How many Sets should you do to optimize Muscle Growth?

(Baz-Valle et al., 2022)

The main goal of this study was to compare responses to moderate and high training volumes aimed at inducing muscle hypertrophy.

Note: Technical definition of Training Volume = Reps x Sets x Weight. In this post, I’m referring to “Volume” as the number of sets.

Low Volume – Less than 12 sets per muscle group per week

Moderate – 12-20 weekly sets

High – 20+ weekly sets

There was no significant difference in muscle growth between moderate (12-20 sets) and high (20+) weekly sets except for triceps. The higher volume produced more muscle growth in the triceps. Triceps act as a synergist and not as an antagonist in most multi-joint exercises is probably the possible reason for this.

Practical Application:

• 12-20 weekly sets are optimal for muscle growth.
• Muscles work as a synergist in multi-joint exercises may benefit from higher volumes (based on treating one set of multi-joint exercises as a set for all muscle groups involved. For example, one set of chin-ups counts as one set for the back and one set for the biceps. Side note: I don’t personally agree with this approach, but that was the basis of this study)
• Lagging body parts may benefit from higher training volumes.
• Assess your training technique & proximity to failure before you increase training volume. I have seen far too many times that people can’t gain muscle with high volumes, and they start growing with lower volumes when you fix technique and get them to train close to failure. Increasing training volume with poor technique and lazy sets is just increasing junk volume. In other words, a huge waste of time.

Reference:

Baz-Valle E, Balsalobre-Fernández C, Alix-Fages C, Santos-Concejero J. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy. J Hum Kinet. 2022 Feb 10;81:199-210.