One of the most common questions that come up with weight training is how many exercises and sets you should perform; how long should you work-out for.
We've been led to believe that, historically, bodybuilders typically used long workouts with lots of sets. That sometimes equated to 40-plus sets, a workout that lasted over two hours. Irrespective of the accuracy of this perception, we're sure that this was the image presented by mainstream bodybuilding of the '70s and '80s. Were the articles accurate reflections of the bodybuilders' methods? Probably not — but they sure as hell made good reading!
Not to long after that magazine readers found out the pro’s and top amateurs used anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroid supports recovery and allows bigger workloads. Whatever was the truth, the reading public came to believe that if you want to be a bodybuilder, you need a high-volume workout, and you must also take drugs! So, with this little icing on the cake, the workouts had a greater chance of working. Were these high-volume workouts optimal, even for the drug user? I doubt it.