Should I do one large set of sit-ups or a group of smaller sets? You should do more repititions. Now you are getting in to lot of different philosophies when it comes to training. I tend to believe that...
Now you are getting in to lot of different philosophies when it comes to training. I tend to believe that less is better. A research really shows this to be true on any kind of strength training program. I prefer to do one or two sets because another important component in strength-training program is the rest and recovery. If you really want to see strength gain, the body needs to be fully recovered between workouts. So if you do lengthy workouts or if you do split routines, you spend a lot of time in the gym really not allowing the body a chance to recover between workouts. So the school of thought is that if you can make the exercise harder with less total volume the better off obese. Three sets of 20 or one set of 100 are both not good answers. What I would want to do is adjust the load so that the sit- ups would get very hard to do within 12-15 repetition.
Probably with some weight and that will be progressive within that format. Say that somebody does crunches with 20 lbs. for 15 repetitions and they are really fatiguing by the 15th repetition. The next workout they may want to increase the weight to couple of pounds and have them to do 10-12 repetitions or work back up to 15 and increase the weight again.
