Number of sets in relation to soreness.

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Owndawg

New Member
I just finished my first workout of 15`s today..
And i read from the FAQ`s that if you dont get any soreness or growth you should do more sets.
It`s of course to early to tell if I`m getting any growth.. Since i didn`t get any sore(exept a very small soreness i my thighs), should i increase number of sets for the next workout? or is it to early, since it is the first wo. of 15`s? (I`m currently doing 1 set pr. exercise for 15`s, and I`m doing few exercises and only compunds)

And one more question..
If f. eks. my 15 RM is 200 pound and 260 for 10`s when i RM before the cycle, should I add like 5-10 pounds to 10 RM since i got stonger from the 15`s?
so the weights I use in my 10`s is 265-270?


Thanks for any help
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Soreness and growth are not related....at least it hasn't been proven in any experiment. Here is an example...if you are not used to running at all and you decided to run 10 miles one day, I guarantee you will be sore as hell the next day, but it doesn't mean you will have much significant hypertrophy. On the other hand if you are an experienced lifter, your body may not get sore after workouts, because your body has adapted to recover from workouts better, that doesn't mean the workout wasn't effective though.

One set of 15s is plenty...you may want to do 2 sets of 10 reps and 3 sets of 5 reps though to keep the number of total reps similar in each cycle.

How you progress the loads is up to you, but most people don't calculate in strength increases, they just find all their rep maximum's for each rep range at the beginning of the cycle and use those throughout the cycle.
 
I was adviced to do 1.5 set for 10`s.. 10 reps, then a small pause, then 5 reps..
thats gotta be better than 2 sets for 10`s..
keeps the volume more konstant
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Who told you that? If you can get two sets of tens in, then by all means, the idea is to work the muscle. If you're hitting failure on a lot of exersizes, you're possibly off in your RM or advancing too fast with too large of an increment IMO. But it's okay too to cluster reps, so you may do a search for threads on that.
Just don't make it all so easy that you don't do any work.
 
''I was adviced to do 1.5 set for 10`s.. 10 reps, then a small pause, then 5 reps..
thats gotta be better than 2 sets for 10`s..
keeps the volume more konstant ''

Work done is an important factor in hypertrophy. As I see it, the idea of clustering is to ensure the volume stays above the level needed to stimulate maximum hypertrophy, especially during the 5's. 20 reps with your 5 RM should stimulate more hypertrophy in a trained person than 10 reps with that weight. I think it would be better to do 2 sets of 15's, 2 sets of 10's and then 3 sets during the 5's than 15 reps arbitrarily through the whole cycle. Even though the work done is dropping, if the work done is above the minimum effective volume, the cycle should still be productive. Will going from 20 reps of your 10 RM to 15 reps of your 5RM result in lesser gains than 15 to 15? I don't see why.

I think its better for a trained lifter to cluster to a higher number than 15 throughout the cycle, this way we should be confident that enough volume is being performed to maximally stimulate hypertrophy and leave us free to manipulate other factors.

But then again there are some very big strong guys on this site (steve, leige) who I think only do one set? Perhaps its because they are working with such heavy loads?

This issue must have been discussed a million times and I'm still not sure..............
 
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(style @ Sep. 30 2006,14:14)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">This issue must have been discussed a million times and I'm still not sure..............</div>
It has been discussed a million times in the &quot;No. of Sets&quot; stickied thread at the top of this forum.

I'm not sure of the best answer either
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I decided to read that sticky thread again myself. I found an interesting post that is short enough to quote in full:

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Because HST is based on the principle that load is the primary determinant of size, I like to keep as many other variables constant and focus on increasing the load over time. With this I prefer keeping the total number of reps as constant as I can while decreasing the number of reps per set. I just increase the number of sets to keep total reps constant.

I voted for increasing the number of sets as reps decrease. As sets increase, I also don't force myself to always complete a specific number of reps. If my strength is dropping yet I want to complete more reps I'll simply do as many as I am able regardless of what rep range I am supposed to hit. I stop just short of failure most of the time but not always. </div>

Not that other opinions aren't valid, but the guy that I just quoted, Bryan Haycock, is reputed to know a lot about HST.
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I thought that his opinion would be worth considering.
 
Iv heard of that idea soemwhere before.......

Dawg, if your worried about volume you could increase the number of reps your clustering to 18 or 20. I personally wouldn't go higher, during the 5's anyway!

Especially if you are untrained.
 
Owndawg: if you like, during the first week of 15s just do as many reps as you can but avoid failure. You'll feel more like you've had a workout. Go for the burn!
 
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