How Many Sets are Needed to Build Muscle?
The Subconscious Fat of Building Muscle
Mr. Skeptical starts talking before I can write. “Last week, in your post, you put a picture at the end of the post, and I didn’t get a chance to comment on it.”
“You mean the one with me smelling my armpits?”
“Yes. Did you smell?”
I glare at him and answer as sarcastically as possible. “Yes, I smelled of toasted coconuts.” If you missed last week’s post, click here.
Mr. Skeptical glares back at me. I add, “Anything you want to ask about the pic I have on this post?”
“Nope.”
“Good because I’m sure the readers want me to start.”
Most workouts involve multiple sets, like doing four sets with ten repetitions each of the bench press. This would equate to bench lifting the weight 40 times with a break after each set.
Junk volume is a term commonly used in bodybuilding that refers to doing more repetitions or volume of work but not getting a result from it. I’m all for eliminating junk volume.
“By work, you mean lifting weights?” asks Mr. Skeptical.
“Yes, I mean lifting weights, calisthenics, and resistance bands. Any type of resistance that makes the body work creates more muscle.”
“What would be an example of junk volume?”
“An example of junk volume is doing multiple sets of an exercise, like bench pressing or dips. You only need to do one set to failure to see the benefit of muscle growth.”
“But wouldn’t doing multiple sets increase muscle size?”
“Nope.”
“This seems hard to believe.”
“It’s hard to believe because we have grown up thinking it’s so. We have some Subconscious Fat to clear up here on this topic. So, let’s get to it.
Subconscious Fat at 30,000 feet
Let’s start with how and when the idea of doing multiple sets began. It appears to be way back in the 1940s, an American doctor named Thomas Delorme was helping returning vets from the war.
He helped eliminate the idea that strenuous exercise was bad for you. One famous doctor named Dr. William Brady, who published a nationally syndicated health column at the time, said,
“Extreme effort is not desirable in any kind of physical training, nor is it good for the heart.”
Dr. Brady’s opinion was medicine’s policy at the time. However, Thomas Delorme didn’t believe it because he cured himself of rheumatic fever at the time by lifting weights. Thomas Delorme went on to become an MD and was sent to Chicago to help vets from war injuries.
At the Chicago hospital, he saw how the vets stayed injured and rarely recovered and left the hospital. So he started experimenting with a few patients, having them lift heavier weights. He achieved tremendous and quick results.
He received financing for clinical trials using Heavy-Resistance Exercises on 20 subjects. He called it Heavy-Resistance because using the words weight training would’ve offended the medical establishment that thought lifting weights was foolish and not helpful.
Dr. Thomas DeLorme helped change the paradigm of physical therapy at the time. He received the Legion of Merit Award from President Truman for revolutionizing Army physical therapy.
Dr. Thomas DeLorme became very influential in medicine. And what he did to rehab his patient was to have them first perform a set of 10 repetitions for lifting a heavy weight but at only 50% of the person’s maximum. This first set was to warm up the person. Then, the patient performed a second set at about 70% capacity. Finally, the patient did a third set with the total weight to failure.
In the final set, Dr. DeLorme called it the stimulation set, where muscle growth occurs. However, since he was so influential, everyone assumed one should do three sets. So, despite debunking one myth, he created another.
Mr. Skeptical chimes in, “Maybe he knew you only needed one set to see a change, but he figured you could sell the idea better if one promoted three sets.”
Wow, Mr. Skeptical isn’t being critical! How refreshing. “I’d say that’s a plausible explanation.”
The three or four-set myth was widely promoted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. In interviews and some of his books, he advocated doing multiple sets. However, he was genetically gifted and admitted to using steroids.
Nevertheless, some say Arnold exaggerated his workout routines for entertainment purposes, and it may have served him in getting movie roles. I loved the movies and can’t speak for him, so I’m referring to what others have said, yet I don’t know. And I don’t care. If he embellished to get movie roles, it obviously worked for him.
Let’s look now at scientific truth. Do scientific studies exist proving that one set is enough for significant muscle growth?
Subconscious Fat at 10,000 feet
Yes, there are.
The first one I’m mentioning did an overall view of all research in the last three decades for the best number of sets for maximum muscle growth stimulation. (Cited sources to studies numbered at end of this post.)
The investigation revealed four papers on the recommended number of sets to increase muscle mass. Three papers showed that single-set training is identical in muscle gains compared to doing more sets like 3 or 4. One paper showed that doing one set improved muscle gains over three sets in the biceps and elbow flexors area.
This study concluded that one set of strength training to failure was as effective as three sets for increasing knee flexion and extension strength and muscle thickness.
This study used three different groups. One group did three sets per muscle group, another did six, and the final group did 12 sets. The conclusion was that all groups gained muscle mass with no significant differences.
Imagine that! One group did four times the volume of work with no increase in muscle mass.
This study had one group do one set of elbow flexion, and another group did three sets of elbow flexion. The astonishing finding here was that the group that did one set had a 7.2% increase in muscle mass; the group that did three sets had a 5.9% increase in muscle mass. So the group that did one set to failure beat the group that did three sets.
Subconscious Fat at Eye-level
“It still seems hard to believe that one set is going to yield a better result than three or four,” says Mr. Skeptical.
“I know I get it. It does appear doubtful. But what we have to keep in mind is that most people don’t truly go to failure. Going to failure is not easy. When one goes to true failure, one should be hyperventilating. Some people scream when going to absolute failure.”
“Screaming in the gym would be embarrassing.”
“I don’t scream, but I’ll grunt because getting to failure isn’t easy. It’s hard work. Most people in the gym sit looking at their cell phones and never reach true failure. Look at the pic at the top of this post again. I’m very close to failure there. I’m pulling those bands hard.”
“Yeah, you look like you’re straining at the toilet again. You had a similar pic on the previous post.” Mr. Skeptical is all smiles, delighted to be making fun of me. I sigh and decide to ignore him.
Going to failure on one set is also known by many as high-intensity training. (HIT). There are many advocates of this type of training. Mike Mentzer was an early adopter of this method. He won Mr. America in 1972 and Mr. Universe in 1974 and 1976. So have many others using this method of training to get incredible results.
I look at Mr. Skeptical with a sly smile on my face. “Most muscle-bound men will do three to four sets, but those who get results go to complete failure on the last set. That is where the growth happens. What I’m saying is to skip the first two sets and do one good set to failure. One set to failure is enough. It’s been proven, and the results speak for themselves.”
Below is the link to a short response Mike Mentzer gave on how long he worked out to win Mr. Universe.
https://youtube.com/shorts/SOWovXxLOS0?feature=share
Practical Suggestions and Conclusions
If you still can’t fathom the idea that one set is as good as 3 or 4, then at the very least, go to complete failure on the last set. This is what I’ve done for years and what I still do with some of my clients.
“Wait a second. Why don’t you tell all your clients to do one set?”
Rrrrgh, I knew Mr. Skeptical wouldn’t keep quiet till I finished this newsletter. “Some people want a full hour to train, and even when I tell them about one-set training, they look at me funny. However, I always will make them go to failure on the last set. And for those older individuals, the warming up process takes longer, so doing more than one warm-up set isn’t a bad idea.”
In fact, after doing 50 jumping jacks to warm up yesterday, I tried doing my one set to failure on a wide-grip pull-up. It was a bad idea, for I ended up straining a muscle, getting a headache, and stopping my workout. I should’ve done a warm-up set before the wide-grip pull-up set to failure. I also often get clients at the gym who have already purchased one-hour training packages, so I must train them for an hour.
When one does one set training, a workout shouldn’t take more than a half hour. This frees up a lot of time.
Mr. Skeptical smirks and says, “Yeah, I bet you use that time to check out the good-looking women at the gym.”
Irritated, I squint at him. “Maybe, but I’m discreet about it.”
Another essential concept to keep in mind is time under tension. Time under tension is when your muscle works, lifts and puts down the weight. A good practice is to do a two-second count with every repetition. Two seconds to lift the weight and two seconds to bring it down. This forces one to move slowly, thus increasing the time under tension. Don’t worry so much about how many reps you do, for it doesn’t matter. Better to move slowly and go to failure because that will increase the muscle size, and moving slowly has the added benefit of decreasing injuries.
I suggest trying this out for 90 days to see what results you get. I know if you’re really going to failure, you will see results. That being said, the body does continually adapt. Some people would argue that after 90 days of one-set training, one needs to jump to three sets to increase muscle growth. This may be true, especially for professional bodybuilders, but I don’t think it’s true for the average person. One can also do many other forms of training, like Escalating Density Training, which I’ll explain in another newsletter.
Till next time, remember, be aware.
Research Fisher, James & Steele, James & Smith, Dave. (2013). Evidence-Based Resistance Training Recommendations for Muscular Hypertrophy. Medicina Sportive.
Starkey DB, Pollock ML, Ishida Y, Welsch MA, Brechue WF, Graves JE, Fiegenbaum MS. Effect of resistance training volume on strength and muscle thickness. Med Sci Sports Exercise. 1996 October 28.
Ostrowski, Karl J.; Wilson, Greg J.; Weatherby, Robert; Murphy, Peter W.; Little, Andrew D. The Effect of Weight Training Volume on Hormonal Output and Muscular Size and Function, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: August 1997- Volume 11- issue 3 p. 148-154.
Bottaro, Martin & Veloso, Joao & Wagner, Dale & Gentil, Paulo. (2011). Resistance training for strength and muscle thickness: Effect of number of sets and muscle group trained. Science and Sports. 26. p. 259-264.