Blog 19 How many sets should I be doing?
- Geoff Wiseman
How many sets should I be doing?
The answer here is lengthy.
Whats your training age?
Are you just getting back into it?
Is there such a thing as too much?
Every Coach has their own train of thought here.
The said magic number is 24 sets which has been shown to provide the best pattern for strength gains. (yes all other categories fall into here if programmed right fat loss/weight loss etc) (It also ensures you are not in the gym for days at a time)
I tend to start clients off at 22/24 regardless of training age purely as i stated the other day it allows me to see their imperfections when it comes to form and movement.
After the initial phase, its literally down to the goal and clients training age.
A way of ensuring progressing though throughout the yet is to make each phase undulate in intensity.
Im not going to throw around like mess cycles, macro cycles or periodisation as their are still massive hang ups in the industry with regards to these and personally they are made a lot more complicated than they need to be in order to try and amaze and confuse clients to validate the need for a Coach.
I like for my client’s to learn as we go so that the day will come when they don’t require my services as much (bad for business right…)
The way I see it, everyone can do this on their own once they have the basic understanding of the systems of what the body is going through. By ensuring my client’s learn it gives me the opportunity to continue helping more people which is my sole aim as obesity atm is the biggest drain on the NHS.
Sets, and reps also tie into ensuring constant progressive overload in each phase.
Heres a brief outlook of what my Clients see when it comes to their programming:

You should see that Intensities jump up and down between phases and also that reps change and total amount of sets goes up.
By doing this Ive found that overload is achieved more consistently and also that the client experiences less stagnation when it comes to progress whether its in strength, fat loss, weight loss, conditioning.
To summarise, if you are new to the whole training regime and are finding yourself doing 30 or 40 sets it might be an idea to find a better way to manage your sessions.
Catch you all tomorrow
#strengthcoachcardiff #wpt #strength #fitfam #thecompound #fitness #gainz #glutes #quads #performancebased #strongnotskinny #nevergiveup #push #grind #tut #picp

