Changing Sets and Reps for Better Results

Doing the same routine and getting nowhere fast? Change up your workouts, force your body to adapt, and start seeing progress.

We’ve all been there. You’ve decided to start working out for the first time, you pick up a Men’s Health (or insert other favorite men’s fitness magazine here ___), and select one of their “revolutionary” training plans.

The program calls for 3 sets of 10 on every exercise, so you give it a shot, and just like that, 2 months later you’re seeing great results. You’re bigger, you’re stronger, and your body fat percentage starts to drop substantially. You’re thinking 3 x 10 is the only set/rep range you’ll ever need, right? Wrong.

If you’ve never really trained before, or if it’s been a while since you last ventured into the gym, the dirty secret is that you’ll see results no matter what set/rep range you use (so long as your diet isn’t a complete disaster). Why? Because the new stimulus of lifting, instead of running or doing other forms of cardio, will force your body to adapt and change. It’s why you see better results in those first few months than seemingly any other period of time.

But after the “honeymoon period”, most people stop seeing the progress that they initially saw, and do one of three things: give up, keep doing the same thing, or change their routine.

Sadly most go with the first two response, but the point of this post is that seeing better results may be as simple as switching up the sets/reps your program. Instead of sticking to 3 sets of 10, try using a 5 x 5, or 4 x 6 approach. Both will allow you to change things up and increase the amount of weight you use so that you’ll continue to burn fat and put on lean mass. That said, if you still need that “pump” and want to put on bodybuilder size, go with 4 sets of 12-15 on each exercise instead. Either way, to keep progressing, you have to consistently change your approach.

There’s a reason periodization is the cornerstone of most strength and conditioning programs. If changing sets and reps works for the best college and professional athletes in the country, we’d venture to say it’ll probably work for you as well. Stop doing the same thing, make some changes, and see some progress.