reps per set, rest time between sets, and "workouts"

This question was inspired by reading the article linked from the thread
Light vs. Heavy Weight High reps or low reps for muscle growth? - flexonline


and everyone's comments on it, but it doesn't involve the heavy vs not-so-heavy question, so I'm starting a new thread. Here it is ...

I've got a chin-up bar which I made by putting an iron bar across a hallway in my house, a bit over two metres up.

I can do a chin-up or two whenever I walk past it. Or, I could do sets of chin-ups as part of a "workout", with other exercises, over a concentrated period of time.

Now, IF I were going to a gym to work out, I'd do my workout in one go, as most of us do. A major part of the reason for doing it this way is time efficiency - you have to get to the gym, change, wait for other people on equipment, let others have a go on equipment, put the weight plates on and off, and maybe even pay per session at the gym - so doing it in one hit, as quickly as you can makes sense.

However, for me with my in-house chinning bar, I can do a set whenever I like. Currently, I can do 4 reps reliably with good form (I was able to do 7 reps earlier in the year, before a bout of sickness).

So, should I still do (with regard to chin-ups only) a "workout" format, in which I do a number of sets with only small intervals of rest in between them, or just do sets whenever I feel like it, spread right through the day?

I would say yes, do them as often as you can to build strength seeing you're new to them. However pretty soon your body will adapt and it won't be as challenging. When this happens, commit to a proper back workout to really fatigue the back muscles.

Do you go to a gym aswell?

Or will you simply be doing chins?

I would suggest have a crack at them everyday if thats your goal - but really you should be getting in the gym doing some deadlifts, barbell rows, db rows, lat pulldowns etc etc - Pullups are great but you need to be hitting your back in different ways...

I sorta feel like from the comment below you have already failed as such and sounds like your not wanting to work for your gains? -

Now, IF I were going to a gym to work out, I'd do my workout in one go, as most of us do. A major part of the reason for doing it this way is time efficiency - you have to get to the gym, change, wait for other people on equipment, let others have a go on equipment, put the weight plates on and off, and maybe even pay per session at the gym - so doing it in one hit, as quickly as you can makes sense.

Chins are great but allow you will be missing out on the development you wont if they were part of a bigger, better workout.

Yeah, you wouldn't want to be just doing chins, it's got to be part of a balanced training plan that you're committed to sticking to.
Once you fulfilled that prerequisite, then until you're at an intermediate/advanced level, little issues like number of reps, rest times etc won't have a massive effect on your results.
Having said that, doing a couple of extra pullups whenever you get the chance wouldn't hurt either.. it sure beats slouching on a chair staring at redtube on the PC!

A lot of ways to skin a cat.... Try some programs see what works for you. I've tried the following programs... You'll get people who'll tell you THIS ONE is the only way but they probably all work for different people.

I've tried max-ot... which is a few heavy fucking sets all to failure once per week. A lot of people e.g. [MENTION=3034]Rugby88[/MENTION]; have had great success with it. 3-5min breaks between sets.
I've tried Sheiko.... which is the opposite... Lots and lots of very light sets none to failure, and a lot you do you could have done one more rep. No set breaks specified but long breaks are not uncommon. Australia's current strongest (drug tested) man and a lot of strong people here use Sheiko.
I've also done some PTC programs which have a bit of heavy and a bit of light....
I've done Smolov which I did with shortish breaks for light sets (mon, wed) and 2-3mins for fri and sat. No sets are to failure but many are at max effort.
I've done my own bodybuilder splits with 1:30min breaks between sets, some even 1 minute breaks, many sets to near failure

Try them all... See what works for you. I have had good results from all of them except Max-OT which wasn't too great... But then Rugby has had great results from that. The best programs for me have always been the ones which have programmed adding weight or volume over time... e.g. PTC, Smolov, Sheiko, bodybuilding where each workout I'd try to go as hard or harder than the previous.

A mate of mine worked at a gym and did some routine where if he walked by the chin up bar he did a chin up... it worked for him, he said, but it always seemed haphazard for me.

A good chin up program for you might be one of Pavel Tsatsouline's. Google them.

I do random chins at home all the time off the beams in my backyard. Usually just one or two sets because I was doing something else. I don't consider it a workout at all and don't include it in my training log

When I was best at chinups, I did then everyday. Add 1 total rep per day. Take as many sets as required.

Thanks very much for the responses and al the advice, guys!

However, my original question wasn't clear - what I really wanted to ask is:

Does it matter how long it takes to do a workout for a particular body part?
In the case of chin-ups, if, for example, you do a total of fifty in an hour, is this better than doing a total of fifty during the course of a whole day?
And, if so, why?

You could do sets of as many as you can manage reps, with as little rest between them as you can cope with
(for example, on one occasion I did chinups: 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2 (50 total, in 55 mins))

OR this many reps over the course of a whole day. Would this be just as good? If not, why not?
With longer intervals between sets, you could probably fit more reps into each set before you couldn't manage to do another one with good form.

Sandin Face said:

Thanks very much for the responses and al the advice, guys!

However, my original question wasn't clear - what I really wanted to ask is:

Does it matter how long it takes to do a workout for a particular body part?
In the case of chin-ups, if, for example, you do a total of fifty in an hour, is this better than doing a total of fifty during the course of a whole day?
And, if so, why?

You could do sets of as many as you can manage reps, with as little rest between them as you can cope with
(for example, on one occasion I did chinups: 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2 (50 total, in 55 mins))

OR this many reps over the course of a whole day. Would this be just as good? If not, why not?
With longer intervals between sets, you could probably fit more reps into each set before you couldn't manage to do another one with good form.

Click to expand...

Sandin, if you think muscle adaptation, the answer will jump at you all by itself mate. Doing 50 chin ups throughout the day will not tax the muscles and force adaptation like doing 50 in as short a time as is possible. It's that simple really. Now does that mean doing 50 chin ups throughout the day is a useless activity? Absolutely not, but...

...but it simply won't meet the demand that the muscles need in order to adapt and improve. So what's good about say, a scattered 50 throughout the day? Mobility par excellence, that's what! We belong to the human race, and we were designed to move rather than sit behind computers all day long. So in order for you to scatter the big 50, you would need to get up, walk to that chin up bar, and do something. Times that by 50 and it's simply gold from a lymphatic system point of view, which needs bodily movement as its pump, unlike the heart, and I better stop here before this turns into one of those very long replies of mine....



Fadi.

Thanks Fadi!