Let’s say you don’t have much time to train, but you still want to build some muscle mass. What is the minimum training volume (sets) you need? Muscle growth scientist Brad Schoenfeld answers in an interview with Stronger By Science.

The time factor

It is important to realize that the vast majority of gym goers are not pro bodybuilders and are not looking for maximum muscle growth in a certain time frame. They just want to be jacked or toned and not mass monsters. Much of the science is done in the light of maximum muscle growth, thus getting optimal results.

In practice, time is an important issue. Many want to see results in as little time as possible. But what is possible with a minimalist approach?

The absolute minimum?

According to Schoenfeld, the vast majority of strength athletes can already achieve results with single set training two to three times per week. That means two to three sets per muscle group per week and a total of one to one and a half hours of training. This majority can already achieve more than 50 percent of their genetic potential with this low training volume.

But beware, in strength training you have good and bad responders. The bad ones will have to do more sets to achieve the same muscle growth.

For the record, sets are a series of repetitions performed until two to three repetitions away from muscle failure. If you train further away from muscle failure, you will need to do more sets to create the same stimulus.

The ‘sweet spot’

Training for an hour and a half per week may seem like too little to you. If you have more time at your disposal, 10 sets per muscle group per week is the ‘sweet spot’. With this, you train two to three times per week and you book not maximum, but still nice results within a certain time frame. These sets can easily be done in one training, but spreading them over two or three training sessions per week is also fine.

According to Schoenfeld, you can achieve roughly 3/4 of your muscle growth potential with relatively minimalistic workouts. Only when you want even more muscle growth do the nuances become more important.

Overly important

As mentioned, you can achieve good results with relatively little input. According to Schoenfeld, the bodybuilding scene pays too much attention to training frequency (do you train a muscle group two or three times a week?) and rest times between sets ( is 3 minutes better than 2 minutes?). In practice, these have only a small effect on the result. For example, if you only rest for 60 to 90 seconds, you will not achieve much less muscle growth than with 2-3 minutes of rest, while you will save a lot of time.

Supersets

Supersets are a time-saving training method that allows you to complete a higher volume of training in a given period of time. This is beneficial if you have limited time or want to spend on strength training. Or if you need to do more volume as a poor responder. A recent study suggests that supersets can achieve the same amount of muscle growth, but in 36% less time.

Perhaps the most useful form of supersetting or paired setting is agonist-antagonist sets, where you train two opposing muscle groups one after the other, for example chest (push) and back (pull).

Change of insight

Schoenfeld is also asked in which areas his opinion has fundamentally changed in recent years. As the most important example, he mentions the number of repetitions for muscle growth. As a budding scientist, he was taught that more than, say, 12 repetitions is a kind of cardio and does nothing for muscle growth. In the meantime, science has convincingly demonstrated that you can achieve just as much muscle growth in high rep ranges as in low ones. According to Schoenfeld, you can train for muscle growth over a broad spectrum of training weight, between 5 and 30 repetitions.

Another variable that is much debated is the extent to which you should train your sets to failure. According to Schoenfeld, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that 2-3 reps to failure provides sufficient growth stimulus.

For the rest, the insights haven’t really changed. Building muscle is essentially a matter of doing enough volume, training hard, being consistent and applying progressive overload.

Conclusions

You can build muscle with relatively little training volume: two to three sets per muscle group per week and a total of one to one and a half hours of training is enough for a little muscle growth. If you stick to this long enough, you can already achieve a considerable part, about 50%, of your genetic potential. Train each set with two to three repetitions away from muscle failure.

If that is a bit too slow for you and you have more time, then 10 sets per muscle group per week is the ‘sweet spot’ for significant muscle growth. You can easily do those sets in one workout, but spreading them over two or three workouts per week is also fine.

If you want to complete even more training volume in a relatively short time, shorten your rest periods between sets. A very effective way to do this is working with supersets or paired sets, because you build the same amount of muscle mass in less time (-36%)

Finally, remember that you can achieve quite a few results with a fairly minimalist approach. Only when you want even more muscle growth in the long term, the nuances become more important.