Training volume guide
How Gryper counts sets for each muscle
Each completed set gives its exercise’s primary muscles one full set of credit and its secondary muscles a fraction, usually half. Warm-up sets and sets you did not tick as done are left out; drop sets and sets to failure count as one set each.
Checked against Gryper’s app on
Primary versus secondary muscles
Every exercise in Gryper’s library lists the muscles it trains, split into primary and secondary. A primary muscle gets 1 full set for every set you complete. A secondary muscle gets a fraction set by the exercise: half a set for most exercises, as little as a fifth where a muscle only stabilises, and up to 0.8 where it does a lot of the work.
| Muscle | Role | Credit per set |
|---|---|---|
| Chest | Primary | 1 set |
| Triceps | Secondary | a fraction (typically 0.5) |
| Front deltoid | Secondary | a fraction (typically 0.5) |
Credit is summed per muscle, so the weekly number on the Muscles screen is “effective sets” and can be a decimal, such as 9.5.
Worked example: a push day
| Exercise | Chest | Triceps | Front deltoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench press ×3 | 3 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Incline dumbbell press ×3 | 3 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Cable fly ×3 | 3 | – | – |
| Triceps pushdown ×3 | – | 3 | – |
| Total | 9 | 6 | 3 |
Nine effective chest sets from one session already clears chest’s MEV of 8. Triceps sit at 6, right on MEV, even with only one direct exercise, because the presses do part of the work.
Do warm-ups, failed sets and drop sets count?
| Set | Counts? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Completed working set | Yes, 1 set | Every set you tick as done |
| Set taken to failure | Yes, 1 set | Counts like any working set |
| Drop set | Yes, 1 set | Counts as one set, not one per drop |
| Warm-up set | No | Excluded from volume, records and totals |
| Set not ticked as done | No | Planned or skipped sets never count |
Sub-muscles and the parent total
Some muscles are split into regions on the map, such as upper and lower chest or front and rear deltoid. The body map shows each region separately, but totals, landmark bars and balance numbers roll regions up into the parent muscle, taking the larger credit when an exercise hits several regions, so nothing is counted twice.
Custom exercises
When you create an exercise you tap the muscles it works on the body map and mark each as primary or secondary. A primary muscle gets a full set for every set you complete and a secondary muscle gets half a set. Tag only the muscles that do real work, since an untagged muscle gets no credit at all.
Questions
Why is my weekly set count a decimal?
Because secondary muscles get part of a set. Two sets of rows might give your biceps 1 effective set, so totals like 7.5 are normal.
Does Gryper count reps or weight toward volume?
Not for the MEV, MAV and MRV grade, which counts sets. Weight × reps (tonnage) is tracked separately for each session and muscle.