>And lastly, how do you decide how many reps/sets you do? What's the difference between doing 10x3 or 5x6?
first you decide if you want strength or endurance. do develop endurance you will do high reps at lower weight. for developing strength you will do less reps at higher weight.
a beginners workout for developing strength may be-
wk 1-2 10X2 to find what your max weights are for various exercises and develop good technique (writing things down will really help at this stage)
wk 3-4 10X3 to continue developing muscle and technique
wk 5-6 10-8-6 here you will really focus on increasing your max load with each set. the repetitions will decrease as the weight increases.
or, if you want to focus on endurance you will just add 1 more set every couple weeks until you are doing 5 sets of 10 reps for each exercise.
as for protein, i dunno. i use it bc i'm vegetarian and don't get a lot of protein in my diet naturally. a shake really kicks my energy up a notch and if i work out really hard it does seem to help me recover quicker. and i'm just talking 2oz per day.
first you decide if you want strength or endurance. do develop endurance you will do high reps at lower weight. for developing strength you will do less reps at higher weight.
a beginners workout for developing strength may be-
wk 1-2 10X2 to find what your max weights are for various exercises and develop good technique (writing things down will really help at this stage)
wk 3-4 10X3 to continue developing muscle and technique
wk 5-6 10-8-6 here you will really focus on increasing your max load with each set. the repetitions will decrease as the weight increases.
or, if you want to focus on endurance you will just add 1 more set every couple weeks until you are doing 5 sets of 10 reps for each exercise.
as for protein, i dunno. i use it bc i'm vegetarian and don't get a lot of protein in my diet naturally. a shake really kicks my energy up a notch and if i work out really hard it does seem to help me recover quicker. and i'm just talking 2oz per day.