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Training volume guide

How many sets per muscle per week should you do?

For most lifters, somewhere between about 8 and 16 hard sets per muscle per week is productive for the big muscles, with smaller muscles needing less. Start near the bottom of that range (MEV), add sets over a training block while you keep progressing, and back off before you pass the most you can recover from (MRV).

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The short answer

  • Big muscles (chest, lats, quads, shoulders): about 8 sets a week to start, up to about 16 for most people, rarely more than 22.
  • Smaller or heavily overlapped muscles (biceps, triceps, rhomboids, glutes, abs): about 4–6 direct sets a week to start, because pressing, pulling and squatting already train them.
  • Lower back: little direct work. Deadlifts, rows and squats load it heavily, which is why its MRV is only 12.

These are the ranges behind Gryper’s MEV, MAV and MRV for each muscle; the MEV, MAV and MRV guide lists every one.

What “hard set” means

Set counts assume each set is taken close to failure, usually within one to three reps of it. Easy sets add fatigue without much growth. Gryper cannot see effort, and the live workout logs every set you tick as a working set, so keep warm-ups out of your logged sets (or leave them unticked) to keep the count honest.

Adding sets across a training block

  1. Start the block near MEV for the muscles you care most about.
  2. Each week or two, add a set or two to those muscles while your lifts and pump keep improving.
  3. When performance stalls, joints ache or you dread sessions, you are near your MRV.
  4. Deload: drop back toward MEV for a week, then start the next block.

Gryper’s Muscles screen shows each muscle’s weekly sets against its landmarks, problems first, so you can see which muscles to add to and which to pull back.

Split the sets across the week

Most lifters do better spreading a muscle’s weekly sets over two or more sessions than doing them all at once; past roughly 8–10 hard sets for one muscle in a session, extra sets add little. Gryper counts the week as a whole, so it does not matter which days the sets land on.

Questions

Is 10 sets per muscle per week enough?

For most muscles, yes: 10 sits inside the productive range for every major muscle in Gryper’s defaults. Whether it is optimal for you depends on how close to failure you train and how you respond.

Do beginners need fewer sets?

Usually. Beginners grow from less volume, so starting near MEV is plenty. Gryper uses the same landmarks for everyone, so a beginner sitting in the low end of the productive range is doing fine.