Cluster sets and traditional sets elicit similar muscular hypertrophy: a volume and effort-matched study in resistance-trained individuals

For people who train casually, lifting lighter weights more times and lifting heavier weights fewer times produce similar muscle growth if the total work done is the same, but the heavier-weight approach might lead to slightly stronger performance.

When the total amount of work and effort are the same, lifting weights that engage multiple muscles at once does not lead to more muscle growth in a specific muscle than lifting weights that focus only on that muscle.

In people who regularly lift weights, using cluster sets or traditional sets with the same total workload and effort produces the same amount of increase in muscle thickness and lean tissue mass in the thigh after 8 weeks of training.

Among people who regularly lift weights, training twice a week with either cluster sets or traditional sets—while keeping the total workload and effort the same—leads to an increase in muscle size over eight weeks.

Among people who regularly lift weights, using cluster sets with short rests between reps does not lead to more total weight lifted over time compared to traditional sets, as long as both methods leave the same number of reps in reserve.

In young people who regularly lift weights, performing leg exercises twice a week for 8 weeks with a specific number of sets and reps increases the size of thigh muscle and lean tissue, regardless of whether the sets are done traditionally or with short breaks between reps.