52 Sets: What’s All The Hype About?

Are you missing out on muscle gains by not doing enough training volume? Maybe. Dorian Yates and other training minimalists have clearly gotten amazing gains from low volume protocols and most science-based coaches still recommend doing 10 to 20 sets per muscle per week. However, a recent study suggests that the upper limit for volume may be higher than we previously thought.

[Patty-qyqh]

"What's your plan called?"
"Unemployed split"

[mb]

Mentzer was like "do 52 sets per year...." 😂

[DEXIFYIWNL]

52 sets per muscle would mean training is now your full time job 😂

[VernlerKDB]

Love these new educational YT shorts. Thanks, Jeff!

[pancakerizer]

My knees would deadass explode from 52 sets a week. Hats off to those that can handle it

[Indriyal]

Missing the main take away here imo !
They barely training the rest of their body in this study so the take away is : IF you reduce volume for a lot of your muscles, now one or few muscles can actually handle much higher volumes and get greater result from this !

Good luck making 30 sets productive if you are not diminishing other muscles’ volume ! Especially if you are training close to failure (if not, might as well do it and spare sets and time)

[nunninkav]

At week 13 they all got hip replacement surgery.

[Triple_J.]

Dorian was doing 4 sets, including warm ups, yes.

But he started with 50% 1RM, climbing to around 83%1RM for his working set.

His working set was 6-8 reps to failure.

And he performed 10 reps at that weight by having his spotter assist slightly at first, then more and more assist on the final reps.

He would focus on the negative/eccentric portion for all reps.

This effectively gives you anywhere from 4-6 "hard working reps" similar amount of muscle hypertrophy to performing 3-6 sets near, or all the way to failure.

That was the secret: Get the stimulus is the shortest time and east sets possible by doing way more reps than you can physically lift, by having a spotter assist on the concentric. To allow all of that addition time under tension on the eccentric negatives.

This is STILL the absolute best way to minimize time in the gym. Because there is no point in performing more sets if your muscles are already completely blown out to the point you cannot do another rep if you wanted to.

It also maximized RECOVERY time. When you spend 45-50 minutes in the gym, 4 days a week. You invest less than 4 hours into workouts, leaving far, far more recovery time than someone pumping iron 6hrs per day, 6 days per week.

[R]

52 sets a week sounds exhausting even from a routine writing/tracking standpoint

[AdventureMoosePJC]

I went to this 52 sets per week routine about 2 months ago and as a 60 yr old man am seeing gains I had back in my 20s. It takes 2 hours and was initially exhausting but now I'm used to it. It works for me

[ParagonPowerLLC]

Who tf has time for 52 sets a week wtf

[TheIcecreamtaco]

I’ve never done more than 8 sets per week, I grow. Roughly 5 days per week training
Push -
Chest: 4x10 either flys or bench
4x10 cable low to highs
Triceps: 4x10 dips
Deltoids: 4x10 lateral raises
Pull -
Lats: 4x10 assisted pull ups
Mid back: 4x10 wide grip rows
Upper back: 4x10 face pulls
Biceps: 4x10 preacher curls
Legs -
4x10 leg extensions
4x10 leg curls
4x10 calf raises
Etc.

[JeffNippard]

A few notes:

- When I say different set volumes, I am referring to the number of hard working sets per muscle per week (that doesn’t include warm-up sets).

- This new study is just another piece of the puzzle — not something we should take and run with on its own. I think it does show that while 10-20 sets per muscle per week is likely the “optimal” sweet spot for most muscles, the upper limit may be higher than we used to think, if you’re able to recover.

- This new study also points toward potential merit in high-volume specialization phases or “volume cycling” (where you crank volume for one body part at a time).

- It’s also worth mentioning that the study was done on experienced subjects (so high volume may not be as effective for beginners). Also, although the authors noted no statistical significance (likely due to small sample size) there was a clear trend of muscle growth scaling with volume. At the very least, the results show that ultra-high volume is feasible for short time periods and not worse, on average. And like I said, some responded really well, others not so much. Lots of individual variability.

- You can, of course, still make great gains on low volume protocols, assuming you train very hard, although they may not be “optimal” in all cases.

- I’ll be doing a full volume update at some point in the new year with some more practical takeaways!

[anthonym]

52 sets for one body part is wild 😂 you gotta be unemployed and have no life outside of the gym to hit that and still have a balanced program

[thevoiceovercloset]

I love that you emphasize that every body is different and that some may respond to a strategy while others may not. Experimenting non-dangerous methods on yourself, measuring before and after, is a great way to find out for sure!

[Mstlymanswll]

44:34

I think you were grossing him out. Lol. That dude for real was thinking “I’m gross but this guy is a full-blown sicko.” 😂.

[JdSpoof]

The takeaway here is “experiment on yourself.” Run 12 week blocks and see how your body reacts. (Assuming progressive overload, good technique, recovery etc)

[Jack-yn]

I did an experiment once. When I was young and didn't know anything, I eventually realised I hadn't been doing any tricep exercises (except residual training from bench press, etc.). When I found out what triceps were, I decided to do 10 minutes of tricep exercises each day for a couple of weeks. The results were fantastic and my triceps caught up with the rest of my physique very quickly.

[visieg]

When it comes to these type of studies and claims, it needs to specify: the intensity of these working sets? Is it till failure for all the sets? If not rpe what? What kind of technique and tempo was used? Rep range? Exercise selections? More isolation or does it have any compound movements as part of the 52 working sets?

There are so many other aspects to question and look out for other than these.

Additionally, in my personal opinion, the practicality of doing 52 working sets without letting even a single one of those sets to be a junk volume is kinda off.. even if you are a professional bodybuilder.
And of course, we need to question how this plays in for natural vs enhanced.

[grishawinner]

I’m pretty sure you’ll find the subjects that responded really well with gains were much newer to weight lifting than the ones who didn’t.