Doing only 1 set per exercise?

C

cookieman9000

New Member
Hey so before starting HST, and doing my first SD of 9 days. I checked my bench press and it was 85kg for 10 reps. Today I did 75kg on the bench press for 10 reps (this is my 3rd workout).
First set was easy, I felt like I had about 14 maybe 15 in me. I rested 3 minutes and the next set, I managed to get 10 reps on my 75kg but I hit failure.

My recovery between sets sucks.

So should I just cut the 2nd set and do only 1 set? Because next workout, unless I rest longer there's no way I could get 2 sets for 10 with a weight any higher than 75kg.
 
The first thing that comes to mind is if youre eating enough. Whilst cutting I feel my energy levels drop quite a bit. You´re only at about 88% of your RM so you should manage both sets.

If you are eating enough then make sure you stop short of failure on the 2nd set. Some people just cut short their second(or third) set right there. I tend do have a pause then keep going until I get to my total rep count, ie 1st set=10 reps. 2nd set=8reps. 3rd set=2reps, using the clustering technique. This gets more apparent, for me, when doing the heavier workouts.

This was mentioned by O&G yesterday: there is some evidence that suggests you can build as much muscle doing 1 set compared to several as long as you do enough work to induce hypertrophy. What exactly is enough is hard to determine so I tend to edge on the slightly higher side of volume to make sure.

How do your macros look? What do you weigh? Total energy intake?
 
gbglifter said:
The first thing that comes to mind is if youre eating enough. Whilst cutting I feel my energy levels drop quite a bit. You´re only at about 88% of your RM so you should manage both sets.

If you are eating enough then make sure you stop short of failure on the 2nd set. Some people just cut short their second(or third) set right there. I tend do have a pause then keep going until I get to my total rep count, ie 1st set=10 reps. 2nd set=8reps. 3rd set=2reps, using the clustering technique. This gets more apparent, for me, when doing the heavier workouts.

This was mentioned by O&G yesterday: there is some evidence that suggests you can build as much muscle doing 1 set compared to several as long as you do enough work to induce hypertrophy. What exactly is enough is hard to determine so I tend to edge on the slightly higher side of volume to make sure.

How do your macros look? What do you weigh? Total energy intake?
Click to expand...

I'm obviously eating enough, I gained about 1lb in the last week, and I feel like even that's too much. I'm pretty sure I'm getting enough carbs.
I weigh around 84kg.

It's just that personally I know that my work capacity compared to my strength kind of sucks. It takes me a lot of time to recover between sets.
I think I'll do the clustering technique you mentioned.
 
Last edited:
cookieman9000 said:
I'm obviously eating enough, I gained about 1lb in the last week, and I feel like even that's too much. I'm pretty sure I'm getting enough carbs.
I weigh around 84kg.

It's just that personally I know that my work capacity compared to my strength kind of sucks. It takes me a lot of time to recover between sets.
I think I'll do the clustering technique you mentioned.
Click to expand...

Just make youre still increasing week per week then. imo 1lb is not very much. Thats less than some of my daily variations. If that keeps going up each week by 1lb then cals are in place. How many calories are you eating?

The clustering technique is employed by many on here. Just avoid going to failure and you´ll be fine.
 
gbglifter said:
Just make youre still increasing week per week then. imo 1lb is not very much. Thats less than some of my daily variations. If that keeps going up each week by 1lb then cals are in place. How many calories are you eating?

The clustering technique is employed by many on here. Just avoid going to failure and you´ll be fine.
Click to expand...

I don't remember how many calories I'm eating. I calculated it once, but now I'm just making sure I eat the same stuff caloric wise if you get my point.
I feel like currently gaining 1lb per week is too much, I was planning on gaining about 2lb per month at most.
I just need to keep my performance in running (for some tests), and I can't let myself gain too much weight in a short period of time. knowing myself I get bloated very easily, and can gain a lot of water weight along with fat.
 
If you have not gathered from my other posts, I have come to believe that multiple sets of the same reps are the most inefficient way to build muscle, except perhaps for beginners. Not that I swallow the whole "one set is enough" thingy either.
 
If you hit failure using your 8-12RM three times per week, then one set is enough (as per the study). If you stop at rep 10 using your 14RM load, then one set may still be enough for a muscle sufficiently deconditioned for that load, even though you stopped far from failure. It's hard to tell for sure.

Quoting Bryan from HST FAQ:
Well, for me, 2 sets is enough on most bodyparts. But then again, with body parts like back, I
will usually do 3 sets at different angles of pull and grip widths.

But the amount of volume each person is used to varies. I am not saying that you have to train
to your volume limit. I'm just saying that if 1 set isn't enough, do another. Do too much and
you'll begin to get progressively weaker, and/or injured and you will lose your desire to train.

At first, you won't know how much is too much and how much is too little. So, start with 1
work set per body part per exercise, and work up from there.

Sometimes, you will find that you need to do more during the lighter workouts, and fewer sets
during the heavier workouts. I hate to say this, but play it by ear, while you stick to the
principles. You have to learn what it feels like. You have to actually experience growth from a
series of workouts to be able to associate the specific feeling of "enough" work with subsequent
growth.
Click to expand...
 
If it was me.

I wouldn't do any less than 20 to 30 total reps training 3 times a week.

So that would be 2 sets during the 15's
3 sets during the 10's
4 to 5 sets during the Five unless you are brand new to weight training and a true beginner.
 
Joe.Muscle said:
If it was me.

I wouldn't do any less than 20 to 30 total reps training 3 times a week.

So that would be 2 sets during the 15's
3 sets during the 10's
4 to 5 sets during the Five unless you are brand new to weight training and a true beginner.
Click to expand...

The 3 sets of 10´s and 4-5 on the 5´s would be pushing it a bit much for me. Id break long before the end of the cycle but then again Im nearer 40 than 30. It would be too much for my cns to handle.
 
Especially during 5's I think it depends on the exercise too.

During 5's, I typically perform two sets of deads three times weekly; while I will do atleast 3-4 sets of DB rows and DB presses three times weekly.
 
Joe.Muscle said:
If it was me.

I wouldn't do any less than 20 to 30 total reps training 3 times a week.

So that would be 2 sets during the 15's
3 sets during the 10's
4 to 5 sets during the Five unless you are brand new to weight training and a true beginner.
Click to expand...

I can't fathom doing 4-5 sets of everything at the end of my 5's. Either my workouts would take 3 hours, or I'd break...
 
nativetroutbum said:
I can't fathom doing 4-5 sets of everything at the end of my 5's. Either my workouts would take 3 hours, or I'd break...
Click to expand...

The simpler solution is that you'd do this NOT scaling up to a 5 RM. I outlined this at one point, but a super simple example of higher volume HST would be something like one block of 3 sets of 10 going from ~60-70% 1 RM (so up to a theoretical ~12 RM), and a second block of 5 sets of 5 going from ~70-80% 1 RM (or up to a theoretical ~8 RM). There's really no reason that approach couldn't work rather well, and you'd always have the option of pushing strength limits as an SST block or something afterwards (i.e. building up to true 5 RM's over time with ~1-2 sets of the big exercises after the 70-80% cycle finishes).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sci
mikeynov said:
The simpler solution is that you'd do this NOT scaling up to a 5 RM. I outlined this at one point, but a super simple example of higher volume HST would be something like one block of 3 sets of 10 going from ~60-70% 1 RM (so up to a theoretical ~12 RM), and a second block of 5 sets of 5 going from ~70-80% 1 RM (or up to a theoretical ~8 RM). There's really no reason that approach couldn't work rather well, and you'd always have the option of pushing strength limits as an SST block or something afterwards (i.e. building up to true 5 RM's over time with ~1-2 sets of the big exercises after the 70-80% cycle finishes).
Click to expand...

Excellent point Mike. No need to cut volume necessarily, when load can be cut slightly to accommodate for higher volume.

For example, the Texas method and similar programs use 5x5 @ ~85% of 5rm for the volume day, and then a 100% 5rm for 1 set on the Intensity day. Works great, has for years, the best of both worlds, high volume and high intensity both get in each week. I have had great success with these types of 5x5 programs, and lately doing similar Daily Undulating Periods, where I do volume days (multiple sets), intensity days (1 top set), and some lighter days for recovery. Hitting PRs. looking very swole in the gym too!
 
Old and Grey said:
If you have not gathered from my other posts, I have come to believe that multiple sets of the same reps are the most inefficient way to build muscle, except perhaps for beginners. Not that I swallow the whole "one set is enough" thingy either.
Click to expand...

My current program uses myo reps and seems to work well. I have set it up as follows:

One 15 rep work set followed by 3 myo sets of 5 reps. 5-10 second pause between myo sets.

One 10 rep work set followed by 4 myo sets of 3 reps. 10-20 second pause between myo sets.

One 5 rep work set followed by 5 myo sets of 1-2 reps. 20-30 second pause between myo sets.

Only one exercise per body part working out every other day. With myo sets, I seem to feel the effective part of multiple sets of the same reps without the exhausting and time consuming ineffective early reps. Total body work out time is about 40 minutes. I use a Physio Step recumbent sitting position machine on off days for 20 minutes.

I use only six exercises but do an A/B alternating routine:

Shoulder Press/Face Pulls
Incline Bench Press/Weighted Dips
Weighted Neutral Grip Pull Ups/Seated Rows supersetted with Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns
Leg Press/Leg Extensions (I do not go below 10 reps on extensions)
Close Grip BP/Tricep behind neck seated extensions using skull crusher bar.
Seated DB Curls/Hammer Curls

No squats or deads because of fairly recent back surgery. And yes I am doing some (gasp) isolations for my arms. They are by far my best body part, especially the triceps, and I did not get them doing just compounds so I will directly work them every third cycle or so to keep them tuned up. In polo type short sleeves they are a head turner. It also helps that my arms are rather short, 30-31" sleeve, so that makes them look even bigger than they really are.

Using drop sets can also be an efficient way to enhance muscle micro trauma.

I have tried Max Stim also but found it to be too time consuming for my taste although the results were good.

To me, efficiency is almost as important as efficacy. Others may feel differently and that is fine if you want to put forth the extra effort but I personally do not feel the two are necessarily mutually exclusive.

Please note that this routine is a not a departure in any manner from the original HST principles. It deviates somewhat from the original posted workout routine suggestions, designed by Bryan, to accommodate lifters with several years of consistent lifting who may have plateaued.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Old and Grey said:
My current program uses myo reps and seems to work well. I have set it up as follows:

One 15 rep work set followed by 3 myo sets of 5 reps. 5-10 second pause between myo sets.

One 10 rep work set followed by 4 myo sets of 3 reps. 10-20 second pause between myo sets.

One 5 rep work set followed by 5 myo sets of 1-2 reps. 20-30 second pause between myo sets.

Only one exercise per body part working out every other day. With myo sets, I seem to feel the effective part of multiple sets of the same reps without the exhausting and time consuming ineffective early reps. Total body work out time is about 40 minutes. I use a Physio Step recumbent sitting position machine on off days for 20 minutes.

To me, efficiency is almost as important as efficacy. Others may feel differently and that is fine if you want to put forth the extra effort but I personally do not feel the two are necessarily mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...

I found this post highly helpful. Will incorporate some myo sets myself. Thanks.
 
I am currently keeping volume high, by doing 2 X 15s, 3 X 10s and 5-6 X 5s, three times a week for 15s and 10s, and twice a week for 5s and negs.

Although it may seem a lot at first glance, I actually only do 5 exercises (the basics - squats or leg press, rack pulls, bench or dips, chins and calf raises) so it all takes less than an hour

Brix
 
Brix

You must be using sub maximal weights, especially for full sets of 5's and negatives as I don't think it is physically possible to do a routine at or above your 5 RM for 25 to 30 complete sets in one hour or less even if one of them is an isolation exercise. At least this old goat can't! Maybe if I did it circuit training style but that would probably get me injured. Or you must be bionic!


:cool:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
O&G,

I keep checking eBay and Amazon for affordable bionic parts... maybe one day!

Yes, they are submax weights. I am trying to balance volume with frequency. The standard one or two sets, even finishing with pulses or partial reps, doesn't seem to be enough for me these days, hence reducing the number of exercises and increasing the number of sets.

On negs, already reduced to two workouts a week, I will drop down to just squats/leg press, chins and dips


The last couple of sets towards the end of each cycle do tend to be a bit 'MaxStim'/rest-pause style.
If it does get too heavy too quick, I do drop a set or two and replace it with a set of partials

I did try circuit style training with HST principles years ago, but it isn't practical in a public gym, as someone will always jump in and mess up your exercises!
That said, I do really rate circuit training in certain circumstances - and it is a tremendous endurance and fitness builder

Brix
 
Not to sound like a salesman for Blade but have you tried Myo Reps? I have found them to give me the needed effective volume without a lot of time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top