It’s no secret, everyone looks better with more muscle mass. In fact, most serious lifters want to gain as much muscle mass as they can. Not only does it look good but it can increase your strength and functional performance. This article is going to review some of the best research to answer just how many exercises per muscle group you should do. We will also answer other common questions, like how often you need to workout each week to maximize gains. Lastly, we’ll give you some great programs to follow to build some serious muscle mass. Keep reading for more.
As I alluded to, we’re going to talk about a lot more than how many exercises per muscle group you should be doing. If you think about it, this is an incomplete question. Is this the number of exercises per workout? It also leaves us wondering how often we should work each major muscle group on a weekly basis. Rest assured we’ll review these issue as well.
My goal for you, at the end of this article, is for you to have a solid idea how many exercises, sets, and reps you should do each week for different muscle groups. I also want you to know the best rep ranges for muscle growth. Finally, I’ll give you some of my best bodybuilding programs, that will keep you within these ranges. Here’s a quick overview.
How Many Exercises Per Muscle Group Overview
- Most athletes need at least 40-60 hard reps per session, per muscle group
- Each muscle group is ideally trained 2-3 per week
- Research has reported muscle mass increase with rep ranges between 5-30 reps
- Muscle fiber composition affects the total volume each muscle needs
- Individuals will vary on their ability to tolerate more volume
- Workouts with large muscle groups should have no more than 3-4 exercises
- You can add in more exercises for small muscle groups
Most athletes are surprised how little work they actually need to gain muscle mass. Beginner and intermediate athletes need very little to promote muscle gain. As you become more advanced, you’ll need more exercises, and overall volume (sets and reps) to keep building muscle mass.
It also needs to be said that there is a limit to the amount of muscle mass anyone can build, without PEDs or anabolic steroids. I highly recommend checking out this calculator where I give you a good idea where your natural muscular limit lies for both strength and muscle size. It’s based off of some great field research on natural bodybuilders. I’ve found it to be reasonably accurate for my own athletes as well.
Before we go further into answering these questions, we need to review the three mechanisms that actually cause muscle growth.
The 3 Mechanisms of Building Muscle
While research is ever evolving, aiming to give a clear picture of the mechanisms of hypertrophy, it’s clear that there are three primary drivers of muscle gain. In no particular order they are: mechanical tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress. These three mechanisms will be crucial to your understanding of how many exercises per muscle group you should do.
Mechanical Tension
Mechanical tension is the easiest mechanism to understand. Your muscles fibers/nerves can accurately measure the amount of tension that they experience. While you must experience some mechanical tension in the form of heavy weight, you don’t need to lift your rep max all day. That’s impossible, and wouldn’t work very well.
Muscle Damage
One of the biggest drivers of hypertrophy is muscle damage. This is caused when the cells in your muscle fibers are damaged as a result of lifting weights. This is one of the main reasons you experience soreness in major muscle groups that are worked hard. Naturally, these damaged cells signal to your body to repair them.
Metabolic Stress
The most under appreciated driver of muscle growth is metabolic stress. This is the biggest difference between standard bodybuilding programs and a research backed full-body workout program (like mine). I’ve included specific programming, that will help your body build up metabolic stress and their by-products. These by-products also signal your body to build more muscle tissue, to mitigate metabolic stress in the future. Next, let’s dive into the research so we can start answering our questions.
How Many Exercises Per Muscle Group is Best?
To really answer this question we need to define what the goal is. If you simply want to maintain your muscle mass, then you can get away with lifting much less than if you want to gain muscle mass, as quickly as possible. In fact, total lifting volume is one of the most misunderstood variables in a lifting program.
In my previous article, where I reviewed a meta-analysis of over 200 studies on muscle building, I discovered that the ideal amount of volume for most athletes is much lower than you would suspect. These studies examined biceps and quadriceps growth for thousands of athletes, to best determine what caused hypertrophy. These infographics nicely summarize their findings
The research that I highlighted in that article examined all relevant studies in order to determine how much training volume caused the most overall muscle mass during weight training. The researchers also examined which exercise intensities were best to build the most muscle, as well as how often each of your major muscle groups should be trained per week.
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While this research gives a great starting place for a resistance training program, it has a glaring flaw. The vast majority of these participants were beginner, or intermediate athletes, who didn’t have a ton of experience in the gym.
If you’ve played with my muscle mass calculator, you’ll see that newbies always gain the most muscle mass in the beginning stages of their time in the gym. This means that what works for them, isn’t likely to be sufficient for more advanced lifters.
Now that we know what works for beginner and intermediate lifters, let’s take a look at some research on high volume lifting for advanced athletes. This will give us a good idea of how many exercise per muscle group we might be able to lift on the high end.
How Many Exercises Per Major Muscle Group is Best?
It can be quite difficult to find muscle building research for advanced lifters. This is because there’s a smaller group of people that fall into this category. It’s very easy to find folks that have never seen the inside of the gym, which explains why the majority of Americans look the way we do!
This research article is entitled, ” High Resistance–Training Volume Enhances Muscle Thickness in Resistance-Trained Men.” The authors of this study noted that the vast majority of research on strength training for muscle hypertrophy artificially designates 10+ weekly sets, per muscle group, as high volume. If you’ve spent any time in the gym, you’ll know that you’re only half way through a workout routine at the 10 set mark.
They realized that there was a real need to examine how high volume resistance training programs affect muscle gain, for athletes that have more than a year in the gym. This is exactly what they did. They recruited 27 men in their twenties, and early thirties, who had been lifting for 2+ years. Prior to this study, these athletes averaged 5 days per week in the gym. These guys sound like they’re following some of my programs!
They’re also relatively strong. They had an average bench press of 98kg or 215 pounds, at an average bodyweight of 177 pounds (80kg). Their average 1 rep max back squat was 114kg or 251 pounds. These are pretty good numbers, even if the back squat is a bit low compared to the bench press.
If you want to try my most popular hybrid bodybuilding program then check this out!
The Research Protocol
After the researchers did their baseline strength, and muscle mass measurements, they put the trainees through an 8 week program, that was designed to maximize muscle growth in the arms and legs. Along with the strength numbers, the researchers were interested in measuring biceps and quad thickness, so they designed a specific program to work on those areas of fitness.
They split the 27 trainees into three groups, low, mid, and high volume. The lowest volume group started at 16 sets per body part, per week. The middle group was 24 sets, and the high volume group was 32 sets. All groups followed the exact same 4 day per week lifting program, with the only change being the number of sets each group did.
They also had the research participants fill out a food log a few days during the protocol. They wanted to see if there were any changes for protein intake, or overall nutrition. Surprisingly, there did not appear to be any changes from a dietary perspective. Now, let’s take a look at the results.
Building Muscle Mass Research Results
Drumroll please (slowly and inexpertly opens envelope and puts glasses on). The high volume group takes home the gains trophy. They built the most muscle mass, and they built the most strength, by a wide margin. Honestly, I’m glad they made the most progress, as they put in a brutal amount of hard work. Here’s a sample of one of their workouts.
Sample High Volume Muscle Building Workout
Bench Press: 8 x 8-10 RM
Dumbbell Fly: 8 x 8-10 RM
Cable Triceps: 8 x 8-10 RM
Parallel Back Squat: 8 x 8-10 RM
Leg Extension: 8 x 8-10 RM
If you really dig into the study, the authors gave the athletes only 1 minute of rest between sets, and 2 minutes of rest between exercises. They also controlled the tempo of each rep, which ended up being normal tempo for lifting. The researchers did a very good of job controlling as many variables as they could. This allowed them to see what effect increased volume had on hypertrophy, and strength gains.
The researchers found a pronounced effect for strength. The 32 set group gained the most upper body, and lower body strength. In only 8 weeks of training, the highest volume group gained 28.7% on their 1RM bench. They also gained 25.4% strength in their 1RM back squat. These are astounding numbers, considering that they didn’t lift any sets above 85% of 1RM, which most researchers would consider essential to gain strength. Here are the specific numbers.
These numbers are impressive. Even the lowest volume group gained 16-23% on their lifts. Next let’s take a look at the increases in muscle thickness. As you’ll see, these results will follow the same general trend. Higher volume training yielded better results.
High Volume Training Hypertrophy Results
Recall that the researchers measured muscle thickness at three locations on the body. They measured this with an ultrasound machine, which is much more accurate than using a tape measure. Prepare to be amazed by these results.
Biceps % Increase
- 16 Set – .5%
- 24 Set – 1.3%
- 32 Set – 3.1%
Triceps % Increase
- 16 Set – .8%
- 24 Set – 4%
- 32 Set – 7%
Quads % Increase
- 16 Set – 2.1%
- 24 Set – 5.6%
- 32 Set – 9.4%
If we break these compound exercises, multi joint movements, and isolation movements down, we can make some useful distinctions. We will also see that they tend to follow along with our previous research recommendations. Let’s take a look.
Compound Movement Exercises and Total Sets and Reps
In the sample workout split we can see that there is only one compound movement for for the upper body (chest muscles), and one for the lower body. Each compound movement is 8 sets of 8-10 reps, targeting larger muscle groups . This means that the total volume is 64 – 80 reps for a multi-joint lift.
This is the same story for the parallel back squat. Each athlete is between 64-80 reps on this movement as well. It’s easy to see that this volume isn’t that much higher than our beginner/intermediate recommendations of 40-60 hard reps.
Next let’s take a look at the isolation exercises for the smaller muscles, and smaller muscle groups.
How Many Isolation Exercises Per Muscle Group is Best ?
For the upper body, there were two isolation exercises which totaled 16 sets of around 128-160 additional reps. The lower body only had one isolation movement for the quads (leg extensions), which added 8 more sets of 64-80 more reps. I think this helps clarify how many exercises per muscle group is best.
If you want to check out another great muscular growth program then take a look at this.
How Many Exercises Per Muscle Group is Best: Recommendations
For newer athletes I see no reason why they shouldn’t stick to 40-60 hard reps per workout. Moreover, we should always prioritize compound lifts over isolation movements. The most important factor is that you achieve this volume through a variety of different exercises, movement planes, and angles.
For example, you could do a back workout with one back exercises (6 sets of 10 reps of pull ups) and hit your volume goal. As that is only a vertical pulling movement, you are neglecting some back development by sticking to one exercise. You would be better off splitting your volume between two movements such as 3×10 pull ups, and 3×10 dumbbell row.
This captures more movement angles, and allows you to utilize different back muscles. This will help you develop a balanced physique and better muscular development. Next let’s talk about how many times per week you should lift for best results.
How Many Times Should You Lift Per Week?
Luckily for us a company called Renaissance Periodization has put together handy, research based guide that breaks down how many sets, reps, and weekly frequency we should use to build muscle . Check out this screen shot from their guide. Here is the link to the explanation page for it.
This guide nicely sums up the ideal volume range we should seek to work between. You can easily see that most body parts are ideally trained 2-3 times per week, just as we previously recommended. Some body parts, like calves, biceps, and traps, can be trained more often, as they have more slow twitch muscle fibers and can withstand high volume.
I highly recommend checking out this article, where they review how to build volume safely. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t jump into the highest volume range and expect to be uninjured. You need to acclimatize your body to that level of stress, otherwise you’ll find that too much volume is worse than not enough.
Now let’s review how heavy you should be lifting to build muscle mass. I bet you’ll be surprised.
How Heavy Should You Lift To Maximize Muscle Gain?
Our infographics above indicate that 66-73% of 1RM is the best place to build hypertrophy. To provide some context, if you can deadlift 315 lbs, you should be working between 210 – 230 lbs. For those of you who regularly strength train, that’s going to blow your mind.
We know that mechanical tension is only one of the three mechanisms of hypertrophy, and as a result, we don’t actually need to lift super heavy weight to build muscle mass. The important thing to remember is that you need to lift heavy enough to drive adaptation, but not so heavy as to make recovery impossible.
This infographic nicely sums the issue up. If gaining mass is your goal, then moderate loads are sufficient to drive muscle growth. If you want to build strength, then heavy loads will be superior, however, they do not deliver optimum muscle gain. Next let’s talk about set size to build muscle mass.
What Sized Sets Are Best for Building Muscle?
This is one area where there is wide range to choose from. Check out this article from Bar Bend, where they interview Dr. Brad Schoenfeld and discuss this very issue. Brad is one of the worlds foremost experts on bodybuilding research.
He states that between 5-30 reps can be utilized to build muscle mass. As a practical consideration, we need to keep in mind that in order to maximize muscle growth we should probably stick somewhere in the middle of that rep range.
After all, you can’t generate as much mechanical tension if you’re doing a 30 RM set. By necessity, that load will be lower than if you did a heavy set of 10. Moreover, it is important to realize that you can certainly make progress at the lower end of the scale is well.
Next let’s discuss some of my most popular muscle building programs. Almost all of them are free, and I’ve taken the guess work out of reps, sets, and how many exercises per muscle group you should do.
Bodybuilding Programs Recommendations for Muscle Mass
I’ve been writing programs and workout plans for many years, and I’ve got something for just about everyone. In this section I’ve put together a quick list of my most popular muscle building programs. If you want to see which order I recommend following for each of the programs, then check this article out.
- The 8 Week Functional Bodybuilding Hybrid Program
- 6 Weeks of Muscular Growth for Functional Fitness Athletes Program
- 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program
- 10 Week Functional Power Building Program
- The 11 Week High Intensity Bodybuilding Program
Some of these programs are designed for functional fitness athletes who want to build muscle, and maintain their conditioning. However, other programs like the 12 Week Free Bodybuilding Program, and 11 Week High Intensity Program are pure muscle building programs. You won’t find a WOD or metcon in sight! Now let’s talk about some simple nutrition advice that can get you headed in the right direction.
Nutrition Resources to Promote Hypertrophy
If you read my article about the amount of protein you actually need to gain muscle mass, you’ll find that it’s actually a little lower than you might think. Most average sized males only need about 160 grams of protein to gain muscle mass. This assumes they’re eating enough carbs, fats, and essential amino acids. Research shows no appreciable benefit to eating more protein than this.
That is not the case for when you’re trying to lose weight. You absolutely need higher protein when aiming for weight loss. Research has shown that when ingesting protein and carbs together, the carbs spare the protein for muscle protein synthesis. When you’re on a diet, you often don’t have the necessary carbs to spare, and more of your protein intake is used for energy production. This is why you need higher protein (at least a gram per pound of bodyweight) on a diet.
The key to building muscle is to maintain a reasonable caloric surplus. You only need around 300-500 calories extra to build muscle tissue. Eating thousands of extra calories over your needs will not increase the rate at which you gain muscle. It’ll just lead to excess body fat!
It’s a good idea to check out this article where I break down the basics of nutrition and your metabolism. You can then download my nutrition calculator which will give you a great starting point for your muscle gain diet. Make sure to use the weight gain tab. Remember this isn’t exact, it’s just a reasonable place in which to begin.
Recovery Recommendations for Hard Training Athletes
Get ready because I’m about to recommend some really expensive, very complicated recovery techniques. They use glass bottles, and jars of old mustard. Just kidding, most muscle recovery things that are sold to you are actually a massive waste of money. Read this article on scientific based recovery methods, and you’ll see there are only a few things that truly work.
The best way to recover is to sit on an exercise bike for 10 minutes after your session in the gym. It doesn’t have to be an exercise bike, as any light movement will work, hello walking! The important thing is to cool down at a very easy pace for at least 10 minutes.
This increases circulation throughout your body. Circulation is needed to begin the recovery process, allowing your body to begin to repair damaged muscle tissue sooner. As a nice bonus, you’ll find you actually feel better leaving the gym.
There’s also some evidence that wearing exercise tights can decrease the amount of soreness you feel, and increase your muscle mass when worn during, or after training. Check out this article where I reviewed the research on that topic.
Lastly, you can increase the amount of reps you can do, provided you do some light hyperventilation prior to your set. The research on that topic was quite interesting, and resulted in athletes lifting 35% more reps just by breathing heavily prior to their work sets.
Final Thoughts
We’ve covered a lot of research and information on how many exercises per muscle group you should do. We’ve also answered other important questions that will help you build the physique you want. I want to leave you with a few pieces of advice before I sign off.
First, don’t stress about every little piece of research. Remember that most of these studies lasted only a few months. Building a body you can be proud of takes years. Your consistency in the long term is more important than a perfect diet or training plan in the short term.
Check out a few of the programs I recommended, and you’ll find a program that looks good to you. Do your best to stick with the program, and get the basics of recovery down. If you can do this you will start see results before you know it.
Now get out there and get training!
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