ex. Hey Omar, for a set to count towards training volume, it generally needs to be within around three reps of failure. So your quads should be okay. Thing is, you’ll be accumulating some fatigue over time, and so it’s important to occasionally take deload weeks where you let yourself fully recover. So we’ve talked about the ideal amount of training volume. I’d start with doing 4 sets per exercise, putting more emphasis on picking the very best exercises—the ones that really hit your target muscles hard. And it’d be hard to find a better starting point than this. Finally, not all lifts are equally fatiguing per set. I just wouldn’t go increasing the volume just yet. Outlift is designed to have a good foundation of the compound lifts and enough overall volume to stimulate a good amount of growth everywhere, but the idea is that you customize it to drive the volume higher for your target areas. I’ve been through a few phases of 4-day Outlift and really like it. Lifting moderate to heavy weights for 6-12 reps is optimal rep range for hypertrophy. Progressive Overload Training Principle 101, Hypertrophy Vs Strength Training Protocol, What Is Muscle Hypertrophy & How To Maximize It, Tips to Redesign Your Gym to Get More Clients in the Room. After that, we'll keep you updated on the most important muscle-building research, lifting methods, and workout routines. If you’re taking long rests between sets, roughly 6 sets per muscle group per training session is a good target for most individuals looking to maximize hypertrophy. What are your thoughts on trying to get in to the optimal hypertrophy range for all muscles at the same time? Perhaps that’s because it puts more stress on our bones and connective tissues, perhaps it’s because the deadlift is harder on our hands, perhaps it’s because the deadlift is slightly heavier, or perhaps it’s simply that training our posterior chain is more fatiguing than training our quads. I really do love this article btw. But it sounds like what you’re doing is good. This matters to me because i prefer to use chins and dips and a primary exercise instead of an accessory exercise. For optimal muscle growth, we’d want to be doing 2–5 workouts per week, each containing somewhere between 3–8 sets per muscle group. 2-3 sets per exercise lead to a much greater increment in muscle size than a single set. Whatever the reason, though, depending on the lifts we choose, we’ll benefit from different training volumes. If you want a customizable workout program (and full guide) that builds these principles in, check out our Outlift Intermediate Bulking Program. MON Bench, Incline DB, High to Low Crossover However, this can vary between people and also between muscle groups. This is often why 8-15 reps are recommended for building muscle, as it’s right in the middle of the zone. Set 3: 8 reps with 185 pounds (1 rep in reserve) When you’re training for muscle growth, there’s nothing wrong with taking long rest periods. It’s just making your workouts convenient. Hey, if you had to choose between a weekly volume of, 4 sets per exercise per workout strictly 3 times a week (12 total weekly sets per excercise), or 6 sets per exercise per workout strictly 3 times a week (18 total weekly sets per exercise).. Your graph shows that the approach with “optimum” volume of 22 sets actually had more growth. If you overtrain your muscle you may get negative results. I did have another question about “reps in the tank” when it comes to lifting heavy, compound movements. Are 3-Day Push/Pull/Legs Split Routines Good for Building Muscle? So, yeah, if you’re doing upper-body pushing more than once per week, you might want to do a standard bench one day, an incline bench another day, push-ups on another. “To illustrate this, a recent study was just published showing that guys training their quads twice per week saw maximal growth with six sets per workout (12 sets per week). I’ll go over the research and opinions of the two leading volume experts, but this is a constantly evolving field, so these aren’t meant to be the final word, just the best recommendations we can garner at the moment. Thank you for reading this far. 3-minute rest periods yielded more muscle growth than 1-minute rest periods in the 8–12 rep range (, 5-minute rest periods roughly doubled the amount of protein synthesis compared to 1-minute rest periods (, 30-second rest periods yielded similar muscle growth to. Keep in mind that we want to work our volume up gradually and as needed, rather than immediately jumping all the way to the highest training volumes. Training Frequency: How Often Should You Work Out to Build Muscle? However, the catch when counting the number of hard sets is that these need be sets that are designed to stimulate muscle growth. Other muscles, such as the muscles in our necks, aren’t stimulated whatsoever by any of the big compound lifts, and so if we want to see growth, we need to train them directly. However, for these sets ot count, they need to be within the so-called hypertrophy rep range. For example, there was a famous study by Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, that we covered in our strength training article. With a front squat, for instance, we’re intentionally working your upper spinal erectors, which are the ones that aren’t usually hit as hard. Now let’s talk about the minimum amount of training volume required to build muscle and gradually get bigger. One way of doing that is to keep your reps fairly fast and fresh. Shane Duquette and Marco Walker-Ng, BHSc, PTS. If that goes well and you want to try more, move up to 16, and then 20. If you’re trying to take a more minimalist approach to training, you can cut down your volume to just 2–5 sets per muscle group per week and still expect to maintain your progress. As a general rule of thumb, as an intermediate lifter, I’d recommend training your muscles after the soreness has dissipated. For instance, let’s say you’re doing 185 pounds for 8 repetitions as your working sets. Very helpful info specifically the remaining…, Though all types of eggs are super healthy to eat but the nutritional value of organic eggs are better as…, Eggs are a natural source of protein. People push closer to failure, they grind through slow reps, and they keep piling on volume even once they’re fatigued. Or at least using a different exercise. Marco Walker-Ng is the co-founder and strength coach of Outlift, Bony to Beastly, and Bony to Bombshell, and is a certified trainer (PTS) with a Bachelor's degree in Health Sciences (BHSc) from the University of Ottawa. (And, anecdotally, training my stubborn biceps and triceps with obscenely high volume for a couple of months allowed me to add around two inches to my arms, so I’m certainly a fan of that approach.). We build muscle just to practice their lifts choosing different exercises ) this helps us pace ourselves as ability... Used to be a total of nine challenging sets per muscle per session! There ’ s not ideal for building muscle comes to lifting heavy, others they! Reps stimulate maximal muscle growth, when you ’ re doing keep your reps fairly and! Just like all the way to failure, especially on our final sets heavy, others when bench... Too high can do that with 2–3 full-body workouts per week, which is right about perfect for building.... 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