Oct
1
Written by:
Tom Kalka
10/1/2006
A common question (complaint) of CFC clients, here is the reason why!
I hear it all the time from clients. “WHAT? We have to do another set?!” By now, all of you should know that we are going to do three sets of most everything. Usually, I respond by saying something like: “Lets go, your arms are not going to fall off” or “Your legs are not going to spontaneously combust into flames. Just get moving!” But, I thought I might take some time here to explain WHY.
Why do we put you through such torture? Why must we always do three sets of everything?
During the first set, we start the process of creating micro tears in the muscle fibers. These micro tears, when repaired, are how a muscle grows. The first set of an exercise mostly uses the fibers that we typically use everyday. For example, you are using your biceps muscle when you bring food from your plate to your mouth to take a bite to eat. It only takes a few muscle fibers to conduct this movement. These are the same fibers used during your first set of bicep curls.
With the second set of bicep curls, we start to incorporate muscle fibers from deeper inside the muscle. These are muscle fibers that are not used as often. The second set of biceps curls will exhaust the most often used muscle fibers and will now start to recruit the deeper fibers which aren’t used for normal everyday activities. As an example, these fibers might only be recruited when we carry a heavy box up several flights of stairs.
With the third set, we are now recruiting muscle fibers that are deep down inside the muscle and are attempting to fatigue them as well. Since these fibers are not used as often, they are not called upon on a regular basis. The only way to build them up is to work them out by depleting the more often used fibers. An example of using these fibers in an activity might be lifting something very heavy, like a couch, or better yet, stopping that couch from falling while you are moving it up a set of stairs.
Without conducting multiple sets, it is very difficult to reach those fibers deep down inside the muscle and get them to grow stronger. Also, realize that each angle that you hold your hands, elbows, knees or other joints targets different fibers. This is why your trainers introduce training variables into your workouts. We are attempting to fatigue your muscle fibers deep within your muscles, as well as the fibers that are used more often.
When you first start a weight training routine, you are sore deep down inside the muscle, but after a while, you are not as sore because your muscle fibers have caught up to the demand under which you are putting them under. However, we as trainers are going to continue to put your muscles under different stimuli to ensure that they never adapt to the stress and therefore have to continue to grow to sustain the demand.
So, now you know why we do three sets of everything. “Now get moving!”