3-4 Sets or 2 Sets until failure?

[gloriav]

Hey all I'm looking to build muscle and lose weight/belly fat currently about 150lbs 5'8 male mid 20s. My current routine is PPL 2x weekly with a rest/heavily forearm focused day in the middle and walk/run on the treadmill daily for 30-60minutes. I've always done 3-4sets and anywhere from 6-12 reps depending on the weight. However I recently heard about doing two sets at a heavy weight until failure. I'm unsure which I would benefit more from 2 set maxing out until failure or should I stick with 3-4 sets at a controlled weight/number of reps? I workout from home have an ok setup was consistent for two years but had to stop this year due to foot surgery so I'm just getting back into it these last few weeks. My goal weight is about 135lbs and from there I'd ideally like to stay around that weight and just build muscle definition. Any advice is appreciated thanks.

 

[comyn7]

@gloriav You should be training close to or to failure (0-3 RIR) regardless of the number of sets. That part is not an either/or.

Use a program made by someone who knows what they’re doing and do the number of sets that tells you to do.

 

[joylakala]

@gloriav Ultimately it doesn't really matter. It's popular right now because of Mike Mentzer and tiktok but as long as you're putting the work in you'll be fine.

Try it out for a few weeks and see how you like it compared to more sets, you'll probably end up doing a mixture of the two throughout your workout.

 

[dawn16]

@gloriav Whichever one your program tells you to do.

Honestly I've done a program where you do 2 sets to failure (W1: 1x AMRAP@80% 1xAMRAP@65% W2: 1x AMRAP@85% 1xAMRAP@70% W3: 1x AMRAP@90% 1xAMRAP@75%, then repeat with +2-4% of 1rm) and it wasn't great.

 

[gloriav]

@dawn16 Sadly I don't follow any real program. I've more or less made my own and try to switch it up every 4-6 weeks but sets/number of reps was one thing I was never really sure on.