Example of a true working set... You’re probably doing way more sets than you need Trust me ⁠ Back in high school and college, I would lift 7 days a week, doing anywhere from 30 to 50 sets per day I used to think those 30-50 sets were the... key to growth, but over time, I realized that most of those weren’t true working sets ⁠ Here’s the thing... If you can do 4 sets of 8 reps with the same weight each set, you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough A true working set should leave you near failure within the target rep range ⁠ For example, let’s say your plan calls for 2 sets of 6-8 reps After a few warm up sets, you try 135 lbs and hit 8 reps, but you know you could have done 6 more That’s still a warm up set since you’re not reaching failure in the 6-8 rep range You’d then go up to 145 lbs and aim to fail around 6-8 reps If 145 still feels too light, that’s another warm up set You keep going up in weight until you find the load that challenges you to fail within that 6-8 range If you don’t have a spotter, leaving one or two reps in the tank is okay ⁠ This is where true muscle growth happens, by pushing close to your limit Sleep and diet is actually where muscle growth occurs but you never push yourself hard enough in the gym and give your body a reason to grow, hypertrophy will never happen The gym is just the stimulus to give the muscle a reason to grow We then get bigger through sleep and diet ⁠ Back to the working sets... For example, in the video, I hit 540 lbs for 8 reps on this hack squat Looking back, I feel I had one or two reps left, but it’s a solid starting point and it was a new PR for me at the time The next week, I would aim for 540 for 9-10 reps or bump up the weight to 545-550 and try to hit 8 reps aka progressive overload ⁠ I typically keep my quad and hamstring workouts separate and do only about 4-7 sets per muscle group, but each set is intense, and I’m struggling by the last few reps on each set ⁠ Give this approach a shot, and I promise you won’t need nearly as many sets as you thinkshow more

Bailey Schober | Men’s Fitness & Nutrition Coach

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