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Click here to check out JohnRomaniello's official website. When guys attempt to decide on a trainingprogram, one of the first questions they ask is: “What’s the best set and repscheme for gaining muscle?”Trainers get this question all the time, andit is one of the most difficult to answer accurately. You’ve most likely read avariety of training articles, each claiming to have the best formula for muscle growth.And while some are better than others, most of them work pretty well.So thesimplest and most accurate answer to this question is “all of them.”Unfortunately, that's also the most complicated answer.See, it's like this:Your muscles are made up of various types of fibers, and the rep ranges you best respondto is going to be a factor partially determined by your particular fiber make-up.Ofcourse, without dissecting you (which, while undoubtedly fun, would not be veryefficacious in terms of your training), there really isn’t any way to tell you whatyour general fiber make-up is, or what type of rep and set schemes you’re going torespond to. None of which really answers the question, of course.Looking at it froma different angle, we can begin to decide on set and rep schemes based on a goal -- someare better for pure growth, and others for a mix of both strength and size.Option 1 - Size and Nothing But Size

Let us assume for a moment that the training focus is entirely on growth, and not at allon strength. In that case, your concentration should be on the higher rep ranges -- setsof 10-12, 12-15 or even as high as 20 are on the menu. As for the number of sets, well,that is something that will be determined by the number of exercises you do for aparticular body part.It helps to think of things in terms of total volume. Ifyou are training with higher reps, I would try to limit a specific muscle group to around120 reps per workout.Here is an example using chest exercises:-Bench Press - 4×15 (60 reps)-Incline Dumbbell Press - 3×12 (36reps)-Dumbbell Fly - 2×10 (20 reps)We’re looking at a totalof 116 reps there, give or take any extras your were able to squeeze out or reps you wereunable to complete.The reason for the high reps if your focus is primarily onhypertrophy is, once more, fiber make-up. You are training for what is sometimes calledsarcoplasmic hypertrophy, or fluid hypertrophy, a term that is sometimes debated.Either way, high rep training is the simplest, fastest and most visibly obvious way forbeginners to pack on mass. The drawback is that the higher rep schemes used in this typeof training necessitate very light (in relative terms, at least) loads to complete theset.As a result, strength tends not to increase. In fact, in some cases, youmay even notice a decrease if you attempt heavier training.This is typical“bodybuilder” type training -- all show and no go, as they say.You’ll look strong, but you won’t be strong. However, if all you’regoing for is a good look in a tight shirt, this may sound like something you might beinterested in.In most cases, when new trainees hit the gym, they do someincarnation of this, although in many cases it’s as simple as three sets of 10 forfour exercises. (As an aside, even in this case, they’re hitting 120 reps.) Theyprogress a bit and then stall out. As with all things, when it comes to training,everything works, but nothing works forever.From there, trainees look tochange it up, and that bring us to option two.Option Two – Size and Strength

If you’re looking to get both big and strong, you have a more difficult road aheadof you, but with a greater goal at the end. In this case, we’d be talking abouttraining with heavier loads and lower total volume.Strength increases are theresult of training with heavy weight,which by default will place a pretty stringent limit on the amount of reps you can performon a given set. Strength-oriented training relies on performing sets of 1-5 reps, with theaverage being 3.Heavy training is not only optimal for strength gains, but itcan also be used to accrue a serious amount of muscle. Training with high weight recruitswhat are known as Type II b muscle fibers, which are the densest fibers and have the mostpotential for muscle growth. By lifting heavy, we activate these quickly, which canpotentially lead to mass gain -- fast.As you might imagine, it becomesnecessary to change things around in a given workout to meet yourgoals. It’s quite possible to increase size without strength, and the reverse istrue here: You can get a lot stronger without getting bigger.Once more we needto look at things from the perspective of overall volume. In order to allow for thenecessary weight, we need to keep the reps per set pretty low. If you followed thegenerally bullsh*t training most clueless meatheads drop on you, the upper limit for setswould be 3 or 4 per exercise. With heavy training, this would leave you at about 9-15total reps. Your strength would increase, but this is just not enough to stimulate growth. Continue Reading

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