Q: response to 1509. Thanks for advice Mike. I wanted ask though. Would the workout routines really help me gain more muscle? Or just help me maintain what I have? They seem so lite. (which I guess was the point:) I always thought you had to get to the gym and kill every muscle every week to get anywhere. You know 'no pain no gain.' One more question how can I calculate where i how much weight to use to do 5-6 which are 10 reps short of failure? If I squat say 215 and bench 160 and dead lift 175?

A: Those routines do work and they're especially appropriate if you've been doing high-volume to-failure training for awhile (like it sounds you have). The best training routines will vary the load and intensity throughout the year continuously giving your body different stress level and also letting it recover. In plain terms that means that after a period (say, two months) of high-volume (many sets) intense (every set to-failure) training you follow with a period of lower-volume and/or lower-intensity training before going back to higher-volume. The programs I posted do just that -- all three are low-volume and last two are not-to-failure.

The program that prescribes stopping 10, 8, 6, etc reps short of failure is specifically designed to build strength rather than add mass (though it will probably do a bit of latter too) so that's why it looks so strange when you're used to to-failure training. strength-specific training will rarely involve going to failure. Depending on the exact strength-training program you'll max out to-failure no more than once a week and usually even less often (like in my program). This program will seem very very strange to you, especially in the first two-three weeks when the sets will not even seem like warm-ups, but it does work: check out http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/break-through-strength-plateau and http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/stuck-135-pounds-bench-press where I helped somebody put together a program to improve bench press strength. He came back in http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/healthy-lunch-to-bring-to-school with much improved results!

As far how do you know what weight to select for a given number of reps, go to http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/repsweightscalc . Then input what you normally lift to-failure for 8 or however many reps and it'll tell you the weight to use for other reps. For 14-rep effort (like in week 2 when you do 6 reps and stop 8 reps short of failure -- 6 + 8 = 14) use 65-67% of 1RM (1RM = one-rep max or the maximum you can lift in a single rep) and for 16-rep effort (like in week 1) use 63-65% of 1RM.