Today we’re going to look at a new study that talks about one of the most important
pieces to progressive overload and driving muscle growth with your training.
We are going to talk about if you need to do more sets than you think to build even
more gains.
A new 2022 study suggest that might be the case but we’re going to read between the
lines as to how or even if it actually applies.
As always, a disclaimer, keep in mind that is only one study.
Don’t overthink too much, just absorb it for curiosity’s sake, and apply it if you
think the information is worth your protein shake.
That said, this study is a meta-analysis, which is generally considered the “pinnacle”
of research since it compiles data from multiple other studies to draw a more robust conclusion.
Anyway, let’s get to that data right away.
A total of 7 studies were included in this meta-analysis, all investigating different
set schemes and their effect on muscle hypertrophy, also known as muscle growth.
The researchers created three categories: Interventions using fewer than 12 sets per
week per muscle group were considered as “low volume.”
Interventions with 12-20 sets per week were categorized as “moderate volume.”
Anything more than 20 sets were labeled as “high volume.”
Even though the categories are volume-based, the main factor investigated is indeed sets.
Sets are part of the volume equation, which is simply the amount of reps times the amount
sets times the weight lifted in a given exercise.
So, more sets, more volume.
Also in the scientific literature, more volume have shown to generally lead to greater gains
but with diminishing returns that can even turn negative when volume exceeds recovery.
But let’s see how the categories stacked up, the results.
The researchers found that moderate and high set volumes were indeed overall better than
low set volume.
For measurements of the quadriceps and the biceps brachii, both moderate and high set
volume increased growth with no significant difference between the two.
For the trieps brachii, however, the researchers found that high set volume overall improved
muscle mass gains more than both low and moderate set volumes.
Overall, their findings suggest that performing less than 12 sets per muscle group per week
is not the best and doing 12-20 sets are more beneficial, and in some cases, more than 20
sets per week can be slightly better, but only for certain muscle groups.
Now, of course, the devil’s chocolate is in the details, so before you start doing
25 sets of tricep extensions in the squat rack, let’s take a closer look.
First, I wanna give a shoutout to the folks over at Examine for their super awesome article
of this very study.
I will be referencing their coverage in this section since I agree with pretty much their
entire article.
For this video, I’m going to cover two main points mentioned in the article that I felt
were the most important to share with all of you guys.
The first thing is how the studies in the analysis actually counted sets for any given
muscle.
At times, when performing multi-joint compound exercises, researchers might attribute equal
volume to all the muscles involved in that exercise even though they aren’t all under
equal stress and tension.
This might misattribute too much or too little volume to a given muscle, which can throw
off the findings.
For example, there’s a clear difference between performing 20 sets of a combination
of bench press, shoulder press, and triceps extensions to train your triceps, which most
would say sounds pretty normal, versus doing 20 sets of JUST triceps extensions.
Presses involve way more muscles and the volume loads are very different.
They’re clearly not equal even though the number of sets are identical.
The second point: the studies in the analysis took sets very close to muscular failure.
This is not exactly a critique and it’s common for research to do this, but because
of this, the findings might not apply to everyone.
Some lifters, especially beginners, often stop well before failure for each set, so
their tolerance for higher volume might be different compared to more experienced lifters
pushing close to failure.
Also, pushing close to failure for each set and even going all the way to failure means
more recovery will be needed since you’re pretty much beating your muscles up to its
furthest point.
Just like when you beat up that extra hot habanero carne asada burrito, you’re gonna
need some extra time on the toilet, but only after you clocked in for your shift.
The recovery cost effects can be slightly mitigated by only pushing slightly close to
failure or saving muscular failure for only the last set of an exercise, and more so only
for isolation exercises.
But again, the point being made here is that the research doesn’t completely mimic everyone’s
training style, which affects its ability for general practical applications.
So two big points, volume attribution and training to failure, which we should consider
when analyzing this study.
But even if we disregard these points, with the findings as is, did we really learn anything
new?
Ehhh, not really.
Even though this is a nice little nugget of novel curiosity, in my opinion, it doesn’t
really provide solid enough evidence to suggest more sets to be worth your while.
In the end, established data and recommendations stay much the same.
For those of you unaware of the recommendations, training each muscle 2-3 times per week and
staying within that 12-20 set range is good enough for most.
You can sometimes push a few more sets if you’re stuck at a plateau, but sets are
only factor you can adjust.
You can mess around with your frequency, rep ranges and weights as well.
Just make sure you compensate with adequate recovery.
And that’s where we are.
Good study but overall still much of the same.
Now if you enjoyed information like this, or even just learning about anything health
and fitness related, then I HIGHLY recommend checking out Examine.com.
Examine is a website completely dedicated to providing evidence-based health and nutrition
information, referencing thousands of studies, including their absolutely immense archive
on supplement research.
And if you sign up to be a member, you can get access to my personal favorite section,
Examine’s study summaries.
This gives you access to things like their coverage of the study I just talked about,
as well as hundreds, if not thousands of other study summaries covering all types of health
and nutrition research, like research on testosterone, research on sleep, fat loss, and even mental
health, just to name a few.
And they provide a whole new set of summaries every single month.
If that sounds awesome to you, check out Examine and sign up in the link in the description.
Full disclosure, it IS an affiliate link so you will be helping me out by signing up through
that, so thank you if you do, but most of all, you’ll be helping out your own health
and fitness knowledge and of course, your beautiful and amazing gains.
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As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to get your PROTEIN.