how many sets per muscle group per week To Build Muscle?
Quick Answer
Research suggests that performing around 10-20 sets per muscle group per week is an effective volume range for building muscle for most individuals. Sets should be performed at a high enough intensity, 0-2 reps from muscular failure to be stimulative for muscle growth.
Our own real-world experience as well as other coaches and experienced lifters also confirms this to be an effective volume range for most people, although individual differences as well as levels of advancement should be taken into consideration.
what is training volume
Volume is a way to quantify the amount of work we perform in our strength training sessions in a workout or training session, or over a period of time. Traditionally, it would be calculated as weight lifted x reps x number of sets performed on a particular exercise. This would typically be used for dedicated strength training and in strength sports such as powerlifting and weightlifting. This way of quantifying volume may be more important when pure strength gains are the goal.
a simple way to quantify training volume
Over the last decade, a simpler way of quantifying training volume has been popularised within the fitness industry and is better suited for pure hypertrophy training or building muscle. Instead of calculating precise training volume, we simply count the number of working sets performed for each muscle group throughout the week. We find this to be an effective tool to use due to its simplicity, and it is also an easy concept to understand and apply for general population clients as well as individuals who take their training more seriously.
why is it important to quantify volume
It is important to quantify training volume or the number of sets we perform over the week for a muscle group because it gives us a baseline to establish whether the amount of training we are performing for a muscle group is providing enough of a stimulus to build muscle. It is also one way to quantify the amount of stress we are placing on the body throughout the week, and over time. This allows us to make adjustments as and when needed. We may need to do more or less depending on our current goals, lifestyle, as well as our progress.
what does the current research point to?
Research suggests that 10-20 sets per muscle group per week is effective for building muscle. This range is widely accepted as being effective for most people and comes from a team of researchers led by Brad Schoenfeld, who in 2017 performed a meta-analysis investigating the relationship between muscle growth and the number of sets performed per muscle group per week. Another meta-analysis was carried out in 2022 comparing low, medium, and high volumes and concluded that a range of 12-20 weekly sets per muscle group may be an “optimum standard recommendation for increasing muscle hypertrophy in young, trained men”.
It is important to understand that these recommendations are based on averages and that individual differences can come into play. Some individuals may require more volume and some less. It is also important to understand that this often-stated range of 10-20 sets per week is the recommendation of just one group of researchers who have become particularly vocal and popular on social media, and this is not the only research in this area. Other research has suggested that the higher ranges of this recommendation are not necessary to build muscle, especially when sets are performed at a high level of intensity at a close proximity to muscular failure.
Many coaches, personal trainers, and experienced lifters find these recommendations to be fairly accurate for most people, and we agree with this to an extent. When high-quality working sets are performed with a high level of intensity, we find the lower end of this recommendation works best for most people. Great progress can also be made performing less than ten sets per week, especially in beginners. Individuals past the beginner stage can also make great progress performing less volume, assuming they are performing high-quality sets working at the correct intensity.
In reality, the number of sets an individual will need to perform to build muscle will likely change throughout their lifting career. Many coaches working with real people in the real world have noticed a bell curve in relation to training volume. As a beginner or early intermediate lifter, progress can be made with a relatively low amount of weekly sets, as long as things such as exercise selection, exercise form, and sufficient tension is being placed on the target muscle.
To move past the early intermediate stage and to progress through the intermediate stage, more volume is usually required, although this does not need to be an excessive amount. At this stage, an individual may be performing the highest amount of volume they will ever use. As an individual gets stronger and can lift more weight with better technique, they can place more stress on a target muscle group and can then perform less overall training volume and still progress. This defines the advanced lifter.
Since advanced lifters are placing more stress on a target muscle, they can essentially do more damage and get more out of each set compared to intermediate lifters. Lifting heavier weights will also cause more systemic fatigue and stress. This is the reason advanced lifters will need to reduce the amount of volume they perform to some extent to be able to recover from their training sessions and continue to make progress.
In our complete guide to building muscle, we give the recommendation of 8-14 sets per week. We find this is the sweet spot for most people, assuming that their working sets are performed at a close proximity to muscular failure. Certain muscle groups may need a little more volume, and individual differences still need to be taken into consideration. Another way to think about this is to perform as much volume as you need to in order to make progress and no more.
not all volume is created equal
One important point to understand is that one set for a particular exercise will not always be comparable to a set for another exercise for the same muscle group. For example, a heavy set of squats will be far more stressful on the quadriceps and also systemically compared to a set of leg extensions. One is a compound lift which allows for considerable amounts of weight to be lifted, whilst the other is an isolation move.
Machine work also needs to be taken into consideration. Using the same example as above, a set of hack squats will have a lesser effect compared to the free-weight squat, even though it is still a compound exercise and large amounts of weight can be moved. This is due to the increased complexity of free-weight lifts and the increased demand on the nervous system to coordinate movement patterns, as well as simply having a large amount of weight on your back in the case of the squat.
With this understanding, we can begin to quantify the amount of volume that is appropriate for the individual. We may be able to progress and recover from five sets of barbell back squats and five sets of machine hack squats per week; however, if we performed all ten sets using the barbell back squat, we may run into recovery issues, and progress would likely be worse.
volume’s relationship to intensity and frequency
When we are thinking about volume, we must also understand that other variables in our training, such as intensity and frequency, will affect how much volume we can perform over the week and also in a given training session.
volume and intensity
When counting the number of sets performed for a muscle group over the week, we should only include our work sets. These are the hard sets performed with a high level of intensity and effort to stimulate muscle growth. We do not count our warm-up sets. These sets should be taken to a close enough proximity to muscular failure, 0-2 reps from failure (0-2 RIR) for most exercises. Sets taken closer to muscular failure will likely be more effective for stimulating muscle growth; however, they will also be more stressful, will produce more fatigue, and will require more recovery.
With this understanding, we can see how the volume we can perform and recover from will depend on the intensity of our sets. When performing the majority of our sets close to muscular failure, we may be able to progress on lower weekly volumes for each muscle group. If we are performing more of our sets further away from muscular failure, we will likely need more volume to progress.
In reality, some exercises are better suited for working at different intensities than others, and we will likely be performing a range of intensities, working at different reps in reserve (RIR) throughout the week. This is why it may be a good idea to standardise the intensity of the different exercises we perform, allowing us to establish the number of sets we can progress and recover from over the week.
Volume and frequency
Frequency is the number of times we train or work a muscle group per week, and can have a relationship to volume in several ways. For example, if we train at an effective frequency, we can likely perform better quality sets over the week at a higher intensity and therefore potentially progress on fewer sets per week. For example, performing eight sets for chest per week split into two sessions rather than performing all eight sets in one session.
In the latter example, the later sets would become less stimulative for building muscle as fatigue accumulates and intensity drops. We are accumulating more fatigue and stress and getting less and less out of our sets. This is sometimes referred to as junk volume. Frequency can help us accumulate more quality sets and volume over the week if needed. Higher volumes are sometimes needed to continue to make progress, and increasing frequency, for example, 3-4 times per week, can help distribute weekly volume effectively while keeping set intensity and quality high.
practical applications
So how do we use this information and apply it to our training? First of all, we do not want to overthink things and try to overanalyse our training too much. A mistake many people make is trying to find the optimum. Whether in their training or nutrition, they are looking for that perfect number, in this case, the perfect number of sets to perform each week. Optimal training volume does not exist; there are just too many variables, and these variables are always changing. Chasing optimum and, in doing so, causing more stress is likely hindering your progress rather than helping.
use volume recommendations as a guide
Use the volume recommendations as a guide. They are a useful reference point, and having a basic understanding is important. If we are just beginning our fitness journey, they give us a good starting point, and as long as we are somewhere near the recommendations, we will likely make good progress. As we progress, we will have to find our own effective volume levels and will likely need to make adjustments over time.
perform the minimal amount of volume you can make progress with
We recommend starting on the lower end of the volume range. If you are a beginner, you can make excellent progress on low-volume training. Your focus should be on performing quality sets with excellent execution of technique. This could even be five or six high-quality sets per week initially. If you have been lifting for some time and are not seeing the results you are looking for, we recommend you do a volume reset. Count your weekly work sets for each muscle group and see where they are. Then ask yourself, are these high-quality sets? Often people need to work harder and reach a closer proximity to muscular failure to make progress.
The correct course of action would be to perform fewer sets and focus on intensity first before thinking about adding more weekly sets. Many people are surprised at how much progress they can make performing fewer sets when the intensity is correct. We think it is a good idea to perform the minimum amount of volume we can make progress on, only adding sets when we need to.
distribute your volume evenly throughout the week
Volume should be distributed somewhat evenly throughout the week to maintain the quality and intensity of our sets and provide a good stimulus to build muscle. For example, an individual starting at the lower end of the volume recommendations can train a muscle group twice per week, performing 5 sets in each training session, for a total of 10 sets over the week. An example training setup that would work well for this is the classic four-day upper body, lower body split. The upper body and lower body muscles are trained with a twice-per-week frequency, each receiving two dedicated training sessions
experiment with different volumes for different muscle groups
Certain muscle groups will likely require more or less weekly volume; therefore, some experimentation will be required to find out how much volume different muscle groups need to progress. Some smaller muscle groups may need more volume to progress and can also handle more volume. An example of one such muscle group is the medial delts. More sets will likely need to be performed over the week; therefore, using a higher frequency of 3-4 times per week can be effective. Smaller muscle groups will recover quickly, and the isolation moves used to target them do not cause much overall stress and fatigue.
Higher volumes for specific muscle groups can also be used to bring up weak points, although weekly volume for other muscle groups will probably need to be reduced so that the overall weekly training stress is not overly high. This is more of a concern for advanced lifters. Training volumes may need to increase at some point depending on your level of advancement and your goals, although this is not always the case. More advanced lifters using heavier weights can stimulate a muscle to such a high degree that they can maximise muscle growth and progress on fewer sets.
volume may need to be lower in a fat loss phase
In a fat loss phase, you will have less energy and reduced recovery capabilities due to being in a calorie deficit. In this situation, it can be a good idea to reduce the amount of sets you perform for each muscle group over the week. This way the sets you perform remain high quality which is vital for maintaining muscle in a fat loss phase. This will also reduce the overall weekly training stress on the body. This will likely be more important if you were previously performing a higher training volume.
If you were training with low or even moderate volume, reducing weekly sets may not be necessary. The size of your calorie deficit, as well as the levels of leanness you are looking to achieve, will also be a factor here. If you feel you need to reduce volume, removing two to three sets from the larger muscle groups is a good starting point. Some experimentation will be needed to see how many sets you need to maintain muscle in a fat loss phase and what your recovery abilities are.
conclusion
Performing around 10-20 high-quality sets on average per muscle group per week is a good general guideline, although we see most people do better performing around 8-14 sets per week. This is an effective amount of volume to stimulate muscle growth. With that said, it is important to understand that volume is just one component of training, and other things will need to be in place if we are looking to build muscle. Performing quality sets at a high level of intensity, and following an effective and well-designed training programme, which allows for adequate recovery, is important. Understanding and applying important nutrition principles is also required to build muscle and make consistent long-term progress.
