How Many Sets Are Too Many?
Is There Too Much of a Good Thing?
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The method of counting sets ('direct' vs 'fractional') changes the optimal volume by over 5x.
Most people assume 'sets' are sets—this study proves how you define them completely changes the recommended volume. A chest workout with 4 direct sets and 6 fractional sets is treated as 7 total sets, not 10.
Practical Takeaways
For strength: Stick to 2–3 direct sets per muscle per session. For hypertrophy: Aim for 8–12 fractional sets per session, mixing direct and indirect movements.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
The method of counting sets ('direct' vs 'fractional') changes the optimal volume by over 5x.
Most people assume 'sets' are sets—this study proves how you define them completely changes the recommended volume. A chest workout with 4 direct sets and 6 fractional sets is treated as 7 total sets, not 10.
Practical Takeaways
For strength: Stick to 2–3 direct sets per muscle per session. For hypertrophy: Aim for 8–12 fractional sets per session, mixing direct and indirect movements.
Publication
Authors
Jacob Remmert, Joshua Pelland, Zac Robinson, Seth Hinson, Michael Zourdos
Related Content
Claims (5)
How you count your weightlifting sets—whether you count every little part or just the full sets—can change how we think about how much lifting helps you get stronger versus bigger muscles.
Doing more sets in a workout helps you get stronger and bigger, but after a certain point, extra sets don’t help much—especially for strength. You hit your sweet spot for strength with fewer sets than you need for muscle growth.
Doing more sets of weightlifting in one session can help you build bigger muscles and get stronger, but after a certain point, doing even more sets doesn’t help much—around 2 sets is enough for strength, and 11 sets is enough for muscle growth.
We don’t know yet if doing more than 20 sets of weight training in one session helps you get stronger or if it’s just too much and stops helping—so don’t assume there’s a clear cutoff point where more sets stop being useful.
If you're trying to figure out how much muscle you build from each workout, you need to account for how long you've been training and how long the program has been going—otherwise, the numbers won't make sense.