How Many Sets Do You Really Need? What a Big New Study Says
One of the questions I hear most in the studio is some version of "Should I be doing more?" More sets, more days, more time in the gym. It's a fair question, and this fall a big new research review gave us a much clearer answer. Let me break it down for you in plain English.
The Study
The paper is The Resistance Training Dose Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains by Joshua Pelland and colleagues, published in the journal Sports Medicine in 2025. You can find it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-025-02344-w.
This wasn't one small experiment. The researchers pooled the results of 67 studies with more than 2,000 people to see how two things affect your results:
Volume: how many hard sets you do for a muscle each week.
Frequency: how many days a week you train that muscle.
What They Found
More sets = more muscle and more strength... up to a point. Gains kept climbing as weekly sets went up, but each extra set added a little less than the one before. Think of it like climbing a hill that slowly flattens out.
Strength levels off sooner than muscle size. If your main goal is getting stronger, you hit the "flat part of the hill" faster. Piling on extra sets buys you less.
Frequency matters more for strength than for size. Splitting the same work across more days didn't make much difference for building muscle. For strength, though, practising a lift more often helped, again with diminishing returns.
Not every set counts the same. The researchers found the numbers made the most sense when "indirect" work (like your triceps helping on a bench press) was counted as about half a set. Your arms are getting some work from pressing, just not as much as from targeted arm work.
What This Means for You
After more than 20 years of coaching, this lines up with what I've seen on the floor. Here's how I'd put it to work:
If you're short on time, don't panic. A handful of quality sets per muscle each week gets you a big chunk of the results. The first sets are the most valuable ones.
If you want to build muscle, add sets slowly. Add one or two sets per muscle per week every few weeks, and watch how you recover. Sore for days or feeling run down? Pull back.
If you want to get stronger, practise more often. Squatting, pressing or deadlifting two or three times a week, with fewer sets each time, usually beats one marathon session.
Make every set count. None of this works with "junk" sets. Finish each working set within a few reps of failure, with good form and a controlled tempo (remember last week's post?).
Count your sets honestly. If your program has lots of pressing and pulling, your arms are already getting work. You may not need as much extra arm work as you think.
A Few Common Mistakes
Copying a pro's program. More volume isn't better if you can't recover from it. Start where you are.
Jumping volume all at once. Going from 6 sets to 20 overnight is a recipe for sore joints, not faster gains.
Forgetting about life stress. Sleep, work and family all draw from the same recovery bank. Your program should fit your week, not fight it.
Train Smarter, Not Just Longer
The big takeaway is simple: more work helps, but the best program is the one that gives you the most return for the time and energy you actually have. That's exactly the balance I build into every client's plan.
If you'd like help finding your sweet spot this fall, I'd love to work with you. I offer 1-on-1, partner, and small-group training in my home studio here in London, and I'm now taking on remote coaching clients across Canada. You can learn more at whosyourtrainer.com.
Yours, in health,
-Coach Dave
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