How many lifting exercises is good per session?

[dodoria21]

One concern I've had as I work along my journey is making sure I don't overtrain. I wanted to get opinions on how many exercises each day is a good number to get the right amount of work done, but not too much.

Right now I am doing 8 different exercises for each day I workout. I workout 4 days a week. Back & Biceps one day. Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps the next. I take a day off or do light leg work, then repeat the 2 days after that. I take weekends off. I don't do the same 8 exercises for the 2 back & bi days and same for the other 2 days. And I tend to do 3-4 sets per exercise. I'm always ending the workouts feeling very pumped and the right amount of exhausted.

So I just wanted to get a feel on what others have done around here and what people feel is too little, just right, and too much. I've definitely been seeing progress so I guess what I'm doing is working for now. I just want to get feedback since I basically threw my routine together myself after researching what exercises I'm able to do with each muscle group.

Oh, and another important note: I workout using a home cable gym and dumbbells in my uncle's garage. No access to a gym as of yet. That'll change one day, but for the near future this is what I got.

I appreciate any feedback you guys can give!

[monstermusclebe]

Originally Posted by dodoria21

One concern I've had as I work along my journey is making sure I don't overtrain. I wanted to get opinions on how many exercises each day is a good number to get the right amount of work done, but not too much.

What you are doing shouldn't overtrain you. However, in the long term it isn't recommended that you stick with any one way of doing things... IF your goal is to become a bodybuilder with huge muscles.

Training that involves more than the number of sets you are performing, for a specific period of time, is strongly recommended. As is training with FEWER sets than you do.

Ever heard of the muscle confusion principle? The idea is that your muscles become accustomed to the levels of stress that we put on them consistently. So we want to mix that up. Some people believe this should be done over a period of months. Others think you should confuse them every day. I'm sort of in between: mixing things up every few weeks.

I tend to go from 2 sets per exercise up to 5 sets per exercise, over the course of about six to eight weeks. Then, every 12 or so weeks, IF I've been training consistently up until then, I'll take a week "off" ~ either entirely, or else simply with light weights but high reps, with 2 sets max per exercise. This would be after about 2 to 3 weeks of 5 sets or more per exercise.

Some people advocate always training with high numbers of sets per exercise. I'm with you in that regard... I know that will overtrain my body. But there is a point to straining your body's limits... because that is what forces it to grow.

There is one aspect of training that I believe is particularly under-reported for its effectiveness, and in how you do it. That is the "taking your muscles to their limit during a set" aspect. This should not be done during "recovery weeks" ~ so I don't do this about 1 to 2 out of every 6 or 8 weeks.

But the rest of the time, it is my goal in each set to push the peak set to the point where I absolutely cannot do another rep. I will often 'cheat' in another 1/2 rep or three after my 'final' rep, to be sure I've exhausted my muscles fully. IT IS KEY not to cheat UNTIL you cannot perform another full rep with proper form. This also tends to give me a great pump.

There are other 'advanced' ways that this can be done, such as supersets, pyramid sets, negative reps (which require a partner) and other methods.

These are all great ways to push your body to the point where it feels it necessary to grow muscle in response to the stress you are putting on it.

But doing such things regularly, over time will, you guessed it, most often lead to some form of over training.

NOT doing them, ever, though, will also keep you from reaching your goals. IF your goals include becoming a muscle beast.

Which is DEFINITELY my goal :-)

Hope it's yours as well.

[dodoria21]

thanks for the detailed reply. I am familiar with muscle confusion and do plan on incorporating it. for awhile I was doing full body workouts 4 days a week. not a lot of focus on each group. I wound up having to take a week off because I was out of town and busy, so after I came back is when I changed things to this routine, and dumbbells weren't being used before, and they are now. I was planning to stick to this routine for 2-3 months. i plan on the week of thanksgiving to be a recovery week for me, and then I'll change things up. Maybe put some p90x style exercises in there and shift what muscle groups I work each day around.

I settled on this 8-10 exercise style all on my own, so I just wanted to see how that sounded to others. it sounds like I am doing, or intend to do, a lot of the things you're describing, so I guess I am on the right track. I'm definitely seeing and feeling the progress, so I can always assume that's a good sign too. Thanks for the reply!