So, How Many Sets to Build Muscle? The ideal training volume for building muscle is around 9–18 sets per muscle per week. And if you're choosing good lifts, doing 6–20 reps per set, and bringing those sets within 1–2 reps of failure, the bottom end of that range is often enough to maximize muscle growth.
So we know based on the 2017 meta-analysis mentioned earlier that roughly 10-20 sets per muscle per week is the sweet spot for maximizing growth. With beginners being at the lower end of this range and more experienced lifters being at the higher end of this range.
If you've been training properly for one to five years, perform 15-20 sets per week. If you're very advanced and have been training properly for over five years, perform 20-25 sets per week. If you're an elite bodybuilder or powerlifter, perform 25-30 sets per week.
There are even some studies that have used an ultra high amount of weekly training volume, between 30 to 40 sets per muscle group per week, showing it to be MORE advantageous for muscle growth.
The range recommended for optimal progress in both hypertrophy and strength is between 10-30 sets per muscle group per week.
BICEPS TRAINING
Recommendations suggesting 12-20 total work sets per week for intermediate lifters. Performing as little as 6-8 sets per week can also suffice for some lifters who are performing a lot of pulling, as the biceps are also responsible for this movement.
But how many sets in a single workout can you do before the set is considered to be junk volume training and not give you any results. Keep it to 6-8 sets per muscle group per training session to stimulate growth. This is not a rule to be followed blindly, but rather an idea of what happens to most people.
The Minimum Effective Volume (MEV) for biceps requires you to perform at least eight sets of direct bicep workouts per week. It means that you need to complete eight sets of biceps throughout the week.
In general, you want to change your reps every 4 to 6 weeks. However, there are many exceptions and your workout design will determine how frequently you need to make changes. There are many ways you can stagger this approach. Let's say you're trying to build muscle or just training for general fitness.
SETS. Muscles do not naturally want to grow; they must be forced to grow through consistent periods of stress. Therefore, higher volumes of training have been found to yield better results for hypertrophy (Hedrick 1995). Typically, 3-5 sets are recommended for optimal hypertrophy.
While there's a time and a place for training to repetition failure, doing so too often has been scientifically proven to result in diminished gains in strength, power and hypertrophy.
So, How Many Sets to Build Muscle? The ideal training volume for building muscle is around 9–18 sets per muscle per week. And if you're choosing good lifts, doing 6–20 reps per set, and bringing those sets within 1–2 reps of failure, the bottom end of that range is often enough to maximize muscle growth.
To increase strength and power, the best rest period is 2-5 minutes between sets. To increase hypertrophy (muscle growth), the best rest period is 30-90 seconds between sets. To increase muscular endurance, the best rest period is 30 seconds or less between sets.
Takeaway: Most lifters should aim to gain 2-4lbs per month (0.5-1.0lbs per week) of lean muscle mass under ideal conditions (training 5 days a week, being in a caloric surplus, and ingesting a protein/carbohydrate rich diet and post workout meal).
The general consensus is somewhere between 8 and 32 sets per week for a given muscle group (like the chest muscles) is what is required to create gains in muscle size and strength.
“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.”
The biceps and triceps should be trained using rep ranges between 5-20 reps to best maximize strength, muscle growth, and overall development of the muscles.
There are two main training errors people make that keep their biceps from growing. These are overtraining the biceps (often unintentionally) and a lack of variation in training techniques. Adding additional biceps focused workouts and trying multiple biceps exercises doesn't work.
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.
Overtraining syndrome occurs when an athlete doesn't adequately recover after repetitive intense training, and can include fatigue, declining performance and potential injury. It's admirable to train hard to succeed in your chosen sport.
Sets of anywhere from 4–40 reps will stimulate muscle growth quite well, but most research shows that doing 6–20 reps per set is the most efficient way to build muscle. Bodybuilders often use the middle of that range, favouring 8–12 reps per set.
Typically, it takes around 6-8 weeks for you to start noticing changes in the appearance of your arms. At around the 12 week mark, this is typically when you can expect to see more significant changes, especially if you didn't already have a large amount of muscle mass in the area!
Training the shoulders at least two times per week is the most common approach and supported by the latest advice on training frequency.
So how often should you train your abs? 2-3 exercises 2-3 times per week is plenty to maximize development without overdoing it. If you are already working out 3 times per week you can just tack 1-2 ab exercises on to the end of your workouts.