Huge subject. I have read on this thread so far just about every piece of laymans mistaken 'knowledge' there is.
On the original question, there is the traditional wisdom, and those who break it and yet have spectacular success. Traditional wisdom says you work the muscle to break down the tissue in order to stimulate overcompensation (growth) and rest between workouts. Yet Sergio Oliva, one of the biggest and strongest bodybuilders of all time (an olympic weightlifter too) worked at a steel mill in between his workouts after coming to America from Cuba! He's come off a shift of backbreaking work at the mill and then put in 5-6 hours at the gym! Look on the net for pics of him, you'll see.
Conventional wisdom says arms are a relatively small bodypart and should only be worked twice a week max, yet Joe Bucci built arms like footballs working them every day.
Don't worry about the numbers of the weights you lift. That's right. Unless you are competing the number means nothing. remember, the purpose of working out is not to lift the weight! The purpose of working out is to USE the weight to work the muscles.
So find out what is your maximum weight you can lift on a given movement (say a biceps curl) with good form. That is YOUR reference number. Meaningless to anyone else. Then make you workout weight (for starters), say 80% of that weight and after warming up, do as many strict reps as you can at that 80% weight. say you get 7. Give it a minute rest. Do it again. say you get 6. A third time. Whatever you can scream out. There You just worked to failure in that muscle group.
Every third workout or so, do a couple of more reps after failure using just as little help as needed to strictly get a couple more reps than you would have without the help. That's called 'forced reps'.
Every so often, but not TOO often, test yourself on a max rep again. You are getting stronger. And bigger. But remember, the excercise is breaking the muscle DOWN so that it will get the idea it has to get stronger by using nutrients and building itself up. Test yourself too often and you may seem weaker, and get discouraged. Keep at it and you'll be ripping phone books in half in no time.
And stay off the juice.

 

my routine is chest/tri's on monday, tuesday is shoulders, wednesday is recoup day. thursday is my legs deg, and friday is my back and biceps. and all of these groups i'm gonna try and squeeze in about 3 or 4 dif exercises for each i spend 2 hours at the gym....... i'm not really going for tonage it would be nice, i'm going more for strengt, if i want more tone i do less weight and high reps, and more strength i do high weight and lower reps, i can switch off....

 

Damn, all of you are a bunch of gorillas..[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

I'm 16 and 5'8, 165 pounds and can only bench my weight.

 

hey not me. i dought i can bench my weight.

 

hey same here, except im 17, 5'8" and only weigh about 130 and can bench about 150.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]:

 

im sorry but that Sergio Oliva guy is kinda ugly. i wouldnt want that much muscle. dont want to scare everyone away. being buff is fine but that is just kinda taking it too far. weight lifting shouldnt be a lifestyle. thats just sick. oh well. congrats to him, i guess...:-/

 

It's easy not to look like Sergio. Just avoid working 8 hours in a steel mill and then another 6 lifting weights!
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Unless you are gonna go into a professional sport you really dont need to be trying to get bigger and stronger. As long as you are toned and in good shape that is what matters. Take it from someone who is now paying for it in the long run. Did the steroids, full ride scholarship to oklahoma state, bench press 450 on a bad day, blew my shoulder out and now I am paying for it all. Be sure to get your education that way if something does happen you are prepared. Light weights and lots of reps will get you that cut look, but if you really want to bulk up heavy weights few reps some creatine and some of that androstat. Guarenteed strength and size gain within 4 to 6 weeks. If you like working out become a farmer, it seems like the workout never ends.

 

hey 2big2bfast...... i'm going more for the bulk look, i want to look big and ripped to an extent, so i switch off i start out doing 12 reps of 200and then i decrease the weights, so its like starting out heavy and than slowly reducing the # of reps and weight...... my goal on bench is 400 and my max currently is 300 and i weigh 245..

 

eXTREME if you really want to bulk up, you need to carbo load before you work out then imediately after you get finished you need to eat protein. DONT worry about the cut or ripped part of it for now. You need 5 to 7 sets of 5 reps of as heavy as you can do. so heavy that you need a spotter on the last rep. There is a program called bigger faster stronger, it gives you weekly programs to follow with reps and sets. The protein after you work out is critical, If you dont feed your body the protein it will start a process called canabolizing. What it does is if it doesnt get what it needs to satisfy its hunger your body will feed on all the work you just did. Trying to get cut and bulk up realy doesnt go together. Bulk up first with lots of good food then when you reach your goal you can get your cuts your looking for.