Minimum and the best number of sets for muscle mass - Based on science

@hammerlabuk So as an example, if I do pushups, and say a set of 10 is just before failure (Meaning 11th I probably couldn't do properly), Then I would need to do 5 sets per a workout, and workout a min of 3 times a week? Bringing me to about 150 Pushups a week?
 
@confirmpassword10 @confirmpassword10

If that's the only thing you do for chest - yes, that may be a good choice. It gives us 15 sets per week which is a good number of sets. I assume that you want to maximize hypertrophy, because if you've got other priorities you can do less than that. But you know that already if you've read the post :D
 
@confirmpassword10 It depends on your RIR (reps in reserve). If your RIR = 0, meaning you go to failure, you should probably increase RIR to 1-2, meaning doing less reps.

I really encourage you to start tracking your RIR.
 
@confirmpassword10 Hmm... No, why?

I mean that 5-10 sets for a given muscle group, e.g. biceps, taken to or close to failure in one training session is the best choice. Doing more than that will not result in any further muscle gains.
 
@latestnews How are we supposed to count sets per muscle group? So if we're aiming for 10 sets per muscle group a week, how would that potentially look?

E.g. If I did 5 sets pushups, 5 sets dips - that's 10 sets of pushing muscles. But for triceps, they really only get pushed hard in the dips, whereas shoulders get some stimulation, but not that much. Does that mean we would need to do 5 sets of tris and 5 sets on shoulders as well?
 
@dawn16 "How are we supposed to count sets per muscle group? So if we're aimingfor 10 sets per muscle group a week, how would that potentially look?"

That's a good one bro, really good. It's really tricky thing because in compound movements it depends A LOT on your technique.

If you don't know the biomechanics so well, the counting won't be very, very precise, but it doesn't have to be, unless you're pro bodybuilder.

Let's say you do push ups. You can assume that all sets are hitting the chest a lot, a bit less triceps and shoulders. You know, you don't have to count this so fucking precisely. It'd be good but your biomechanics knowledge should be on high level so you know e.g. how scapula positioning changes chest activity in bench press or dips etc.

Edit

Now I've read the rest of your post xD Yeah, that's a pretty good way of counting.
 
@latestnews So based on these limitations and, not intending to sound harsh or anything, doesn't that make this guidance pretty worthless?

If 10 sets can be intrerpreted differently by each person, I don't see how the evidence you linked can be practically applied.
 
@dawn16 Just count the sets of compound movement as a half or a third of a set for helper muscles. So 3 sets of pushups would be like 1-2 sets for triceps. Mike Israetel talks about this in his YouTube series.
 
@dawn16 Hmm... I don't think so. If you want to be very precise and you want to count sets very, very accurate - you should know not only what muscles hit given exercise, but how it changes with different modifications.

1.If you do some modification of a given exercise, let's say you do close grip bench press, you chose close grip for some reason, right? If you know the reason, you should be able to tell which muscles it targets more than a regular grip. Unless you're doing it for no reason. That's a weird situation and I don't know what to advise :D

2.These are details for a more advanced people.. Even if you count it like you've mentioned before, it'll be fine. But let's count high effective reps (HER) to show that. Assuming that in each set to failure you've got 5 HER. So for bench press with retracted scapula and a bit wider grip you can count it that way:

5 HER for chest, 3 HER for triceps, 1-2 HER delts

But if you do with protracted scapula, close grip, elbows closer to the body it can be counted this way:

3-4 HER for chest, 4 HER triceps, 4-5 HER delts

So as you can see. It's a bit more tricky but still - those are details for more advanced people.

Let's say that you're a beginner who doesn't know much about all those modifications and how it affects the muscles. You don't even know the exact muscles, you know there's a chest, triceps, lats and other back muscles. Maybe heard about traps, rhomboids etc. but what they do? idk. You know that pull ups and bw rows hit similar muscles. And after reading this post you know that you probably shouldn't do 15 sets of PU + 15 sets of rows per week, right?

I hope it makes a sense for you. If not and you've got other questions - go ahead :)
 
@latestnews Plug for the 5x5 bodyweight routine. It will put you into the recommended sets per workout per week and is great for starting or pushing yourself with added weight each workout. There's even an app that you can use to track progression (it will tell you how much weight to use as you progress through the program).
 
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