How many sets should you do per workout for a given muscle or exercise to maximize muscle growth and strength gains?

[Podcast] How Many Sets per Muscle Group and Workout?

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Is there too much of a good thing, or should you just keep adding sets to your workouts to grow bigger and stronger?

In episode 32, we discussed a meta-regression analysis on weekly set volume for hypertrophy and strength gains. Now, the same researchers are back with an analysis on per-session volume.

How many sets should you do per workout for a given muscle or exercise to maximize muscle growth and strength gains? Is more always better, and if so, is there an upper limit?

Let’s talk about it!

We also have time for a listener question, around 22:30 in:

What’s the fastest way to warm up for training specific body parts?

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This is episode 55 of the podcast. Check out the five previous episodes below:

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Philip Wildenstam

Philip used to be a powerlifter (his best lift was a 275 kg raw squat), but now he mostly eats, drinks, and sleeps. He's also a certified nutrition coach and a co-founder of StrengthLog, and he's always trying to make the app better and more user-friendly. If you ask Philip nicely, he might share his recipe for Swedish meatballs with you.