Everyday Fitness

Ah, the age old question. You can't spend a day at a gym without overhearing this. Hell, I used to wonder what the golden number of sets and reps was. Truth be told, I should have spent less time worrying, and just lifted them weights. Still, it was nice to find some analysis on the subject. When looking at increase in muscle size, here's the conclusions of several compiled studies:

• 2-3 sets give a significant increase in size over 1 set
  
• 4-6 sets give a significant increase in size over 1 set, and may give a larger size increase than 2-3 sets
  
• Working out for 1 hour three times a week typically gives better results than working out for 2 hours twice a week
  

I should note, these studies were done with 7-10 reps per set. According to this, it looks like the benefits of an exercise start to plateau after 6 sets. That's something to keep in mind before doing bench press, then decline bench press, then incline bench press.. or 300 sit-ups. The third and final point in that list is nice in that, I think it shows how fitting exercise into your day can be easy; squeezing in 1 hour chunks of time here and there could be more manageable than scheduling a 2 hour workout session for yourself.