How Many Sets Per Exercise is BEST?

[andysauro]

I've heard of "Junk Volume" being similar to the boiling point of water. Once you hit 212 Fahrenheit, any additional heat is unnecessary. The water is already boiling.

[Jabroni]

Junk volume is a phrase every athlete should know. I used to powerlift and there was no point trying to kill rows after doing a 95% plus triple or so on deadlifts. You're limp, CNS is cooked and you're just running through the motions at that point.

[hanywhiskey]

mike reminds me of my favourite teacher and most influential person in my life. i missed that energy in my life

[miamimagicians]

I never heard of junk volume before, but it makes a lot of sense! This guys channel is very very educational. He seems like a very intelligent, honest guy.

[Donald-nk]

I do a PPL, 2-3 exercises per muscle group to failure, I actually feel better with just the 2, going 3, in retrospect, is just what he said, , junk volume, ive learned so much from this man AND the comments, I thank you All

[robertmiller]

Set quality matters too (as do a bunch of other things)
- Range of Motion (RoM)
- Technique
- Time under tension (TUT)
- Reps in reserve (RiR)

(I only know this mostly because of Dr. Mike and too much time on the NiH website).

[matheuskekw]

W short, I was looking exactly for this

[lovesjoke]

I do like 4 exercises per muscle group at about 3 working sets with one warm up set . Been seeing great results.

[donaldandrews]

I am 68 years old ! I used to own gyms and competed in Bodybuilding until I started to train my Wife who was very successful in The 80’s. I have found that nothing is written in stone when it comes to training and everyone responds differently. Look at Steve Michalik and John Defendis who did an incredible amounts of sets and John still works out that way today and looks great !

[williamnewsome]

How true, Dr. Mike. Think we have all been down that road before where we are so enthusiastic we add sets and exercises until we are doing way too much. In short order we begin feeling tired and worn out all the time and start dreading workouts. Today, if I can grow with less, I do not succumb to the school of thought. "more is always better." I may substitute exercises over time but try to keep the overall total fixed. How I feel after a workout is a pretty good indicator of how much I should be doing and my progress.

[smcg]

This information is deep but most people do not work that hard.

[kelvere]

I do three sets of 10 and 6 max exercises for each section of my body, so I'm (trying to) work 6/7 days. so example on Monday, I do arms and I do at least 2 for biceps and 2 for triceps, but I go from one muscle group to the other and repeat so there's almost like a 10 minute rest between each group. Rinse and repeat till rest day on Sunday.

So far it's been working and even managed to go up a plate for certain exercises

[billcarson]

Yep! When I went above 3 sets per exercise, all I did was go through the motions. Once I went back down to 3, my results were much, much better.

[mikeyd]

Recovery is also key.
Thanks for Sharing. You make great common sense content for truly helping ppl like me.

[RedeemerNDestroyer]

Dont know what is it about this dude but he hella charismatic, its just enjoyable to listen to him

And then there are the helpful training tips too

[whereeaglesdare]

Pareto Principle and Diminishing Returns.

This is how both minimalists/volumists can be simultaneously right and wrong at the same time.

Set 1 yields about 50% of results.
Set 2 yields about 25% of results.
Set 3 yields about 13% of results.
Set 4 yields about 6% of results.
Set 5 yields about 3% of results.
Set 6 yields about 2% of results.
Set 7 yields about 1% of results.

[martcook]

Totally agree, I have fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, I haven't trained for 9 months because I've had a lot of work to do on my new(old) flat(apartment) I can't do both, and when I say train, it's picking the weights up when I can throughout the week.
I'm on hrt, so not a natty, although I've always naturally been a big strong guy, I worked in construction all my life and grafted like a machine, but I'm now retired due to my illness.
But gains are still possible with the right diet and obv the trt, although I never really found putting on mass a problem(especially the belly mass🙄)
My work in my new home is just about done now, so I'll be lifting gently again soon, I can't manage anything without the T, I wouldn't recommend it if you have no real reason for it, but I did some research and it turns out roids really help with fibro.
I'm not oversized because I'm limited with how much and what my body can cope with, but I'm in reasonably decent shape, just need to shift the pregnant look again now😂😂
Love your vids guys, I'm not able to afford a gym or paid program, I just do what I can and my cuz @Michael Thomas Adams gives me advice, he's a beast, and my best friend as well as my cuz and always gives me advice ❤

[misterpalmer]

Love this channel! Dr. Mike is the SHIT!

[kunfupanda]

Off season for me is winter time. When I’m wearing a lot of clothes. I’ll do 16 sets per large muscle group (quads, chest, back), 14 sets for delts, and 12 sets for smaller muscle groups like bis, tris, hams, quads. I’ll do a little abs every day. During the summer are tank top months. I’ll do 20 sets large, 16 sets small. 18 for delts. I get huge but I can only sustain this much volume for 4 months. Then my tendons start to ache. I’m 52. During my tank top months, I’ll do 150 minutes of steady state cardio per week to bring out the abs. There you have it.

[dougmurray]

Excellent explanation. I find 4-6 sets, generally, works well.