Are you curious about 10 sets of 3 workouts?

10 sets of 3 workouts are one of the most effective ways to train.

Thousands of people have used this routine structure, with incredible results! So what are 10 sets of 3 workouts, and why do they work so well for building size and strength?

The 10 x 3 set / rep scheme is all about performing 10 sets of 3 reps on 1 or 2 core exercises. Many strength coaches believe performing 10 sets of 3 reps gives you the best of both worlds: heavy weight, and high volume!

In fact, world-renowned strength coach Charles Stacey says the 10 x 3 method his all-time favourite set and rep scheme!

10 Sets Of 3 Benefits

The truth is, the 10 x 3 set / rep scheme has many advantages over traditional training methods:

• Advantage #1: Decreased risk of central nervous system burnout
• Advantage #2: Improved inter- and intra-muscular coordination
• Advantage #3: Improved exercise technique
• Advantage #4: Improved functional hypertrophy
• Advantage #5: Improved mental toughness

Let’s take a closer look at each of these advantages.

Advantage #1: Decreased Risk Of Central Nervous System Burnout

Many trainees find that their central nervous system is absolutely fried after workouts featuring lots of singles or doubles.

However, this totally changes when you start using sets of 3! This seems to be the “sweet-spot” for many lifters in terms of pure strength gains.

The load is still heavy enough to stimulate powerful training adaptations, but without the major risk of overtraining that comes with singles and doubles.

Advantage #2: Improved Inter- And Intra-Muscular Coordination

A set of 3 reps will typically represent about 90% of the 1-rep max for the typical trainee on most exercises.

Any time you train with weights that are at or above 90% of your one-rep max you can stimulate enormous training-related adaptations within the central nervous system.

This includes improved inter- and intra-muscular coordination. Inter-muscular coordination refers to the ability of various muscle groups to work together to achieve a task.

For example, if you are doing a 10 x 3 routine chinups, then your body’s ability to synergize the shoulder extensors and elbow flexors together will dramatically improve!

Intramuscular coordination, on the other hand, refers to the ability of your nervous system to effectively recruit the muscle fibers in one specific muscle.

For example, if you are doing a 10 x 3 routine featuring V-bar dips, then your body’s ability to recruit new motor units in the triceps brachii muscle will be enhanced!

Advantage #3: Improved Exercise Technique

It never fails to amaze me how quickly a trainee’s exercise technique can improve after 2-4 weeks on a 10 x 3 routine.

You see, lifting huge weights is just as much about proper exercise technique as it is about having pure brute-force strength.

Just ask any competitive powerlifter! Those guys spend many many years trying to perfect the technique of just 3 exercises – the squat, bench press, and deadlift!

In reality though your technique on any exercise can be improved dramatically.

You may not necessarily care if your form is improved, but you should know that improved form will very quickly translate into improved strength and size gains in the gym.

Your risk of injury will also be dramatically decreased – not a bad deal!

Advantage #4: Improved Functional Hypertrophy

Yes, I am being serious – a 10 x 3 routine is actually a fantastic way to train for functional hypertrophy!

If you have read my previous articles then you will know that functional hypertrophy generally refers to hypertrophy within the fast-twitch muscle fibers.

These fast-twitch muscle fibers are the ones most responsible for explosive muscular contractions and are primarily responsible for improvements in your 1-5 rep max on any given exercise.

It is normally pretty difficult to build a lot of muscle with just singles and doubles.

The time under tension per set is usually less than 10 seconds with sets of 1 or 2 reps which is just not enough to really stimulate any kind of hypertrophy gains.

However, things are quite different when you perform sets of 3! In this case the time under tension per set is indeed sufficient to stimulate hypertrophy gains.

The big caveat is that you have to do many sets of triples to make it work. Doing 1-3 sets of triples just won’t cut it! Performing 10 sets of triples, on the other hand, will more than get the job done!

The bottom line is that 10 x 3 training protocols are awesome for boosting not only strength gains, but functional hypertrophy gains as well.

Advantage #5: Improved Mental Toughness

If you want to reach your strength and physique goals as quickly as possible then there is no getting around it: you need higher-than-average levels of mental toughness.

Let’s face it – training is damn hard!

This is true regardless of whether you are doing high-volume bodybuilding style training, low-volume / high-intensity style bodybuilding training, or pure strength training.

There is just nothing easy about going to the gym and presenting your body with a training stimulus to get bigger and stronger.

Over time you are going to have to continue to push the limits of your mental toughness in order to continue to progress.

You have to be willing to take on that extra challenge. This is what Charles Poliquin used to call “the growth mindset.”

And let me tell you – a ten sets of 3 routine will test your mental toughness and then some! It is the sheer volume of heavy sets that makes this routine so challenging.

Your body will be screaming at you to stop after the 5th or 6th set. It is your job to tell your body to suck it up! This isn’t the kids pool – we’re about to start treading in deep water.

10 Sets Of 3 Training Splits

There are many, many different training splits that you could use to design a 10 x 3 workout routine.

In fact, there are at least 16 highly effective training splits that I use with my own training clients!

I can’t cover all of these splits in this one article. However, what I can do is give you sample training programs using three of the most popular training splits in the world!

Let’s start with the classic upper body / lower body split.

You could hypothetically set up a routine using an upper / lower split training 2, 3, or 4 days per week. For the purposes of this article I will cover the 4 days per week version.

If you want to learn more about the pros and cons of training 2, 3, or 4 days per week on an upper / lower split then I highly recommend you check out this article.

4 Days Per Week Upper / Lower Split

• Day 1: Off
• Day 2: Upper
• Day 3: Lower
• Day 4: Off
• Day 5: Upper
• Day 6: Lower
• Day 7: Off

This split tends to work great for individuals with at least average recovery ability. Every body part is trained twice over a 7-day period, or once every 3-4 days on average.

This is a fantastic training frequency for a large majority of trainees.

This is perhaps the most popular training split in the world amongst elite-level powerlifters and strongmen competitors.

However, some bodybuilders may find that they can’t quite give their upper bodies enough attention on this split.

4 Days Per Week Poliquin Split

Another one of my favourite training splits was popularized by the late Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin. Charles trained about 70% of his athletes with a training frequency of once-every-five-days per body part.

For example, here is one version of the Poliquin split:

• Day 1: Arms / Rotator Cuff
• Day 2: Legs
• Day 3: Off
• Day 4: Chest / Back
• Day 5: Off
• Day 6: Repeat

This type of split has the added benefit of allowing you to utilize a greater number and variety of exercises for the upper body if that is something you need.

It also has the benefit of giving you a full 5 days between lower body training sessions.

Many trainees (myself included) just cannot recover from 2 heavy lower body training sessions in a 7-day period.

However, performing 2 heavy leg sessions over a 10 day period tends to work very well for a large percentage of the training populace.

This split can also be performed three days per week for those individuals with sub-par recovery ability (or for some trainees that are throwing around ridiculous amounts of weight in the gym).

3 days per week push / pull / legs split

I feel like the classic push / pull / legs split has been slowly dropping in popularity over the past few years.

This is very strange to me, because I think it is one of the most effective training splits you can use!

There are actually 3 different types of push / pull / legs splits you can use: a 3-days per week version, a 4-days per week version, and a 6 days per week version.

This article will focus on the 3 days per week version. You can check out this article for more info on the other two.

• Day 1: Off
• Day 2: Chest / Shoulders / Tris
• Day 3: Off
• Day 4: Legs
• Day 5: Off
• Day 6: Back / Biceps
• Day 7: Off

One of the things I really like about this split is that the overlap between different body parts is kept to an absolute minimum.

I know many trainees have a hard time performing pressing or pulling movements when their arms are still sore from their arm day a couple of days ago.

If this describes you then I highly recommend you give this training split a shot.

10 Sets Of 3 Upper / Lower Split Workouts

This is a classic way to set up a 10 x 3 routine. Check it out:

Upper Body 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Standing military press, 10 x 3, 2/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise A2: Medium pronated grip pull ups, 10 x 3, 2/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: 45 degree incline dumbbell press, 3 x 6-8, 3/2/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise B2: Cable face pull w/ maximum external rotation, 3 x 6-8, 3/0/1/2, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise C1: Decline DB extension, 3 x 8-10, 2/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise C2: Seated zottman curl, 3 x 8-10, 2/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest

Lower Body 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Front squat (heels elevated / medium), 10 x 3, 2/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise A2: Standing unilateral hamstrings curl (Poliquin method** / neutral ankles), 10 x 3, 2/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: Walking DB lunge, 3 x 6-8, 1/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise B2: 90 degree back extension (barbell on back), 3 x 6-8, 2/0/1/2, 60 seconds rest

**The Poliquin Method on leg curls involves dorsiflexing your ankles on the concentric range and plantarflexing your ankles on the eccentric range.

This is a great way to overload the eccentric portion of the exercise!

If you are having any trouble reading this routine then you need to read the following article:

How To Read A Workout Program!

It should answer any questions you have 🙂

10 Sets Of 3 Poliquin Split Routine

Most people aren’t very familiar with this type of split, even to this day. It is easily one of my favourite ways to design a 10 x 3 routine.

Check it out:

Arms / Rotator Cuff 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Close grip bench press, 10 x 3, 3/1/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise A2: Preacher ez-bar curl (supinated / close grip), 10 x 3, 3/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: 45 degree incline DB extensions, 3 x 6-8, 3/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise B2: Incline cable curls, 3 x 6-8, 3/0/1/2, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise C1: Standing cable external rotations (elbow held at side), 3 x 8-12, 4/0/2/0, 120 seconds rest

Legs 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Back Squat (heels flat / narrow stance), 10 x 3, 3/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise A2: Bilateral lying hamstrings curl (ankles plantar flexed  / pointed in), 10 x 3, 3/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: Front foot elevated split squat (holding DBs), 3 x 6-8, 3/0/2/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise B2: 45 degree back extension (barbell held w/ snatch grip), 3 x 6-8, 2/0/1/2, 60 seconds rest

Chest / Back 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: 30 degree incline bench press, 10 x 3, 3/1/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise A2: Close supinated grip chin ups, 10 x 3, 3/0/X/0, 100 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: V-bar dips (trunk leaning forward), 3 x 6-8, 3/2/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise B2: T-bar rows, 3 x 6-8, 2/0/X/0, 60 seconds rest

If you are having any trouble reading this routine then you need to read the following article:

How To Read A Workout Program!

It should answer any questions you have 🙂

10 Sets Of 3 Push / Pull / Legs Routine

Again the push pull legs training split has fallen out of fashion recently. However, I don’t see why this should be the case!

For example, the “Hypertrophy Coach” Joe Bennett is a big fan of this particular training split.

Check it out:

Push 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Decline Bench Press, 10 x 3, 2/2/X/0, 180 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: 30 degree incline close grip bench press, 4 x 5-7, 3/0/1/0, 120 seconds rest
• Exercise C1: Seated DB overhead press, 4 x 7-9, 2/0/1/0, 120 seconds rest
• Exercise D1: Dead skulls, 3 x 8-10, 2/1/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise E1: Seated DB external rotations (elbow on knee), 3 x 10-12, 3/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest

Legs 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Back squat (heels elevated / medium stance), 10 x 3, 2/2/X/0, 180 seconds rest
• Exercise B1: Seated hamstring curl (feet plantarflexed / pointed in), 3 x 5-7, 3/0/X/0, 90 seconds rest
• Exercise B2: Rear foot elevated split squat (barbell on back), 3 x 5-7, 3/0/X/0, 90 seconds rest
• Exercise C1: DB Romanian deadlift, 3 x 8-10, 2/2/1/0, 60 seconds rest

Pull 10 Sets Of 3 Workout

• Exercise A1: Wide overhand grip pull ups, 10 x 3, 2/0/X/1, 180 seconds rest
• Exercise B1:Seal row, 3 x 6-8, 2/0/1/2, 120 seconds rest
• Exercise C1: Reverse pec-dec, 3 x 10-12, 3/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest
• Exercise D1: Unilateral Zottman preacher curl, 3 x 6-8, 4/0/1/0, 120 seconds rest
• Exercise E1: 30 degree incline hammer curl, 3 x 8-10, 2/0/1/0, 60 seconds rest

If you are having any trouble reading this routine then you need to read the following article:

How To Read A Workout Program!

It should answer any questions you have 🙂

Verdict | 10 Sets Of 3 Workouts!

Some training routines are never going to go out of style because they continue to produce superior results. The 10 x 3 routine is a perfect example of this.

If you are looking for a powerful new way to spice up your training then give one of the above 10 x 3 workouts a shot. I am quite confident you will be pleased with the results!

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of luck in your strength training endeavors!