Sets, Reps and Training Tempos – What Do They Mean?
If you are training are your own either at home or at a public gym, you are probably familiar with sets and reps. You hear it often referred to as 3 sets of 10 repetitions. And, as trainers we often will use the same language with our clients. We will often give instructions as to how may repetitions we are going to do. But, just what are reps and sets. What do they mean other than a bunch of numbers, and is there a purpose to changing the rep scheme? All good questions and this article will attempt to explain the science behind the jargon.
In any weight training program and any exercise program for that matter, you are looking to make changes. Maybe tone up muscles, maybe bulk up or gain muscle mass, or just the opposite and you may want to shed some pounds. For any of these to happen successfully, you must create a scenerio in which physiological changes will occur. Now, we go on for for chapters about all the physiology around muscle gain or weight loss, but for the purpose of this we are only discussing reps and their part of the puzzle. Read more…
