OK, through the years (isn't that a Kenny Roger's song?) I've done just about if not all of the different training regimes. I've done HD, rest pause, negative only, forced reps, supersets with compound move first, supersets with compound move last, Bulgarian style, giants sets, high volume, high reps, extremely high reps(100) some of this stuff was crazy and pushed not only your body but your mind. We do all this in the name of growth!! I'm no stranger to what people have been doing over that last 80 years.
For years I have settled at doing a body part once a week, so does that mean training it twice a week or even three times a week is wrong? Of course not, and if I was to train for a show I would most likely do something similar to what Vince Taylor does and that would be to train twice daily 6 days a week, but I am digress.
After many years of training at this point believe that there is a happy medium when it comes to training for size. I can easily maintain my size and gain doing a body part once a week and doing around 8 sets for smaller muscle groups and 12 or so for larger ones. My reps are normally around 8 to 12 but as I have said before I like to do higher reps for legs usually 15, but sometimes much higher. I think it best to get in and get out meaning don't waste time. If you can't do what needs to be done in under and hour you are doing something wrong. Arnold used to speak of getting blood in the muscle and racing the pump and I totally believe this.
Sometimes I will add weight with each set and other times I will leave the weight the same. If I leave the weight the same I don't rest as long obviously, I believe that the muscle will recover quicker in the earlier sets if you leave the weight the same so you need to trick it into thinking you are using more weight by resting less in the earlier sets. For example if I am doing tricep pushdowns. I may start with 90 pounds and add 10 each set doing maybe 8 sets. I will rest probably 30 seconds between sets, maybe only 10 the first few. Other times I may start at 130 and stay there and super set biceps with basically no rest other than walking from one machine to the next. It's all instinctual to a degree so I don't follow any sets rules. Mainly get in there and destroy the muscle.
I don't believe in doing tons of forced reps. Train don't strain (first one to identify the man who said this gets a Getbig T-Shirt) Of course you want to train hard but pushing past a certain point is NOT doing anything for growth. I know some will disagree and that's fine but I'm right and they are wrong.
I do believe that there is some merit to the old saying time under tension, but don't take that too much at face value since if that was all there was to muscle growth we could just flex our muscle for a set amount of time and grow. I don't think one needs to do 30 sets per body part to get big. For a newbie they need to do a basic routine and "learn" how to feel the muscle being worked. When I train some totally new I always tell them that I can show you how to do the exercise but I can't show you how to feel it. It takes time and many reps for someone to develop a mind to muscle link, I don't rush this as in time it will happen on its own.
For people like Rizzi who have experience but are looking for new ways to stimulate growth I suggest that you experiment and find a routine that suites your needs as far as say your goals and maybe your daily schedule etc. Just use the guidelines that I have posted and go from there. At this point in my life I normally do the same exercises every time but when I was younger I tried them all. I suggest everyone tries all kinds of different ones to find what they like best.
Just remember that there is no magic routine. Stay within a certain range. You are not going to grow off of 2 sets of 6 reps and there is no need to do set 50 per body part. Train smart, don't do stupid shit that is going to prevent you from training years down the road especially if you enjoy training. I know too many guy who can't do much due to years of abusing their bodies. Yeah you may be the man in the gym when you are younger but there is no fun in walking with a cane and wishing you could still enjoy a good workout.
