Is 40 sets in a workout too much?
One study suggests the optimal training volume is as high as 45 sets, the next says doing more than 10 sets is counterproductive and reduces your gains.
Up to 10 sets per muscle and week, there seems to be a dose-response relationship, where more sets mean greater muscle growth and strength increases. Up to about 15–20 sets per muscle and week can possibly lead to even better results for a trained person with good recovery capabilities.
A safe bet is to aim for 10–15 total sets per muscle group and week and work in a rep range from low reps (~5) with heavy weights up to high reps (20–30) with lighter weights. With that out of the way, let's look at exercise and set recommendations for all of your major muscle groups.
The range recommended for optimal progress in both hypertrophy and strength is between 10-30 sets per muscle group per week.
Most hypertrophy training programs land somewhere in between, but that's a big middle ground, and it's entirely common to see people doing anywhere from 40 to 150 sets per week. There are a lot of factors that go into your capacity to recover — and recover productively — from exercise.
Be sure to keep your weekly training volume (the total of your working sets) for chest between 12-16 total reps. If you find out you are performing more than 20 sets per week, there is a very good chance you are doing TOO much and are actually diminishing your bodies ability to build new muscle mass.
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Recommended Sets Per Week for Each Muscle Group.
| Muscle Group | Sets |
|---|---|
| Abs | 6-10 |
| Back | 12-16 |
| Shoulders | 9-12 |
| Triceps | 8-10 |
Once you have stimulated a muscle to grow, doing more sets will not stimulate the muscle any further, but will only take away from your ability to recover from your workout.
Anywhere between 12–20 sets is the optimal range for maximum growth of muscles . Dosent mean that if you do more than 20 you aren't going to gain muscle . … Smaller muscles like biceps will give great result even with 16–18 sets per session and larger muscles like legs, back , chest you need a bit more volume .
The Takeway For How Many Sets You Should Do
Each workout can consist of a total of around 15-25 sets, but the number of sets for a specific muscle group in that workout should be at around 10 or below.
Do bodybuilders overtrain?
Overtraining, as far as bodybuilding is concerned, comes from training too hard, too often, or too long and not giving muscles enough time to rest, recuperate and grow. Training stimulates the growth that doesn't take place until you are resting and recovering.
A “bro split” refers to any workout routine (or “split”) that trains different body parts (or muscle groups) on different days. For instance, training arms one day, chest another, shoulders another, and so on.
If you're training six or seven times per week but you're not training for a specific sport, event or competition, chances are you're overtraining.
Your goals dictate the range of reps you should perform, and for how many sets you should do them: To develop maximal strength, lifting incredibly heavy for 2–6 sets of 6 or fewer reps is ideal, while lifting heavy-to-moderate weights for 3–6 sets of 8–12 reps is the way to go when it comes to building muscle size.
In general, a range of 1 to 3 sets of an exercise can provide benefits based on your goals, and even just one exercise per muscle group can give you results. To gain strength, it's best to stick with a few foundational exercises and concentrate your reps and sets there.
Before you start, however, there are some important points to consider regarding stimulating the muscle while stopping short of annihilation. The first involves knowing when you've performed enough sets, as doing too many sets is the most common mistake leading to overtraining.
- Anything between about 5–40 reps per set (between about 40–85% of 1RM) has been shown to be effective to build muscle. ...
- For practical reasons, it is a good rule of thumb to aim for about 8–15 reps per set for muscle growth.
Most studies have determined that total weekly volume is the determining factor in building muscle. Hitting each muscle group 2 times a week allows for optimal weekly volume. That means instead of only doing legs and chest one time a week, ideally you should be doing it two times a week.
Dr Israetel's research shows that most muscles grow best with a weekly training volume of around 8–25 sets per muscle per week, ideally spread out over 2–5 workouts. However, this can vary between people and also between muscle groups.
Most evidence-based fitness professionals recommend a training volume of 10-15 sets per muscle group per week. I've recommended 10-30 sets in my interviews the past years for most individuals with some outliers using higher volumes, like IFBB Pro Nina Ross. The truth is, even I may have been overly conservative.
Is 4x12 good for building muscle?
For hypertrophy (building muscle), the sweet spot is 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps. And if your objective is muscular endurance, shoot for 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20 reps. In each case, the key is to use the heaviest resistance that will allow you to complete all of your reps and sets with good form.
When it comes to body parts you're happy with, give them 8-10 sets in the 8-15 rep range of volume per week.
Doing the same workout every day or every week for the same muscles – when your workouts become routine, your muscles are not getting challenged (aka muscle memory), and you're not going to progress the way you should. Modify your workouts, whether reps, exercises, or the order of the exercises.
Traditionally, bodybuilding programs utilize more sets than endurance or strength programs (Reference 1). Successful body building combines proper intensity and training volume for optimal muscle growth. Due to the inverse relationship between intensity and volume, sets per body-part must balance both factors.
#2: You'll Lose Muscle Mass
Overtraining and undereating can not only cause you to lose efficiency, but it can also cause you to lose muscle mass. If you have weight loss goals, eating less may sound like a good idea, but if it doesn't align with your fitness goals, you won't see the results you're hoping for.
“But to build bigger biceps and triceps you have to focus on perfect form, moving through a full range of motion and, crucially, never lifting too heavy. The key to adding arm size is to getting a good pump through lifting lighter for longer – and executing every rep as perfectly as possible.”
Biceps are best suited for intermediate reps. High reps tend to make them look flatter once the pump subsides, but very low reps aren't effective at stimulating maximum growth.
Typically, 3-5 sets are recommended for optimal hypertrophy. Conversely, the development of strength may occur with a moderate volume.
No matter how many reps you're completing per set, most fitness experts recommend performing between two and six sets for each exercise. Anything below two sets may not challenge you enough; anything over six sets could lead to overworked muscles.
Lifting for pure strength is best partnered with heavy weights. "If you're trying for strength, or your max force output, the heavier the weight, the more strength gains you'll have, along with size gains," Tuminello says. It's also super time efficient.
How many sets should be failure?
As a result, by the end of the workout, all of the subjects in the study ended up performing the same amount of volume. But those who trained to failure required a lot more effort to do. Based on these findings, it seems that not training to failure by leaving roughly 1-3 sets in the tank is your best bet.
Downtime between workouts (whether you're lifting, doing cardio or training for a sport) is when our bodies have a chance to actually build muscle. Strenuous workouts cause muscle breakdown, while rest allows our bodies to build it back up.
With that being said, different muscle groups tend to have different rates of recovery, with smaller muscles—biceps, triceps, calves—being able to recover more quickly than larger muscles—lats, quads, hamstrings, etc. In addition, different individuals are able to handle different amounts of training volume.
The Arnold split is a six-day workout split in which you train the chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs twice per week. It's a muscle-building program that's designed to help you increase muscle mass and improve your physique. Because of its high amount of volume, it's only for advanced lifters.
The PPL split is great for making your whole body grow, but if you specifically need to improve shoulder caps or biceps or triceps, you may well be better off incorporating the bro split for those areas.
The pros are that following a Bro Split can allow you to easily focus on one major muscle group at a time and ensure that you hit each muscle group with adequate volume in each week. Oftentimes people will overlook some muscle groups like shoulders which can require a significant amount of volume to grow.
Chronic extreme exercise training and competing in endurance events can lead to heart damage and rhythm disorders. People with genetic risk factors are especially vulnerable. That doesn't mean you should put away the walking shoes, though.
Your athletic performance goes down and you risk overuse injuries. Undertraining is a problem and can lead to pain, but don't overcorrect and end up overtraining—it's just as bad for you. The key is to find the perfect balance so your lower limbs and body as a whole grow stronger without getting hurt.
Workouts should last no less than 60 minutes and no more than 90 minutes. This is sufficient time to challenge your body with quality reps. Anything more, and you'll see diminished returns for your efforts. If you feel inclined to train longer, it's best to split up your workout.
Arnold's training schedule is considered high volume by today's standards. He did as many as 26 working sets on large muscle groups such as back, chest, and shoulders. And since he broke down the legs into the quads, hamstrings and calves, he frequently did as many as 61 sets on leg day.
How many sets a week did Arnold do?
Arnold would train six days a week, twice a day when preparing for the Mr. Olympia contest. Furthermore, he would also train each muscle group three times a week, often doing as many as 20-30 sets for each body part.
Generally, exercises with higher reps are used to improve muscular endurance, while higher weights with fewer reps are used to increase muscle size and strength.
1. There's a point of diminishing returns when you do more sets. Doing more sets usually does result in more gains, but the increase in muscle growth, strength, and endurance isn't proportional to the number of additional sets you do.
You should be aiming for 10-20 sets per muscle group per week split into two sessions. This will keep you fresh, avoiding potential over-training and should give you better gains. Aim for each workout to consist of 15-25 sets total but with less than 10 sets for a specific muscle group on one day.
The Takeway For How Many Sets You Should Do
Each workout can consist of a total of around 15-25 sets, but the number of sets for a specific muscle group in that workout should be at around 10 or below.
In general, a range of 1 to 3 sets of an exercise can provide benefits based on your goals, and even just one exercise per muscle group can give you results. To gain strength, it's best to stick with a few foundational exercises and concentrate your reps and sets there.
If it's twenty hard sets per session for a single muscle group, yes, it's definitely too much. Past ten hard sets, you aren't really stimulating any more gains-check the triangle line below, for muscle protein synthesis. You ARE, however, generating fatigue.
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Recommended Sets Per Week for Each Muscle Group.
| Muscle Group | Sets |
|---|---|
| Abs | 6-10 |
| Back | 12-16 |
| Shoulders | 9-12 |
| Triceps | 8-10 |
If you're training six or seven times per week but you're not training for a specific sport, event or competition, chances are you're overtraining.
Dr Israetel's research shows that most muscles grow best with a weekly training volume of around 8–25 sets per muscle per week, ideally spread out over 2–5 workouts. However, this can vary between people and also between muscle groups.
Is 18 sets too much for biceps?
Anywhere between 12–20 sets is the optimal range for maximum growth of muscles . Dosent mean that if you do more than 20 you aren't going to gain muscle . … Smaller muscles like biceps will give great result even with 16–18 sets per session and larger muscles like legs, back , chest you need a bit more volume .
- Increased muscle soreness that gets worse the more you train.
- A plateau or decline in athletic performance.
- Inability to train at the level you usually do.
- Excessive sweating and overheating.
- Feeling like your muscles are heavy or stiff, especially your legs.