How Many Sets to Build Muscle? (The Ultimate Guide)
A thorough examination of the current research
Many variables go into creating an effective muscle-building training program, one of which is the number of sets you perform for your exercises.
Diverse opinions exist in this area. Some propose a low number of sets is sufficient for maximizing muscle growth, while others suggest more sets (so long as an individual can recover from it) promote greater gains.
In this article, we’ll overview the current scientific research examining how many sets a person should perform to optimize muscle growth.
What Is a Set?
Before exploring the research, it’s necessary we’re all on the same page as to what a set is and what specifically we’ll be aiming to find out in this article.
A set refers to a bout of repetitions on an exercise.
For instance, the below image depicts a set of 5 repetitions on the back squat exercise.
For building muscle, repetitions between 5 and 35 are likely similarly effective.
