How Many Sets Should You Do Per Workout? Part 1

"How many sets to do I need to do in a workout?”

This particular question comes up constantly. Which makes sense, we want to know how much we need to exercise to get results from training.

Continuing our training series, we will answer all these questions

Lets start with the recommendation I made

-Do 4-8 sets per muscle, per workout. For bigger muscle groups that require more exercises (like back, which consists of multiple muscles), you will need more sets because of the greater number of muscles involved.

Smaller muscle groups (like biceps) less sets. Don’t overcomplicate this.

(and These sets are spread across all exercises performed, FYI. I am not saying to say 4-8 sets for every exercise you do)

We will break down the primary recommendation.

-Do 4-8 sets per muscle, per workout.

Why 4-8 sets? Why not say, 5-10 sets, or 2-9, why 4-8 specifically?

See the Infographic below (created by Chris Beardsley, who I recommend following on instagram and patreon)

You can see in this inforgraphic that clearly shows one set can stimulate growth, but two is better than one, 3 is better than two, and by set 4 you are on the edge of reaching the maximum amount of stimulus.

This does not mean you must stop at 4 though, but the “gains” from each set are increasingly incremental.

At the same time, fatigue begins to naturally increase the more sets you do. By set 8, you have maxed out the stimulus, and sets beyond this point are simply making you more tired (junk volume). They are not doing anything for muscle growth.

Based on the above, we can draw out the recommendation of

-4 sets for a muscle are enough for stimulating muscle growth, you will get 90% of gains from 4 sets (these percentages are numerical extrapolations for the sake of example)

-8 sets is about the maximum you can do in a workout, which will stimulate the final 10% of possible growth.

-Past 8 sets, you are making yourself tired.

We have kept it simple so far, but the research on sets, volume, and the minimum and maximum number of sets is far more complex.

In part 2 we will dive deeper into the science, stay tuned…

Any questions, always free to leave a comment