To maximize muscle growth, you may very well need to do quite a few sets per exercise. While it depends on how many exercises you’re performing, it’s not uncommon to be stuck doing three, five, or even more sets for a given exercise.
On the flip side, you might be surprised at how few sets you need to do to start building muscle. While beginners can famously grow from anything, the same might just be true of trained lifters, according to a new study.
In their study, Hermann et al had 42 trained lifters with an average of nearly five years of training experience train twice a week, with nine exercises in each workout. Participants were split into two groups. One group ended all their sets when they hit failure and couldn’t complete another rep. The other group ended their sets when they estimated they could only perform another two reps before reaching failure.
But, here’s the interesting part. Both groups only did one set per exercise, for a grand total of nine sets per workout.
The muscle groups the researchers measured were the quadriceps, biceps, and triceps. Doing some quick napkin math, the workout program used had these well-trained lifters accumulate around four fractional weekly sets for these muscles (see Pelland et al for a definition of fractional volume.).
Here are the results.
On average, lifters saw an increase of around 2 to 10% in muscle thickness over the eight-week training period, depending on the site and muscle measured.
Interestingly, muscle growth tended to be greater when sets were taken to failure. This aligns with findings from the most recent meta-analysis on training to failure by Robinson et al, suggesting that, all else being equal, pushing closer to failure generally promotes more muscle growth.
While these results may come as a surprise, this study actually echoes the results by another meta-analysis on training volume by Pelland and colleagues. In their pre-printed study, the researchers sought to determine the relationship between training volume and muscle hypertrophy. While maximal hypertrophy was seen with over 30 weekly fractional sets, only four fractional weekly sets were required to elicit detectable muscle hypertrophy.
While the previous meta-analysis didn’t focus exclusively on trained lifters, this new study by Hermann et al should highlight that even well-trained individuals can stimulate muscle growth with relatively low training volumes. Consistency matters more than volume—just one or two workouts per week can make a significant impact!
Cutting down on sets per exercise can be particularly helpful when you’re short on time, motivation, or if you simply dread performing high volumes. If you’re going to adopt a single-set approach, it’s likely that you will see better hypertrophy by taking your sets to failure versus keeping a few repetitions in reserve.
It’s also worth noting that a single-set approach can synergize pretty well with health goals. Sure, you won’t maximize hypertrophy, but you’ll still see muscle growth. Additionally, based on the research on resistance training and health, just spending an hour or two in the gym per week may also be sufficient to reap the health benefits.
As a final note, since detectable hypertrophy can be seen with as few as four fractional weekly sets, it’s very likely that you can maintain muscle size with as few as two or three fractional weekly sets. Yet again, this should be heartening to hear, particularly if you find yourself in a situation where spending time in the gym isn’t a priority
