How many sets should you do?

How many sets per week do you need to grow?

Everyone seems to have THE answer to this question.

"You MUST do at least 10 sets per muscle group every week."

"Actually, lower volume approaches are best. You don't need more than 5 sets a week"

"Research shows growth with up to 50 sets per week! The more, the better!"

And yet, these recommendations seem to change on a regular basis.

This week, people are all about low-volume approach.

A month ago, people said mo' volume = mo' better.

WTF?

If you want my short, non-nuanced answer to the volume recommendation question (the answer I usually give when I don't feel like asking or explaining anything), here it is:

On average, I recommend performing anywhere between 5 and 15 sets per muscle group per week.

Slightly more nuanced answer:

When discussing volume recommendations, there's one variable that a majority of people ignore.

And it's staring you right in the face.

And it's even more important than how many sets you do.

What is it?

What a "set" actually is.

In other words...what do your sets look like?

Are they hard?

Easy?

Somewhere in between?

Is your execution even appropriate for the target muscle?

Are you using mostly isolation exercises or mostly compound movements?

Do you train to failure?

Do you even know where failure is?

Because we talk about "a set" as if it could only be one thing.

As if there's a standardized "set" that contains the same exact qualities from person-person.

People are so hellbent on getting black-and-white answers that they've separated "weekly volume" from the exercises they're doing.

Why does this even matter?

Because when two people are arguing about weekly volume, they're often arguing about two completely different things.

The ultra-low volume, high intensity crowd argues for low-volume because each of their sets are all-out.

The ultra-high volume, low intensity crowd argues the opposite, because each of their sets looks like a warm-up.

And yet, both approaches seem to create results.

What does that tell you?

That multiple approaches CAN and DO work!

*gasp*

Key takeaways:

• If your sets are easier on average, you probably need more sets to grow.
• If your sets are harder on average, you probably need fewer sets to grow.
• Both approaches work.

But the people advocating for and selling their own system to you will try to convince you otherwise.

"High volume is garbage."

"Low volume gets you injured."

Here's my recommendation...

create a hypothesis.

Then test it.

Run a program for 12-16 weeks and see what happens.

"Hmmm, I've always tried higher volumes...let me see if 6-8 sets per week works well"...

"I've always liked lower-volume, higher intensity stuff...but maybe I'll try more sets with lower efforts this program"...

It's all ultimately a guess.

And if you're enjoying the program you're doing AND you're making progress, why change anything?

Stop asking people on the internet what they think about this.

Because they don't know.

They can't.

Try to troubleshoot something on your own.

Ask yourself what YOU think.

Ask yourself what you enjoy more...

And ask yourself what's even practical for you based on the constraints of your life (I'm guessing that most of you aren't fitness influencers that can afford to train for 3 hours per day).

I'm not telling you that you need to make it your job.

But at some point, don't you think you should start to figure out what it is that works for YOU? And not some hypothetical average that represents you?

-Ben

P.S - if you want to be able to target any muscle in your body, click here.