Welcome aboard Jon.
Its time for you to do some research. I did hours of research to find the right workout to start out with. (and to learn the lingo)
2 sites that I also found very helpful in being descriptive about exercises and form were
www.abcbodybuilding.com
&
www.exrx.net
They have good little video clips of the exercises explained. ABC also has a good 3 day split workout template in their workout page that I used when I started. They also explain some of the terminology in great detail. Things like supersets, rest pauses, static holds, cheat reps, and so on.
Most people list their sets and reps in that order. Like you mentioned 10 x 3. I would list it as 3 x 10.
If you want to gain lots of muscle, you have to eat a lot of food. Research what kind of diet you need to start. Go to the diet board and read Mr. X's articles. You can workout all you want, but without the right diet, you wont gain anything.
If you want to gain muscle, your workouts have to be intense. So pushing yourself to failure, or close to it, is the way to go. When we talk about doing 3 sets x 10 reps each, we usually pick a weight that we can only lift for 10 reps before we give out. Of course that is approx. Sometimes we can get a few more reps, sometimes we cant get to that many reps. You adjust your weight accordingly the next time around.
Right now, dont worry about maxing out. Get your form down. I repeat, get your form down. Watch the video clips, take pictures or video of yourself (or watch yourself in the mirror) to make sure you have correct form. It is by far more important than maxing out right now.
Good luck buddy.
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