Most of us at some point in our lives will go on a quest to build muscle. And honestly, making that decision is always the right move.

The positive effects of building muscle are clear and obvious. NO, you won’t get “too bulky” and look like a pro bodybuilder. NO, you won’t have to train like a powerlifter and pummel your body into submission every workout.

YES, you can work hard, build muscle, and experience many of the life-changing effects that lead to better health and longevity (oh, and you’ll look great, too!).

But what type of program should you be on to do this? How often should you lift weights? How many sets/reps are optimal? How little is too little, and how much is too much?

We’re going to answer those questions and more in this article. Let’s dive into exactly how much you should train to build muscle.

The Basics

Let’s start by defining some key terms we’ll be working with in this article.

First off, let’s talk about volume since it’s our focus. Volume refers to the amount of work you do in the gym. This can be viewed as volume in a single training session, across an entire week, or even longer. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll be looking at daily and weekly volume. It’s simply the number of repetitions you perform for each exercise, which is going to be influenced by the amount of weight you lift. The more weight you lift, and the closer to failure you get, the higher the intensity of each movement gets.

Repetitions (or “reps”) are pretty straight forward — a rep is a single movement for any given exercise. For example, one repetition of a biceps curl would be curling the weight all the way up, and then lowering the weight all the way back down. Same can be said for a bench press. One rep for that movement would be lowering the bar to your chest, and then pushing it back up.

Repetitions are grouped into sets. Sets are groups of consecutive repetitions. You’ll often hear language such as, “I’ve got 3 sets of 8 reps” for a specific movement. That means someone is doing three groups of eight consecutive reps.

A training session is your entire workout on a given day. And thus, your training volume is considered to be the amount of reps and sets you do within a single training session. This can be expanded over any length of time if you want to look at volume more globally when it comes to your program.

Recovery

I really like how Dr. Mike Israetel has framed the concept of training volume. To put it simply, you can either be doing too much, too little, or just the right amount.

That’s right, this is basically a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” concept.

In short, our body needs enough of a stimulus to force it to grow, but not so much of a stimulus that it can’t recover from session to session.

The basic idea behind building muscle and strength is that you first have to give your body a stimulus through weight training. If the stimulus is enough of a challenge to your body, it will be forced to recover and adapt to be better able to handle a similar stimulus in the future.

So, you need to be working hard. But you can also easily overdo it in the gym.

Part of what makes lifting to build muscle tricky is that we can sometimes do more work than our body is actually able to recover from. So just because you can do 25 sets of biceps work in one workout doesn’t mean you NEED 25 sets of biceps work. You might not be able to recover from that much of a stimulus (chances are, you probably can’t).

Similarly, if you only do three sets of biceps work once a week, it’s probably not going to be enough to grow, not matter how intense those sets are.

We need an adequate amount of volume. But not too much. And we need to do it consistently over time to see progress.

Sound confusing? Don’t worry. There’s a lot of research that can point us in the right direction.

Research Evidence

When we look to research on this topic, there are some helpful guidelines that seem to be effective for the majority of people. Dr. Brad Schoenfeld is a leading researcher on muscle growth, and he recommends 10-20 sets a week. Mike Matthews takes this a step further and explains we should be doing 10-20 “hard sets” to make it clear that we need to be working hard in order to build muscle.

And while we can do more than 10-20 hard sets in any given training session, for most people those higher volumes should probably be reserved for occasional use. A recent study saw greater muscle and strength gains in up to 32 sets per week, but it’s likely more appropriate to cycle between high- and low-volume training as “a more sustainable approach instead of just using really high volumes over the long term.”

Furthermore, those sets are made up of reps, and research shows we can do anywhere from 6 to 20 reps (or maybe even more) and successfully build muscle. Make each set challenging, and choose a rep scheme that you enjoy.

Coaching Cues

OK, we’ve defined terms, we’ve gone over concepts, we’ve looked at the research…

Anyone else still confused? Haha.

It’s important to go through the details to make it clear this isn’t something that’s cut and dried. We all want the magic combination.

“Do ___ sets of ___ exercise for ___ reps and you’ll instantly gain muscle!”

Unfortunately, that’s not real life. A big part of building muscle and strength is experimenting on yourself. Some people respond really well to high volumes. Others respond really well to low volumes. The only way you’ll know what works well for you is to start trying things in the gym.

So here’s my recommendation (and this is where I start many of my clients who want to build muscle).

Start with 10 sets a week for each muscle group within the 8-12 rep range. This is on the low end of the recommendations, but you’re better off starting small with the ability to build as opposed to starting by doing too much and then find yourself lost.

You can do those 10 sets in one training session, or you can break those 10 sets up and do them across multiple training sessions.

Do this for 2-3 months and track your progress. Do you see growth in the mirror? Is the scale weight going up at an appropriate rate? Are you progressing in your exercises and lifting more weight?

If the answers to most, or all, of these questions is yes, then you’re probably on the right track. I’d recommend you continue doing what you’re doing.

If your answer is no, then perhaps we need to look at trying more volume.

A Final Note

We can’t talk about the topic of muscle growth without mentioning that nutrition is going to play a monumental role in your growth and development.

If you’re not eating enough, you won’t grow. Just like if you’re not training hard enough.

And within your diet, if you’re not consuming enough protein on a daily basis, you’re also going to struggle mightily to build muscle.

This article is about training volume recommendations, but it seems worth a mention so that you understand it’s more than just lifting weights that leads to progress.

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Putting all of the pieces together to successfully build muscle can be complicated. Hiring a coach can help you get things right. If you’re interested in building muscle and would like coaching to guide you through the process, feel free to contact me and we can talk through your goals and the coaching services that can help!

Thanks for reading!

CGF