How Many Sets and Reps Should You Really Do?

This article comes from The Stack, through my friend Marlene. I have worked hard to vary my set and reps to get the right combination and the most from my workout. How you're feeling, among other things, can cause your ability to vary from day to day. Just make sure you pick a number combination suitable, depending on your goals... and stick with it.

How Many Sets and Reps Should You Really Do? 

Getting bigger and stronger is a beautifully simple science. You lift something heavy, stress your muscles, eat, rest and repeat. Do this with enough intensity and consistency, and you'll strengthen and sculpt your body. If it's that simple, why on earth does weightlifting seem to be so mind-numbingly complicated? Undulating periodization? Compensatory acceleration? Alactic capacity? These sound like topics from a trigonometry textbook, not ways to get jacked. Like most things in fitness, there's no absolute right or wrong way to build muscle, but there's certainly an optimal way, especially regarding the number of sets and reps you use. So what's the right combination of sets and reps to build muscle? 3x10? 5x5? 10x10? Somewhere in between? This article will shed some light on the science of how many sets you should do to maximize your type II muscle growth and strength. 

Origin of 3 sets of 10: First and foremost, we need to address the famous three sets of 10 reps, hands down the most popular set-and-rep scheme in fitness. Even couch potatoes know that when you lift weights, you do three sets of 10. It's what everybody does, so it must work, right? Well, not always.Three sets of 10 reps actually originated as a rehabilitation protocol created by an army physician back in the 1940s. Dr. Thomas L. DeLorme, an avid weightlifter, was desperate for a better alternative to the subpar rehab protocols at Gardiner General Army Hospital in Chicago during World War II. With the hospital overflowing with injured soldiers, Dr. DeLorme needed a faster way to get them back on the battlefield.

DeLorme's program called for 3 sets of 10 reps with increasingly heavier weights, which he called "Progressive Resistance Exercise," and it worked wonders. Previously, soldiers rehabbed with light weights and never tired their muscles, only to spend six to nine months in therapy. By focusing on strength rather than endurance, DeLorme got soldiers in and out of the hospital in record time. And so was born the concept of progressive overload, which is now the heart and soul of almost every effective weightlifting program. But was 3x10 the secret to DeLorme's success? Or was it something else?

Single Sets vs. Multiple Sets: Alright, story time is over. Now the argument begins. Despite DeLorme's success with 3 sets, many people argue you only need one set to build muscle and strength. They point to the fact that in DeLorme's method, the first two sets were just warm-ups and only the third set was a maximal effort. Hence, one set done with maximal effort (i.e., as many reps as possible) is all you need to build muscle. Some studies say multiple sets build up to 40 percent more muscle than a single set, whereas others say there's not much difference. Truthfully, it's a silly argument, because both methods work, but each one is better suited for different situations.

When to Use Single Sets: Single-set training works, especially with new lifters. But for single sets to be effective, you have to train the muscle to all-out failure. And once your progress starts to stall, you have to make a change.

The key ingredient for single sets is intensity—not in the sense of grunting and screaming, but to the point where the muscle can no longer move the weight. This ensures full recruitment of both slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibers and stimulates hypertrophy (muscle building) by accumulating metabolic byproducts that tell your muscles to grow. Single sets work better for smaller muscles groups and simple exercises. To grow bigger and stronger, the biceps, forearms and calves don't need nearly as much volume (i.e., total number of sets and reps) as the chest, back and quads. And it's a lot safer to do an all-out set of dumbbell curls than it is to do a set of 20 deadlifts to failure.

Single sets also make sense if you're crunched for time. It's completely possible to hit each major muscle group with one set to failure in less than 15 minutes, and you'll still build size and strength.

But be careful—single sets to failure can make you brutally sore, which can reduce your athletic performance and increase injury risk for up to 72 hours. If you're an athlete who needs to practice or play games, this is not ideal. That said, stick with smaller muscles and simple exercises (machines, dumbbells or body weight) for single-set training. If you're an athlete, use them only during the off-season when you don't practice as often.