Brad Schoenfeld is the go-to scientist when it comes to muscle growth. In a podcast with coach Milo Wolf, he sheds light on everything that has to do with hypertrophy.
How many sets for maximum muscle growth? (0:12)
For natural bodybuilders, 10 to 20 sets per week is sufficient to achieve maximum muscle growth. So 10 sets is a good starting point.
You don’t have to do the same number of sets for each muscle group. You can also do specialization cycles, where you do more sets for lagging muscle groups and fewer sets for well-developed muscle groups. So you can even do more than 20 sets per week for a muscle group. The total training volume remains the same: see it as a weekly budget that you have to divide among all muscle groups.
The relationship between training volume and the amount of muscle growth is called an inverted U-shaped relationship, also known as the horseshoe model. In principle, more = better, but from a certain point you reach the opposite: doing too much volume means less muscle growth and can even lead to muscle breakdown. This is because the body has a limited growth and recovery capacity.
You can also periodize training volume: you start your cycle with a slightly lower number of sets and build this up to a higher number of sets.
How do you spread those sets over the training week? (4:50)
The scientific literature shows more and more evidence that this depends on the number of sets you do. If you are doing around 10 to 12 sets for a muscle group, you can safely do that in one weekly training. If you do more volume, for example 16 sets, then it is wise to spread this over two or three training sessions per week, always with sufficient rest time in between.
In short: for every 5 to 10 sets per muscle group per week, add an extra day.
Should You Train to Failure? (6:03)
The bodybuilders of old taught us that for optimal gains you had to train all sets to muscle failure, or even further than that, with dropsets for example. We now know better. From the literature we can deduce that training with 2-3 RIR (Reps In Reserve) leads to the same muscle growth, but without the large additional fatigue of training to the limit. 2-3 RIR means that you stay two to three repetitions away from muscle failure in your set.
So you don’t have to train to muscle failure at all? Not really. Especially for experienced strength athletes, training to muscle failure every now and then can perhaps yield some extras. This means that you train the last set of an exercise to muscle failure, for example. But only do this for isolation exercises and not for big compounds such as the squat and deadlift. The latter to prevent disproportionately high fatigue. Again, this is mainly a strategy that is useful for advanced athletes who have to operate close to their genetic potential.
“Subjects in studies don’t train hard enough” (8:50)
You sometimes hear that test subjects in scientific studies do not train hard enough, making it difficult to estimate whether they are training to failure.
In practice, this is not so bad: we really try to get the most out of the participants and we keep a close eye on this.
In studies, all sets are often trained to muscle failure, because that way you can use a standard. When training with RIR, that is much more difficult.
What makes a good exercise for muscle growth? (11:11)
Not every exercise works equally well for everyone. For example, the squat is a perfect exercise for one person and not for another, with long limbs.
In addition, it is important that you use a combination of single and multi-joint exercises.
What is better: extended partials or full ROM? (13:13)
Extended partials are a training technique that is quickly gaining popularity in the fitness world. It involves working the muscle only while it is extended, skipping the part of each repetition where the muscle is fully contracting.
Extended partials are better than shortened partials, there is no misunderstanding about that in the literature. There is some pretty convincing evidence that full range of motion (ROM) gives you more strength gains.
But what if you are looking purely at muscle growth? The scientific evidence seems to tentatively suggest that extended partials are just as good as full ROM. What can you do with that in practice? I think most sets should be trained ‘just’ over full ROM. But you might benefit from adding some extended partials training as well. After all, you don’t have to do just one or the other. That way you get the best of both worlds.
What do you mean by ‘good technique’? (16:53)
Regarding training tempo, I always advise to focus on a good mind-muscle connection. According to the literature, it is best to train with one to four seconds in the concentric phase (for example, pushing the bar up during the bench press) and two to four seconds in the eccentric phase (for example, lowering the bar during the bench press). The eccentric phase is mainly about bringing the weight back to the starting position in a controlled manner.
Technique doesn’t have to be super strict. You can make great gains across a wide spectrum of techniques as long as you stick to the basic principles of biomechanics to keep the muscle under tension in the right way. Again, mind-muscle connection plays a big role here.
What is the best rep range, if one exists? (19:30)
This is a topic where I have literally changed my position 180 degrees. In the old days it was said that with sets of more than 10-15 reps you are actually doing cardio and therefore not training for muscle growth. We now know better: you can make the same gains whether you do 5 or 30 reps, as long as you train the sets to near muscle failure. Doing less than 5 reps is not useful, because you have to do extra sets to achieve the same stimulus. I also do not recommend more than 30 reps, because you may get bored long before muscle failure and stop the set. It is simply not a pleasant way to train with so many reps, even if you can theoretically achieve the same muscle growth with it.
Although the evidence for this is weak, I still think that there may be a specific fiber type response. There is a logical basis for this and there is some evidence that higher reps can target the type 1 fibers and heavier reps target the type 2 fibers. Whether that is actually the case is still unclear, but I don’t see any disadvantage. So if you do some sets of higher reps and some sets of lower reps, it may or may not have a synergistic effect, but it’s not going to be detrimental.
How long should you rest between sets? (23:10)
A recent meta-analysis shows that roughly 90 seconds is sufficient; you won’t make any extra gains if you wait longer. However, the caveat is that large compound exercises like the squat may require a bit more rest time, say around 2 minutes.
What do you think of training techniques such as dropsets and supersets? (24:40)
Recently we have shown that supersets lead to the same muscle growth as traditional sets, while you get to those results 40% faster. Dropsets can also be an effective way to save time without sacrificing gains. More studies are needed to determine what the effects are when you look purely at optimal muscle growth.