harm in spending more time in the gym, though. If you have the time and ambition, you could start with 4 to 8 sets per muscle per week, and work your way up to 8 to 12 sets.
The 30-60-90 interval training workout consists of three sets with three intervals. The first set includes three intervals of 30 seconds, followed by three intervals of 60 seconds and three intervals of 90 seconds. After each interval, rest for the length of the interval.
Matches employ either a best-of-three (first to two sets wins) or best-of-five (first to three sets wins) set format. The best-of-five set format is usually only used in the men's singles matches at Grand Slam tournaments.
Is it better to do 3 or 4 sets per exercise? According to The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), 2-3 sets of 12 to 20+ reps will help build muscular endurance, while 3-6 sets of 6-12 reps will build muscular hypertrophy and 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps will build muscular power.
If you wish to experience rapid increase in muscle size and functional strength, the 5x5 workout is certainly worth a try.
If you're trying to build muscle and get bigger, doing sets of 3 or sets of 5 or sets of 10 will ALL help you get bigger, if you're eating enough to get bigger! If you're trying to lose weight, it doesn't matter if you do sets of 15 or sets of 5 if you are consistently overeating by 1,000 calories a day.
Rest between set durations should be based on sets/exercise (volume), and not load or training goal. General recommendations include moderate (2 min) rest between sets if performing 2 sets/exercise, long rest (3 min) if performing 3 sets/exercise, and very long rest (> 4 min) if performing 4 sets or more/exercise.
Three studies demonstrate that high-volume and very high-volume routines are likely to result in similar increases in strength and hypertrophy. Specifically, these studies suggest that 3 - 12 sets/muscle group/session (3-27 sets/muscle group/week) may result in similar increases in strength, hypertrophy, and power .
If your objective is strength or power (think: heavy lifting or explosive movements), the textbook advice is to perform 3 to 5 sets of 2 to 6 reps per exercise.
1. Training for Muscle Size (Hypertrophy) If you're training for muscle size, choose a weight at which you reach muscle failure in the 8-12-rep range. In other words, after your warm-up sets—which are never taken to failure—you should select a load with which you can complete at least 8 reps but not more than 12.
Therefore, during a long training period, 5 sets per exercise is superior to 3 sets per exercise and 3 sets per exercise is superior to 1 set per exercise to cause increases in upper-body strength, local muscular endurance, and hypertrophy.
As mentioned above 2-4 sets of 10-15 reps is ideal for fat loss. In comparison the ideal for strength is 1-6 sets of 1-6 reps.
Referring to a more recent systematic review, it found: The best hypertrophy results came from 30-40 sets per muscle per week. A minimum effective dose of 4 sets per muscle group per week. Somewhere around 10-20 sets per week still delivered good hypertrophy results.
For the development of maximal strength try 3-5 sets at 1-3 reps with 80% of your rep max. For explosive strength, 6-10 sets of 1-3 reps with between 60-70% of your rep max may be performed. The key in this instance is to perform the movement as fast as possible, while maintaining good form.
The Format of the Match
Women's singles, and men's and women's doubles matches at the US Open are played in a best-of-three-sets format, while men's singles is played to a best-of-five-sets format. Players must win six games to win a set — unless the score reaches 5-5, in which case they can also win a set, 7-5.
Tennis scores were shown in the middle ages on two clock faces which went from 0 to 60. On each score the pointer moved round a quarter from 0 to 15, 30, 45 and a win on 60. Somehow the forty five got truncated to forty when the clock faces dropped out of use.
Understanding the 3 3 3 Approach
Among these, the 3 3 3 workout has carved a niche for itself with its straightforward, yet surprisingly effective strategy. The concept revolves around performing sets of three exercises, repeated three times, for a total of nine micro-sets.
The rule that both NSCA and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommend is the “2-for-2 rule.” After a few workout sessions, you can increase the weight for a certain exercise once you can perform two more repetitions beyond your repetition goal for the last set for two weeks in a row.
It's called 80/20 training—essentially, doing light workouts 80 percent of the time and pushing yourself at a challenging level 20 percent of the time.