It is my belief that there are general strength training guidelines that will work for the general population. The guidelines I will be discussing in this article will provide a range of sets, reps, intensities, and workouts per week. Most people have a training capacity that fits into the ranges listed within the guidelines presented in this article. These ranges will provide room to explore how your body responds to more or less training. At the same time, the guidelines will prevent you from wandering into extremes that are likely to undermine your training results.
General Guidelines for Exercise Selection
Strength training guidelines must begin with selecting exercises that are good for developing overall strength. This includes pressing, pulling, squatting, and deadlifting exercises. To be more specific:
Pressing includes; bench presses, incline presses, and overhead presses
Pulling includes; barbell rows, T-bar rows, seated pulley rows, and lat pulldowns
Squatting includes: back squats, front squats, straddle lift squats, goblet squats, and belt squats. Leg presses can be substituted for squats.
Deadlifting includes; conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, and Romanian deadlifts.
Choose 3 to 5 Exercises per Workout
When doing a workout, I recommend selecting one to two presses, one to two pulls, and alternating between squats and deadlifts from workout to workout. Select at least three exercises per workout, but not more than five.
General Guidelines for Reps per Set
5 to 6 Reps Per Set for Strength
When considering general guidelines for how many reps per set to perform, I recommend doing sets of five to six reps if your main goal is to gain strength.
6 to 10 Reps per Set for Strength and Size
If you want to gain both strength and size, I recommend six to ten reps per set.
General Guidelines for Intensity Relative to Max Reps to Failure
The exact amount of weight you select will depend upon how many reps you want to perform for a given set, and it will also depend on how hard you want to push each set.
Stop Each Set 2 to 4 Reps Short of Failure
While there seems to be a lot of debate about how hard to push each set, my personal opinion is that most people should stop each set two to four reps short of max reps to failure rather than to push for max reps to failure. The exact number of reps you should stop before reaching failure, is based on stopping when your rep speed starts to slow down, which is the point when you can no longer maintain a steady even rep pace.
When to Push your Sets to Failure
If you are only going to do one or two sets per muscle group, and you only have time to train each muscle group once or twice per week, then you will probably need to push each set to failure. However, if you have enough time to do two to four sets per muscle group, and your schedule allows you to train each muscle group two to four times per week, then I believe stopping each set two to four reps short of failure will work better in the long run.
General Guidelines For How Many Sets to Perform
2 to 4 Sets per Muscle Group
When considering how many sets to perform for each muscle group, the general guideline is to perform two to four sets per muscle group. The exact number of sets depends on how many sets you can perform for the same muscle group at full strength. When you reach a set where you are no longer as strong as you were when you did your previous set, stop repeating sets for the muscle group you are working.
General Guidelines for How often to Train Each Muscle Group
2 to 4 Times Per Week
How often should you train each muscle group? I recommend two to four sessions per week for each muscle group.
Guidelines are For the Majority, not the Exceptions
The strength training guidelines listed above are going to work for the vast majority of lifters. There are exceptions who will benefit from more training than what is recommended in the general guidelines, and there are also exceptions who will benefit from doing less training than what is recommended in the general guidelines, but most of you will fit into the general guidelines.
Once again, notice that there is a range for each training factor within all of the recommended guidelines. For example, the range within the number of sets you should perform is two to four. The range for the number of workouts per week for each muscle group is also two to four, and the range in terms of how many reps you should stop short of failure is two to four. The number of reps per set listed for the guidelines is 5 to 10 reps. The range for each of these training factors will give you room to explore the numbers within each training factor that leads to the best result. Your goal is to narrow your training down from the general guidelines to the precise numbers that give you the best result. This can only be accomplished through trial and error.
How close are you to the training guidelines listed in this article? If your training does not fit into the guidelines listed, but your training is going great, forget the guidelines and keep doing what you are doing as long as it keeps working. However, if you have been stuck at the same strength level for more than six weeks, consider adjusting your training. Perhaps you would benefit from the guidelines listed in this article. Training does not need to be extra hard, or overly complicated, it simply needs to fit your personal training capacities. Once you discover the training factors that match your personal capacities, you will experience optimum training results. May God bless you with the best of training.