How do you know what weight to use? If you can do more than six repetitions on your heavy sets for an exercise, the weight is too light. If you cannot do at least four, the weight is too heavy.

So the low down on reps is 4 to 6 for all heavy sets. Warm up sets and intermediate can be 8 to 10 reps, but to get the muscle stimulating benefit of weight training, you must use lower reps to create enough of an overload.

Sets

The amount of heavy, intense sets per exercise will be between one and three sets, depending on the order of the exercise.

When you are warmed up, the number of all-out, intense sets will be three at the most, and on some exercises, just one or two sets.

It is the overload that causes the muscle to grow, not the amount of sets you do. There is no "universal law" which states that if you double the amount of sets you perform, you also double the results.

The key is to stimulate, not annihilate, the muscle into responding and growing. You do this with two, very intense sets of four to six repetitions. This will efficiently stimulate the muscles more than doing more sets with more reps at a lighter weight.

If we were doing bicep curls, we would do our warm-ups and then two heavy, intense sets of four to six repetitions. This exercise is now done. You have effectively overloaded the bicep muscles and will then proceed to the next exercise, if there is one.

As you can see, it is all about quality over quantity when it comes to producing results.

It is so much better to do one or two heavy sets at maximum intensity than 3 or more at an easier level.

More is not better....better is better.

Fitness Consultant Shawn Lebrun has helped over 13,000 individuals lose fat and build muscle in less time. To read more about what he can do for you, please check out his site at Shawn Lebrun Fitness.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_LeBrun

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