The ULTIMATE Guide to How Many Sets Optimize Muscle Hypertrophy

0:00 Intro
0:41 What Do We Mean by a “Set”?
1:39 More Sets = More Muscle Hypertrophy?
3:05 Is More Than 12 Weekly Sets Per Muscle Group for Trained Individuals Beneficial?
3:44 Evidence 30-45 Weekly Sets Per Muscle Group Could Be Enhance Muscle Growth
6:18 Evidence More Sets Do Not Always Provide More Muscle Hypertrophy
8:32 What Explains the Conflicting Evidence?
18:07 Increasing Sets for Low Responders or Plateaued Individuals
22:21 Are Their Individuals That Gain More Muscle With Fewer Weekly Sets?
23:50 Takeaway Points

Within the fitness world, there seem to be diverse opinions on how many sets a person should perform to build muscle optimally.

On one end of the spectrum, some believe a low number of sets is sufficient, with some even proposing 1 set of repetitions to failure per exercise is all you need to build muscle.

On the other end of the spectrum, others suggest that so long as you can successfully recover from it, more sets mean more stimulus, thus the higher number of sets you can perform the better for muscle growth.

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[SuperSkunk]

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[joojotin]

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[edmediciN]

I started watching your videos a few days. I am loving the analisys you do, it helps guiding my training and understanding hypertrophy science based

[aymenazouz]

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[miguelaraiza]

Hey, I appreciate the work in presenting the information in your videos! Great work, new sub.

[jimjam]

hoh- this was a great video. it reassures what i have always found in my journey, everyone responds differently, and for me, less is best. frequency beats intensity, but intensity does great if no more than 2x per week. 3x with a lil less intensity works great. i always stayed within the 10-20 sets total per week. if going to concentric failure, i found that no more than 1-2 sets per exercise while keeping the total sets per week no more than 20 and no more than about 5 exercises per 2 sessions, then again, i always stuck with all compound movements. i have always played around with different scenarios, however, the once a week thing isn't good, got to have 2-3 sessions at least, pending on how you slice the pie so to speak. i'm on the ecto side so high volume always killed me no matter the load along with shorter rest intervals. lifting IS subjective to the individual, another note, age has a lot to do with it as well, great job hoh.

[zdtuttauniversity]

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[pfft]

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[rizalthalib]

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[joehavian]

00:05 More sets per week lead to more muscle growth
02:51 9-12 weekly sets may be ideal for beginners, but more may benefit trained individuals
05:38 Performing between 30-45 weekly sets for a muscle group is beneficial for muscle hypertrophy.
08:20 12-18 weekly sets may be sufficient for building muscle
11:05 Rest intervals impact muscle hypertrophy
13:47 Performing 15-16 sets per muscle group each session may be within the potential limit for shorter rest intervals.
16:37 Optimal weekly sets for muscle hypertrophy
19:05 Increasing the number of sets can help enhance muscle growth and may aid low responders.
21:26 Modestly increasing weekly sets by 20% may benefit muscle growth.
24:10 Rest intervals and weekly sets affect muscle hypertrophy.
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[mzympqm]

How I interpret the research is you either train to failure with less volume or you train near failure with higher volume.
I think what would be of more value is to determine a way to objectively determine when you have recovered optimally to return for another session.

[HouseofHypertrophy]

I wanted to address further technical points here. Specifically around the precise definition of "sets", as well as if both compound and isolation exercises should truly count towards the weekly set count of a muscle group.

Firstly, we defined a "set" as a bout of repetitions between 8-12, performed 3 or fewer repetitions from the point of failure, as this was what all the research we looked at in this video used a set.

However, technically, we could perhaps extend this definition to repetitions between 5 and 35, performed 3 or fewer repetitions from the point of failure. This is because the research indicates repetitions between 5 and 35 (when performed 3 or fewer repetitions from failure) are similarly effective for building muscle, with all other training variables equal.


Therefore, one could suggest that the recommendations in this video may not translate to sets of 20+ reps, as they are more fatiguing than <20 rep sets.

This could very well be true, but there does exist a counter to this argument. Higher repetitions are likely more fatiguing and require longer recovery periods only once you first expose yourself to them. As you continue training with high repetitions, your body likely produces a range of protective adaptations that mean you experience less fatigue and faster recovery (this is something called the repeated bout effect). Thus, after a while, you may have the capacity to recovery similarly between a set of 20+ reps and a set of <20 reps, meaning the conclusions in this video eventually do apply to 20+ rep sets.

Overall, given there is no direct data that can confirm or deny this, it's difficult to say. Nevertheless, although the majority of the research explored in this article used sets of 8-12 repetitions, we can probably assume that the recommendations from the research should extend to sets of 5-20 repetitions at the very least.

Moving on, as noted in the video, so long as a muscle group was a prime mover in an exercise (so that includes compound and isolation exercises), we included it towards the weekly set group count for a muscle group.

Now, there are potentially some limitations with this method, and I know not everyone agrees with it. However, this is what the research explored in the video did. Moreover, this method can probably be justified in many cases.

This is because your weekly sets for a muscle group, regardless of if they are from compound or isolation exercises, are going to differ slightly in stimuli, and so it's much simpler to accept this but continue to count both compound and isolation exercises towards the weekly set count for a muscle group.

An example can help explain this further.

As we know, using the method we've mentioned, the bench press and triceps skull crusher would both count towards your weekly set count for the triceps.

However, both of these exercises differentially stimulate this muscle.


Therefore, the bench press and skull crusher appear to be complementary for triceps growth.

Similar logic may also apply to compound and isolation exercises for other muscle groups.

As a result, provided your exercise selection is good, much of your weekly sets for a muscle group are going to be targeting different regions of a muscle group more so than others, making them all together complementary for developing a muscle group.

It's much simpler to acknowledge this and continue to count any exercise that involves a muscle group as a prime mover, regardless of if it's compound or isolation, towards the weekly set count for that muscle group.

[jimjam]

hoh- from my experience, and this study backs it up, i always knew that a longer rest interval worked better, especially for me.

[karlo_fdr]

Great video! Thanks for sharing all of this to the community, love your channel!
In my experience (I'm 37 y.o. and train since the age of 23) I found more gains in strenght and size with this current routine, hybrid wegihts/calishtenics based with 4-6 sets of compound movements 2 times per week: each set is a drop set and the last two reps of the last set are isometric holds near failure, 2-3 rest minutes.
I experimented routines with high volume and short rest periods but my body did not respond the way it does now.
Science studies give a great general overview but at the end each person is different and respond differently.
Age, level of daily stress, nutrition and sleep quality are huge factors and they are strictly individual.

[TypicallyUniqueOfficial]

What's happening, as demonstrated by the Longo study, is the case for effective reps.

As the study showed, the group with the longer rest intervals showed greater gains than the 3 set 1 minute rest group.

But then comparing the long rest intervals (3 minutes) group to the 1 minute rest interval group but with more sets had equal gains.

What's happening is that there were more effective reps in the long rest group and also by the 4-5 set group.

So long as the effective reps increase there will be an increase in hypertrophy up until a certain point (which seems to be individualistic).

[mcgragor]

The problem I see with this study, is "intensity". I assume they all did the same amount of intensity, and anyone who really knows how to train hard, knows you can't train hard (absolute failure or very close) and train long. So it would be interesting to see what 3 sets to failure per week vrs 9 sets to non failure (3-5) reps left, would show. I'm a hard gainer, a lot of volume even if each set was kept 3-5 reps from failure would quickly deplete my CNS, but I have in the past responded well to 1-4 sets to failure or close, using progressive overload, trying to add weight or reps every week.

[MarcusViniciusMO]

Man, your videos are gold! Are you working in academia? It would be interesting to see academic research testing the hypotheses that you made in this video.

[roadstar]

We are all different in many ways... the key is to try several methods and over time you will hone in what works best for the type of results you are looking for... there are so many variables when it comes to making gains.. i have been at this for 50 years and i still am always trying to zero in on what produces the best results i want... of coarse being much older now my training etc has to be different than many years ago... the key is love to workout and stay healthy...

[Wayfaring_Stranger]

huh, so interesting, me with my simple thinking, i thought if i take less rest between sets that is more efficient since its more tiring for me. yet it turns out if you want less sets you have to rest more O.o amazing how our body works..
great video dude, at the middle i was so afraid coz i complitely lost, but witht the end every question cleared out! very nice job! :)