Sets and reps to gain lean muscle

glasagusban

Hey guys I'm just coming to the end of a programme a mate passed me on and want to plan out what I'm going to do for the next 3 months or so.

I'm 5'10" and about 73kg and pretty lean, in good shape. I'm working on a lot of rehab stuff for a persistent ITB problem so running is out, as is most cardio bar a bit of bike or the odd swim. So the aim for the next few months is some more lean muscle gain, about 4 or 5 days a week. I usually break sessions down into shoulders and back, legs, and chest and arms. I've no interest in going through bulking and cutting phases.

What kind of sets and reps should I be looking at to stay lean and gain some muscle? 5x5's for the bigger exercises and 4x8's for smaller ones? Or should I be looking at higher numbers of reps.

thegreatiam

all muscle is lean, what you want is to gain muscle size without gaining fat. you do this by controlling your diet.
youll need effort in the kitchen as well as the gym.

eat plenty of protein IE: eggs, chicken, steak (around 150g a day)
eat minimal cabs unless you are training.

and lift heavy with plenty of compounds to give your system a reason to repair and grow the muscle.

leangains.com goes into more detail and you can also look up carb back-loading.

cmyk

glasagusban wrote: »

I'm working on a lot of rehab stuff for a persistent ITB problem so running is out, as is most cardio bar a bit of bike or the odd swim.

...so let's start building some 'hurtin bombs'.
Sorry...couldn't resist

glasagusban wrote: »

What kind of sets and reps should I be looking at to stay lean and gain some muscle? 5x5's for the bigger exercises and 4x8's for smaller ones? Or should I be looking at higher numbers of reps.

A1. Chicken 3-6 sets daily
A2. Carbohydrate source 3-6 sets daily
B1. Eggs 6 X 1
B2. Vegetables 3-6 sets daily
Finisher. 3 rounds of fruits/nuts/yoghurts/protein shakes.
Adjust volume as per fat gain.

As said above you've got the basic principles down, lift heavy and mix up your sets/reps, rest and food is going to be the difference.

Jev/N

I was told, and have read, the optimum for building muscle mass (over strength or power) is 5 sets, 8-10 reps with 2 second negative and 4 second positive, 60-90 seconds between sets.

There's loads of info here as well: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek8.htm

glasagusban

Cheers for the input guys. Good stuff. Thegreatiam, good point on all muscle being lean, I suppose I meant, I am am pretty lean already and wanna stay that way. I also don't really want to pump up with creatine by retaining water. I reckon my diet is good enough anyway. Just lookin for a bit of guidance on types of sets and reps as there is such variety out there. I guess lift heavy and focus on the big lifts with a good diet and the rest should sort itself out.

J.Farrant

I would suggest starting each training session with some type of strength work.


For most beginners starting each session with one of the following would work squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press.

Start off with a 4-5x5 set / rep scheme for the exercises above.

After you have done your strength work then add in some hypertrophy stuff.

For most presses I would keep the reps around the 6-8 and then for pulls/rows 8-10 rep. Use exercises such as DB/BB press variations, overhead press variations, dips, press ups, 1 arm rows, seated rows, chin /pull ups, pull-downs, then if you want to add some isolation work in at the end to bring up any lagging body parts go for it.

Aim to get stronger and eat plenty of food. You will get bigger and add muscle if you do this. Don't try and over complicate things just aim to do better than last weight that being extra weights or reps.

Adding a little body fat is normal as well still eat heavy just don't use it as an excuse to big a pig and eat junk food all the time.