Sets, Reps and other Useful Knowledge

How many of us have asked the basic question of how many sets or reps should I be doing for the type of training we are doing. Baechle and Earle 2008 assign the following reps and training load to the mentioned types of training:

Training goal Load (% 1RM) Goal repetitions
Strength >85 < 6
Power 75-90 1-5
Hypertrophy 67-85 6-12
Muscular endurance <>12

According to Schuler and Mejia from The Men’s Health Home Workout Bible 2002, each muscle group should only be trained once per week to allow sufficient recovery time. They also suggest you always do weight training prior to cardio training as after depleting your carb reserves by lifting weights, you can still use fats for fuel during your cardio exercises.

These were just a few quick tips to help improve your training

Best regards
Shane Scott

References:
Baechle T.R. and Earle R.W. (2008). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. 3rd Edition. Human Kinetics. USA, 400.
Schuler L. and Mejia M. (2002). The Men’s Health Home Workout Bible. Rodale Inc. USA, 338-346.