I have had a bit of guidence in the past from personal training sessions, now out training on my own.
I have always done 3sets X 10reps +5reps as fast as I can at the end of the 3 sets, However on here I'm reading about 10X3 or 5X5.
I'm trying to lose weight, build some mass and strengthen all over and just wondering which method people find works best??

Thanks all.

You have to mix it up because your body will adapt over time.

Being strong and buff rarely go hand in hand, and there really is no one rep and set range for you to achieve both together.

If you want strength start lifting very low rep (I always try about 1 to 3 reps), but with the heaviest weight you possibly can. To do this effectively you NEED a spotter. A spotter is a persons best tool for weight training, and alleviates almost all the fear from lifting a weight that you think has you beat.

Training for mass, you can go about in a variety of ways. The 5x5 thing you mentioned I believe may be something called Riptoes program. I don't really know because I never actually used a program that I didn't design myself, but a lot of people swear by it. Do some research and see what works best for you. What you're doing now really doesn't seem like it would be benefitting mass gains though.

Also note that nutritional diets are (in my opinion), over 80% of the factor. Some people say 50%, some 60%, etc., but when it gets down to the bottom line, if you're not using the correct fuel the car won't run. So I guess one could argue it's even 100%.

Whatever, not really important (just randomness I think about). Nutrition is important. And pay close attention to the bigger guys on this forum if they post in your thread. They didn't get big by just sitting around.

Good luck friend.

These stickies will prolly help:

http://training.fitness.com/weight-t...1-a-18766.html

http://training.fitness.com/weight-t...rst-34522.html