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Sets/Reps…Why?
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Check out:
http://www.poleathlete.com and click on "pole strength." He has some good articles on there.
Also one good thing to remember is that you are only strengthening or not-strengthening a muscle. There is no such thing as "toning." You need to fatigue a muscle in about 60 seconds (10-12 reps). Otherwise, if you are doing alot of reps you are increasing muscle endurance and NOT muscle strength.
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Veena is also an excellent resource, she has been a personal trainer for several years! Which is why her lessons, including conditioning, strength training etc, are so thourough.
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This is all basiclly about one topic that has been popular lately, and that is programming. Everything begins with the goal, why are you training and what are you training for. Of course most people here will say "pole" but thats not quite it. You need to know what the overall goal of the progran is: strength, mass, endurance, all three, or something else entirely???
The type of training is going to follow whatever your goal is, and this will also determine sets, reps, rest, and exercise choice. But everything in the program needs to have a reason. You dont throw in sets, reps or exercises arbitrarily.
Another point that i am seeing talked around but not named is progression. Whatever program you have should have progression built in. And that means that if you have say 2 sets of 10 reps, you not only have a reason for choosing that, but have a plan on how to change that when that is too easy, adding weight is good, but then you need to look at why you are adding weight and does that fit in with the goal or do you need to change something else.
There is a lot that goes into building an exercise program, wether its strength training or cardio or whatever. Not all exercises need to go to faliure, not all exercises benefit from higher weights. Personally I work out and design programs with a variety of sets and reps for a variety of reasons.
rests periods are going to affect a lot of things as well, shorter rests will help make a session more intense by shortening recovery time, longer rests can help "dissolve" lactic acid build up in the muscle and give more recovery, usually seen when moving the higher weights. However there is no "set" time limit for rests, it may vary individually. Again, though its going to depend on the goal of the program.
As always, if you cant do it with good form, you need to drop the weight regradless of anything else.
I think veenas lessons here are very good in that she shows and explains the begginer, intermediate and advanced postitions in many things and the site has a natural progression into it.
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The basic reason for why people say 2 sets of 10 instead of just 20 is because your body needs time to recover.
If you are doing just 20 reps you are working more endurance not strength.. you will become stronger eventually and also depending or where you are starting from but this way is not the most efficient way.
If your main goal is to build strength you should hae a minute or 2 break between each set….. that’s why you see the big dudes in the gym that look like their walking around more than actually working out
Now you don’t have to just sit around for your rest… like someone else said adding cardio between sets such as jumping rope or jogging in place or jumping jacks will keep your heart rate up and has been shown to be a good way to burn fat……… another way to optimize your workout would be to do an upper body exercise and then do a lower body one…. so your upper body muscles are resting while your working lower and vice versa
Also…. some exercises are ment to be done in lots of reps…… such as core and shoulder stabilizers…… with these areas you want light weight and slow controled movements
Its a whole lot of exercise science….. if you really want an indepth answer to your questions I would recommend contacting and qualified personal trainer or strength coach
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