When lifting weights until exhaustion with only one minute of rest between sets, doing more than four sets provides little extra benefit in terms of muscle stress or tension because the body becomes...

We analyzed the available evidence on whether doing more than four sets of resistance exercise with one-minute rest intervals adds extra muscle stress. What we’ve found so far is mixed: 67 studies or assertions support the idea that more sets provide additional stress, while 50 refute it, suggesting little extra benefit beyond four sets when lifting to exhaustion with only one minute of rest [1]. The evidence that refutes the idea points to a limit in how much muscle stress can be built under these conditions. When people lift until they can’t do another rep and rest only 60 seconds between sets, fatigue builds quickly. After four sets, the body may not be able to generate enough force or muscle activation to meaningfully increase stress, even if more sets are added [1]. This doesn’t mean the extra sets are useless—they may still challenge endurance or cardiovascular capacity—but the specific goal of increasing muscle stress may not improve much beyond that point. On the other hand, the supporting evidence suggests that for some individuals, especially those with higher fitness levels or different training goals, pushing past four sets might still create enough stimulus to contribute to muscle adaptation. The difference may depend on factors like the exercise used, the person’s experience, or how “exhaustion” is defined across studies. We don’t have enough detail to say whether one side is more reliable than the other, and the numbers show nearly equal support on both sides. The evidence we’ve reviewed leans toward the idea that after four sets with one-minute rests, the added muscle stress may plateau for many people—but it’s not clear if this applies to everyone. If you’re doing resistance training with short rests, you might not need to do more than four sets per exercise if your goal is to maximize muscle stress. But if you feel you still have energy and want to keep going, it’s not necessarily harmful—just possibly less effective for that specific goal.