Road2HardCoreIron

To me one of the biggest keys to how many exercises, sets and reps you need to do to reach your goals depends greatly on your experience level.

For example, a novice lifter usually doesn't know how to train to failure. They think they do, but they don't. Their mind fails them, not their body. In their case, they require more exercises or sets to get the job done.

Where as, an experienced lifter who knows how to train to failure and has a good mind muscle connection might only need to do one total working set per body part to get the job done. Think Mentzer or DC Training.

I am in the realm of one working set per body part, but being older, I need a little more warming up than what you find in Mentzer's or Dante's training styles. So, you might see me do an entire exercise that is just a warm up exercise before moving over to my exercise I am going to perform my working set in. However, I will not take anything in that warm up to near failure, so that I have enough juice in the tank to crush my working set.