The only evidence we have is a modified German Volume Training (GVT) study that showed 14 sets per muscle group per week showed no greater gains than 9 sets. Meaning too much volume will be detrimental to muscle growth. It has been suggested that there is an inverted U-shaped curve between volume and hypertrophy. But does this dose-response relationship go forever? Can you perform 100 sets per muscle group per week and see astronomical gains? So, it seems that 10+ sets per week is the volume dose associated with the greatest gains in muscle. Interestingly, it seems if you are a time-crunched lifter, you can still make significant muscle mass gains by training with 4 sets or less per muscle group, per week. When looking at a weekly basis, we see a 0.37% gain in hypertrophy for each additional set performed. Looking at the within-session level, multiple sets (2-6) have shown to be superior to performing just one set. When we dive deeper into the research, we can see that performing a greater number of sets per week, per muscle group produces a greater muscle-building response compared to fewer sets (to a certain extent). However, this only takes into account the number of sets for one training session and doesn’t take into account if you are performing two exercises targeting the same muscle groups. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 1-3 sets per exercise for beginners and 3-6 sets per exercise for advanced trainees. Increasing volume will increase time under tension (how long your muscles are under tension from lifting) which is an important piece to building muscle. When it comes to the number of sets, this refers to the volume of training and is the easiest way to track volume when it comes to building muscle. Progressive overload can simply be defined as doing more than you did previously. A key exercise principle for making progress in any physical activity. To maximize muscle growth, the number of sets should be progressively increased over a training cycle.
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