Ask how many sets per week per muscle on any lifting forum and the reply comes back in seconds: 10 to 20. That range is a fair summary of the research. It just isn't a plan. It doesn't tell you what counts as a set, whether a row counts for your biceps, how much of the range a beginner needs, or how to spread the work across a week you can actually keep.
That last part matters more than the number. If you've copied a 25-set split from someone with twice your recovery and twice your free time, and stopped by week three, discipline wasn't the problem. The plan was built for someone else's life. Inconsistency undoes more training than low volume ever does, and a weekly dose you can repeat for six months beats a perfect one you abandon in six weeks.
So this page starts with the dose-response studies and works outward: what the meta-analyses found, where the high-volume trials stop being useful, how to count sets from compound exercises, how many sets fit in one workout, and a table by muscle group. It ends with a dumbbell and bodyweight week that reaches about 10 sets for each major muscle.
How Many Sets Per Week for Muscle Growth? What the Studies Found
Weekly sets per muscle is the most studied way to measure training volume, because it's simple and it predicts growth well. Four bodies of evidence are worth knowing before you pick a number.
Schoenfeld 2017: more weekly sets, more growth
The first meta-analysis built for this question came from Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger (2017) in the Journal of Sports Sciences. They pooled 34 treatment groups from 15 studies and found a graded dose response. Each additional weekly set was associated with about 0.37 percent more muscle growth over the course of a study.
Grouped into bands, the pattern was clear. Fewer than 5 weekly sets per muscle produced an average gain of 5.4 percent, 5 to 9 sets produced 6.6 percent, and 10 or more produced 9.8 percent. The banded comparison only reached trend level (p = 0.074), while the set-by-set analysis was clearly significant. Few studies at the time went far past 10 sets, so the paper could show that 10 beats less without showing where more stops paying.
Pelland 2026: growth keeps climbing, more slowly
The most complete answer so far is Pelland et al. (2026) in Sports Medicine, a series of meta-regressions across 67 studies and 2,058 participants. Two findings changed how I count volume. First, giving a set half credit for a muscle that only assisted, which the authors called fractional counting, predicted results better than counting every set fully or ignoring assisting sets. Second, both muscle size and strength rose as weekly sets rose, with diminishing returns that were far steeper for strength.
The authors put numbers on that curve in the 2024 preprint of the analysis, and the published estimates may differ slightly. Four fractional sets a week was the smallest dose that produced detectable growth. Between 5 and 10 sets, it took about 6 more weekly sets to buy each further detectable step of growth. That cost rose to about 8.5 sets between 11 and 18, about 10.75 sets between 19 and 29, and about 12.5 sets between 30 and 42. Above 43 there wasn't enough data to say anything. At the dataset's average volume of about 12 sets, each extra set added roughly 0.24 percent.
Strength flattened much sooner. One weekly set produced a detectable strength gain, and further steps stopped being detectable at about 4 sets a week. That matches what most lifters notice. Strength responds to practicing heavy efforts, and muscle size responds to accumulated hard work.
ACSM 2026: at least 10 sets a week
The American College of Sports Medicine replaced its 2009 resistance training position stand this year. Currier and colleagues (2026) in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise synthesized 137 systematic reviews covering more than 30,000 participants. Hypertrophy was enhanced by higher volumes, defined as at least 10 sets per week, and by eccentric overload. Equipment type and training to momentary failure didn't consistently change outcomes, which is good news for anyone training at home.
The high-volume trials, and where they stop helping
Several randomized trials in trained lifters tested volumes well above 10 sets. They're the reason forum ranges stretch to 20 and beyond, and they're less conclusive than they look.
- Schoenfeld et al. (2019) assigned 34 trained men to 1, 3 or 5 sets per exercise, three sessions a week for 8 weeks. Growth favored the higher-volume groups at the elbow flexors, mid-thigh and outer thigh. Squat and bench press strength improved about equally in all three groups, even though the one-set sessions took about 13 minutes.
- Brigatto et al. (2022) compared 16, 24 and 32 weekly sets per muscle in trained men for 8 weeks. The 32-set group gained more lower-body muscle thickness, triceps thickness and lower-body strength than the 16-set group.
- Aube et al. (2022) gave 35 trained lifters 12, 18 or 24 weekly lower-body sets for 8 weeks. Thigh muscle thickness and lean mass grew no more with 24 sets than with 12, and squat strength trended best at 18 sets (up 16.2 percent, against 5.4 percent at 24).
- Heaselgrave et al. (2019) gave 49 trained men 9, 18 or 27 weekly sets for the biceps over 6 weeks. Biceps thickness rose 4.3, 9.5 and 5.4 percent respectively. Nine sets done in a single weekly session were enough to grow the muscle, and 27 sets didn't beat 18.
- Enes et al. (2024) took 31 trained men through 12 weeks of lower-body training. One group kept its sets constant, and two groups added four or six sets every two weeks. The six-set progression produced the largest strength gains, and the authors judged the extra muscle growth from added volume as possible but small and uncertain.
A systematic review by Baz-Valle and colleagues (2022) pooled trials in trained lifters and found no difference between moderate (12 to 20) and high (more than 20) weekly sets for the quadriceps or biceps, with high volume ahead only for the triceps. Their recommendation was 12 to 20 weekly sets for trained young men.
Three limits apply to all of this. The trials ran 6 to 12 weeks, mostly in young men. Few studies tested more than about 25 sets a week. And muscle thickness is usually measured by ultrasound a few days after the final session. In the Pelland preprint, 96 percent of hypertrophy measurements with a reported timing came at least 48 hours after training, but 30 percent of results didn't report the timing at all. Swelling from a brutal final week can read as growth. None of that overturns the dose response. It does mean the top of the range is the least certain part of it.
What Counts as a Hard Set?
A weekly set count only works if every set in it is a real one. In the volume trials above, most sets were taken to failure or close to it, and that's the assumption behind every number on this page.
Robinson et al. (2024) in Sports Medicine modeled proximity to failure across the literature. Muscle growth improved as sets ended closer to failure, while strength gains were similar across a wide range. For counting purposes, a hard set ends with about 0 to 3 reps in reserve. You don't have to hit true failure, which the ACSM review found made no consistent difference. You do have to get close.
Warm-up sets don't count. A set of 10 push-ups when you could have done 25 doesn't count either. Load matters much less than effort: Kikuchi and Nakazato (2017) had men do push-ups adjusted to a load equal to 40 percent of their bench press max, and after 8 weeks they matched a group doing that bench press for chest and triceps growth and strength. A hard set of push-ups on your living room floor counts the same as a hard set on a bench.
How Many Sets Per Week Per Muscle by Goal and Training Age
Here's how the evidence translates for different situations. The numbers are weekly hard sets per muscle, counted with half credit for assisting sets.
| Situation | Weekly hard sets per muscle | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest dose that builds muscle | 4 | The smallest weekly dose with detectable growth in the Pelland preprint. Iversen et al. (2021) also recommend at least 4 weekly sets per muscle when time is short. |
| Beginner, first year or so | 6 to 10 | Nearly any dose works early on. The lower end leaves time and energy to learn each movement well. |
| Intermediate, building muscle | 10 to 20 | The ACSM floor of 10, and the 12 to 20 range from trials in trained lifters. |
| Advanced, one muscle that lags | 15 to 25 for that muscle | Brigatto found 32 sets beat 16, while Aube found 24 no better than 12. Test the higher volume on one or two muscles, not all of them. |
| Strength as the main goal | 4 to 10 per movement | Strength gains flatten after a few weekly sets. Heavier sets and regular practice of the movement matter more than extra volume. |
| Holding muscle through a busy stretch | About a third of your usual sets | Bickel et al. (2011) found a third of the training dose, and even a ninth, kept muscle size in young adults for 32 weeks. Adults aged 60 to 75 needed more. |
Beginners deserve a word of their own, because this is where most plans go wrong. A new lifter grows on 6 to 10 sets per muscle, and the extra sets of an advanced split mostly add soreness and session length. That's the combination that makes people miss a week, then two, then stop. Start low, show up for every session, and let the number climb once training is a habit.
Women don't need different numbers. Roberts, Nuckols and Krieger (2020) pooled 10 studies of men and women on identical programs and found no difference in relative muscle growth, with a larger relative gain in upper-body strength for women.
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Take the Free Assessment Free • 2 minutes • No credit cardHow to Count Sets From Compound Exercises
A dumbbell row trains your back, and your biceps help. Counting it as a full biceps set overstates your arm volume, and ignoring it understates it. The fractional method from Pelland et al. is the simplest fix with evidence behind it: a set counts as 1 for the muscle the exercise is built around and 0.5 for each muscle that assists.
- Push-up or dumbbell press: chest 1, triceps 0.5, front delts 0.5.
- Dumbbell row: back 1, biceps 0.5, rear delts 0.5.
- Overhead dumbbell press: front delts 1, side delts 0.5, triceps 0.5.
- Goblet squat, split squat or lunge: quads 1, glutes 0.5.
- Romanian deadlift: hamstrings 1, glutes 0.5.
- Glute bridge or hip thrust: glutes 1, hamstrings 0.5.
- Curl, lateral raise, triceps extension or calf raise: 1 for the target muscle and nothing else.
Two caveats. Some helpers get almost nothing: the hamstrings barely change length in a squat, so I count them as zero there. And half credit is an average, not a law. If your biceps are wrecked after a back day, rows are doing more than half the work for you. The trials that tested whether compound lifts can stand in for single-joint moves are covered in our guide to isolation vs compound exercises.
How Many Sets Per Muscle Group Per Workout?
Weekly volume is the dose, but it arrives one session at a time, and a single session has a ceiling. Remmert et al. (2025), a preprint from the same research group that hasn't been peer reviewed yet, modeled per-session volume. Growth kept rising up to about 11 fractional sets per muscle in one session, with no detectable benefit beyond that. For strength the equivalent point was about 2 direct sets per session.
In practice, up to about 10 hard sets for one muscle in a workout is productive, and past that you're mostly collecting fatigue. So 10 weekly sets fits in one or two sessions, and 20 needs at least two. Heaselgrave's 9-set biceps group grew while training once a week, so a single weekly session works at modest volumes.
How often you train a muscle matters less than how many hard sets it gets. Pelland's frequency models found a negligible effect of training frequency on hypertrophy once volume was accounted for, and a positive effect on strength. Our review of training frequency research walks through the volume-matched frequency trials. Rest between sets belongs in this decision too, because short rests shave reps off every later set. Our answer to how long to rest between sets gives the ranges, and the rest periods study breakdown covers the trial behind them.
If time is the constraint, pair two exercises that don't share muscles, such as a row and a push-up, and rest after the pair. Iversen and colleagues found that supersets and similar techniques roughly halve training time while keeping the volume.
How Many Sets Per Body Part Per Week: A Table by Muscle
These are my starting numbers for someone past the beginner stage who wants to build muscle at home. They aren't study outputs. They apply the fractional counting above so that the total for most muscles, direct plus assisting work, lands near 10. Start at the low end and move one muscle at a time toward the high end if it lags.
| Muscle group | Direct weekly sets to start | Assisting credit it already gets | Dumbbell or bodyweight options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | 8 to 12 | Little | Push-ups, dumbbell floor press, chest fly |
| Back (lats and upper back) | 8 to 12 | Little | One-arm row, bent-over row, inverted row |
| Quads | 8 to 12 | Little | Goblet squat, split squat, reverse lunge |
| Glutes | 4 to 8 | Half a set from every squat, lunge and Romanian deadlift | Glute bridge, hip thrust, single-leg deadlift |
| Hamstrings | 6 to 10 | Half a set from bridges, almost none from squats | Romanian deadlift, single-leg Romanian deadlift |
| Side delts | 6 to 10 | Half a set from overhead presses | Lateral raise |
| Rear delts | 3 to 6 | Half a set from every row | Rear delt raise |
| Biceps | 4 to 6 | Half a set from every row | Curl, hammer curl |
| Triceps | 3 to 6 | Half a set from every push-up and press | Overhead extension, kickback |
| Calves | 6 to 10 | Little from squats and lunges | Standing calf raise, single-leg calf raise |
| Abs | 4 to 8 | Bracing during other lifts | Dead bug, crunch, leg raise |
The pattern to notice is that the small muscles need the fewest direct sets, because the big lifts already feed them. Biceps and rear delts get half a set from every row, and triceps get half a set from every push-up. A program that already rows 10 times a week only needs a few curls to reach 10 sets for the biceps.
A Dumbbell and Bodyweight Week That Reaches About 10 Sets
This week uses three full-body sessions on non-consecutive days, such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each session runs about 45 to 60 minutes with normal rest, or closer to 35 minutes if you pair exercises. Every set should end within about 3 reps of failure, in any range from about 6 to 30 reps.
| Day | Exercises and hard sets |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Goblet squat 3, push-ups 3, one-arm dumbbell row 3, Romanian deadlift 4, lateral raise 3, biceps curl 3 |
| Day 2 | Split squat 4 per leg, dumbbell floor press 4, bent-over dumbbell row 4, glute bridge 3, rear delt raise 3, overhead triceps extension 3, calf raise 3 |
| Day 3 | Goblet squat 3, push-ups 3, one-arm dumbbell row 3, single-leg Romanian deadlift 3, lateral raise 3, hammer curl 2, calf raise 3 |
Counted with the fractional method, that week gives quads 10, chest 10, back 10, biceps 10, glutes about 11.5, hamstrings 8.5, triceps 8, rear delts 8, side delts 6, calves 6 and front delts 5. No muscle gets more than 4 direct sets in one session, so every set stays well under the per-session ceiling. Add 2 or 3 sets of dead bugs or crunches on two of the days if you want direct ab work.
When you reach the top of your rep range on every set of an exercise, add load, add reps or move to a harder variation. Our progressive overload guide for beginners covers the four ways to do that with limited equipment. If you'd rather have the week planned and progressed for you, our comparison of the best strength training apps sets out the options side by side.
Common Misconceptions
Misconception 1: "If 10 sets build muscle, 30 sets build three times as much"
The curve bends. In the Pelland tiers, the first detectable step of growth cost 4 sets, while the steps between 19 and 29 sets cost about 11 sets each. Aube's 24-set group grew no more than the 12-set group, and Heaselgrave's 27-set group grew less than the 18-set group. Tripling your sets roughly triples your time, your soreness and your odds of skipping a session, without coming close to tripling the result.
Misconception 2: "Compound lifts train everything, so only they count"
They train a lot, and the fractional method gives them credit for it. But the credit is partial, and some muscles get very little. Rows give your biceps half a set, presses give your side delts little or nothing, and squats leave the hamstrings mostly alone. Counting assisting work at half value is what keeps a compound-heavy program honest about the muscles it's shortchanging.
Misconception 3: "Every set you do goes into the total"
Only hard sets do. Robinson's analysis found growth improved as sets ended closer to failure, so 15 comfortable sets can deliver less than 8 hard ones. Warm-ups, technique practice and sets stopped with 6 or more reps left are worth doing, but they don't belong in the count.
What the Research Suggests Going Forward
The dose-response picture is consistent across a decade of work. Growth rises with weekly hard sets, quickly at first and then more slowly, and strength flattens much sooner. Ten sets per muscle a week sits on the efficient part of that curve, which is why the ACSM position stand and the meta-analyses both land near it.
What's still open is the top of the range and the individual. The trials are short, their participants are mostly young men, and very few tested more than 25 weekly sets. Two people on the same program can respond very differently, and the published numbers are group averages. The honest summary is that 10 to 20 sets works for most people and nobody yet knows your personal ceiling.
So start at about 10 hard sets per muscle, or 6 to 10 if you're new, and run it for 6 to 8 weeks while adding load or reps as you get stronger. If a muscle stops growing and you're recovering well, add 2 sets a week to that muscle only. If your numbers drop from session to session or your joints start to ache, take sets away before you add anything. The weekly volume that builds the most muscle is the one you're still doing next spring.
References
- Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. "Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Journal of Sports Sciences 35.11 (2017): 1073-1082. DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197
- Pelland JC, Remmert JF, Robinson ZP, Hinson SR, Zourdos MC. "The Resistance Training Dose Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains." Sports Medicine 56.2 (2026): 481-505. DOI: 10.1007/s40279-025-02344-w
- Pelland JC, Remmert JF, Robinson ZP, Hinson SR, Zourdos MC. "The Resistance Training Dose-Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain." SportRxiv preprint (2024). DOI: 10.51224/SRXIV.460
- Currier BS, D'Souza AC, Fiatarone Singh MA, et al. "American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults: An Overview of Reviews." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 58.4 (2026): 851-872. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003897
- Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, et al. "Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 51.1 (2019): 94-103. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764
- Brigatto FA, Lima LEM, Germano MD, Aoki MS, Braz TV, Lopes CR. "High Resistance-Training Volume Enhances Muscle Thickness in Resistance-Trained Men." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 36.1 (2022): 22-30. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003413
- Aube D, Wadhi T, Rauch J, et al. "Progressive Resistance Training Volume: Effects on Muscle Thickness, Mass, and Strength Adaptations in Resistance-Trained Individuals." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 36.3 (2022): 600-607. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003524
- Heaselgrave SR, Blacker J, Smeuninx B, McKendry J, Breen L. "Dose-Response Relationship of Weekly Resistance-Training Volume and Frequency on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Men." International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 14.3 (2019): 360-368. DOI: 10.1123/ijspp.2018-0427
- Enes A, De Souza EO, Souza-Junior TP. "Effects of Different Weekly Set Progressions on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Males: Is There a Dose-Response Effect?" Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 56.3 (2024): 553-563. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003317
- Baz-Valle E, Balsalobre-Fernández C, Alix-Fages C, Santos-Concejero J. "A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy." Journal of Human Kinetics 81 (2022): 199-210. DOI: 10.2478/hukin-2022-0017
- Robinson ZP, Pelland JC, Remmert JF, et al. "Exploring the Dose-Response Relationship Between Estimated Resistance Training Proximity to Failure, Strength Gain, and Muscle Hypertrophy: A Series of Meta-Regressions." Sports Medicine 54.9 (2024): 2209-2231. DOI: 10.1007/s40279-024-02069-2
- Kikuchi N, Nakazato K. "Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain." Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness 15.1 (2017): 37-42. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesf.2017.06.003
- Iversen VM, Norum M, Schoenfeld BJ, Fimland MS. "No Time to Lift? Designing Time-Efficient Training Programs for Strength and Hypertrophy: A Narrative Review." Sports Medicine 51.10 (2021): 2079-2095. DOI: 10.1007/s40279-021-01490-1
- Bickel CS, Cross JM, Bamman MM. "Exercise dosing to retain resistance training adaptations in young and older adults." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 43.7 (2011): 1177-1187. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318207c15d
- Roberts BM, Nuckols G, Krieger JW. "Sex Differences in Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 34.5 (2020): 1448-1460. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003521
- Remmert JF, Pelland JC, Robinson ZP, Hinson SR, Zourdos MC. "Is There Too Much of a Good Thing? Meta-Regressions of the Effect of Per-Session Volume on Hypertrophy and Strength." SportRxiv preprint (2025). DOI: 10.51224/SRXIV.537
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 15 sets for chest too much?
For most people past their first year of lifting, 15 hard sets for chest a week sits inside the range the trials support, which runs from about 10 to 20 for trained lifters. It's too much for you if your push-up or press numbers drop from one session to the next, your shoulders or elbows ache, or you can't keep the sets hard. Beginners grow well on half of that, so there's no reason to start at 15.
Is it better to do more reps or sets?
For muscle growth, adding hard sets does more than adding reps to sets that weren't hard. Growth tracks the number of weekly sets taken close to failure, and those sets work across a wide rep range, from roughly 6 to 30 reps, as long as they end within about 3 reps of failure. More reps only help when they make an easy set hard. For strength, a few heavy sets with fewer reps work better than piling on volume.
Is 6 sets per muscle group per week enough?
Six hard sets a week will build muscle, especially if you're new to lifting, because it's above the 4-set minimum where growth becomes detectable. It's just not the efficient end of the curve. In Schoenfeld and colleagues' 2017 meta-analysis, 5 to 9 weekly sets produced an average gain of 6.6 percent against 9.8 percent for 10 or more sets. Six sets is a reasonable start or a fine maintenance dose.
How many sets per muscle group per week on a cut?
Keep your weekly sets and your loads close to what built the muscle, because the training signal is what tells your body to keep it during a calorie deficit. If recovery suffers, cut sets before you cut load. In a non-dieting maintenance study, a third of the original training dose kept muscle size in young adults for 32 weeks (Bickel and colleagues, 2011), so dropping toward a third is the floor, not the plan.
Do women need a different number of sets per muscle group?
No. A 2020 meta-analysis by Roberts, Nuckols and Krieger pooled 10 studies of men and women on the same programs and found no difference in relative muscle growth, plus a larger relative gain in upper-body strength for women. The same weekly ranges apply: about 10 hard sets per muscle to build muscle, 6 to 10 for beginners, and more for a muscle that lags.
How many sets per muscle group per workout?
Up to about 10 hard sets for one muscle in a single workout is productive. A 2025 preprint meta-regression by Remmert and colleagues found growth kept rising with per-session volume up to about 11 sets per muscle, with no detectable benefit beyond that. So 10 weekly sets fits in one or two sessions, and 20 weekly sets needs at least two sessions to keep every set hard.