Okay fine ladies and gents. Welcome back to my blog. Last week I said I was going to explain the different set types within part 5 of The Key Elements of Strength Training and program design. Well, as they say, there is good news and bad news. First the bad. I always start with the bad. I got to brainstorming and holy @#$* there’s a lot of different sets, so I can’t do all this in one post. I’m just going to call it Set Types. Besides, all the different types of sets I’m going to teach you are not exclusive to strength training. The good news is that you’re going to get an amazing education for free, from one of the best in the biz. So sit down get comfortable and get ready to learn some new material.
By the way I’m not a know-it-all, so this list, while it is extensive, will not be all that there is to know. New things and new ideas are being created daily – the never ending quest for that lean sexy body! So here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to give you a list and then in detail explain three to five of those per block – until we get through the whole process (hopefully I remember all this, haha!):
- circuit sets
- multiple sets
- failure sets
- total failure sets
- drop sets
- negative sets
- pyramid sets
- supersets
- compound sets
- partial sets
- forced reps
- giant sets
- pre exhaust sets
- rest pause set
- pump-stretch-flex sets
- skip sets
- timed sets
- set range sets
- isometric strength overload sets
- occlusion training
- Hyperbaric training
- Kamikaze super death sets! My absolute favorite, haha LOL 😉 just joking, although I’m sure I could create one.
This is just weight training, not including cardio which is a whole other animal! Now that you have the list, I will start the explaining. Starting with circuits sets. Most people already know what this is. However, some newbies may not. This is one of the most common types of training. It’s good for beginners and those who want a little endurance boost, but it is limited as far as breaking muscle down, where strength gain, fat loss and muscle gains are concerned. Typically the sets are done using machines and sometimes they are done with free weight exercises (which is better). Usually trainees go from station to station in a one minute or so timed rotation hitting every major muscle group. Usually legs, back, chest, shoulders, back, tri’s, calves, abs. Then repeat until 2-4 sets are complete. Like I said before, this type is ok for beginning clients or people who can only train once or twice a week. After that, toss it. The problem is that it doesn’t allow the trainee to get much stronger and it doesn’t thoroughly break down the muscle, even though you do several sets. By the time you come back around rotation, it’s been 10 to 15 minutes and the muscle has gone cold. A better alternative would be to do multiple sets.
Multiple sets just work better for muscle building and even fat loss. Multiple sets involve doing an exercise for multiple sets, usually 2 to 4, then moving to another exercise or muscle group. If you’re going to do a circuit, this is a superior way to do it. The third type of said I’m going to discuss today is the set to failure. When we say failure it brings such a negative connotation with it. In the weight room though this is good news. If you want to get a ripped and strong body go for failure. Failure is a great tool to use in your arsenal of sets to bring excellent results to your training efforts. And speaking of effort, failure takes a lot of it. Here’s what you need to know about failure. Failure is taking an exercise and squeezing out as many reps as you can until you cannot lift that weight anymore. There are two kinds of failure: failure and total failure. Failure is, as I said, lifting a weight until you can not lift that weight anymore. Total failure is lifting a weight until you can not lift ANY weight in that exercise. An example of total failure would be having a spotter wait until you fail, and then help you go until you’re not lifting any of the weight anymore. Probably a more practical example would be drop setting, or strip setting, which I will discuss in the next blog. When you go to total failure believe me boy it hurts, you can’t even lift your arms up. That’s total failure! The last thing you need to know about these two is that they are very taxing to both your muscles and your central nervous system. For that reason do not take it to failure with every set and every rep. Every once in awhile doing a set with failure should be good. Every once in awhile is not a hard-and-fast rule because everyone is different, just don’t overdo it.
Well there you have it, a little bit of knowledge for today. Sit down with me next blog for the second part of set types. Please feel free to comment at the bottom. Thank you and see you soon, Donovan.
