52 Sets Is BEST For Building Muscle (New Science) 

Thank you for having me, Mike! Happy to answer any questions in response to my comment 👇

I was doing 53, so good to know that more volume isn’t always the answer.

I've been doing 52 sets/week of high-tempo 0-lb hammer curls and it definitely helped my right forearm to blow up!

I’m combining this approach with the one from your video a few days ago. I now do 1 set and 52 sets on alternate weeks.

I’m definitely interested to see this done on different muscle groups because my quads are super resilient but I swear just 4-5 hard sets of hamstrings per session barely leaves me recovered for my next session

500 sets a week you train 8 hours a day eat and sleep wake up and repeat

8 HOUR ARM WORKOUT, RIGHT BABE?

These expert interviews are a friggin' gold mine. I simply cannot thank you guys enough.

Easily one of RP's best videos I've seen. I love almost all of them - but this was epic. Thanks!

i dont trust anyone with a beard, or any hair for that matter. i only take advice from smooth hairless men, they are pure and trustworthy like a baby

I was on 52 sets per week for my quads, my legs turned into a ball of plasma and neighbours called firemen on me. So I had to drop the volume.

Love the vid, going to apply this to my meso-cycles in the future. Only gripe: it's quad specific. Would love to hear about studies done on other muscle groups, particularly smaller muscles, since the recovery times vary, and the fatigue accumulation from set to set is vastly different between, let's say, quads to side delts or triceps. Look forward to the GOAT himself dropping a video on those studies if those studies are ever done.

Hypertrophy or Inflammation? How much "tissue" was kept a few weeks after the study would be nice to know.

And I was doing 51 sets per week, like a slacker. Thanks for giving us pre-prints and other super solid evidence, for bro-science. Maybe, just hire a Sheiko style trainer and go to failure every day until rabdo or greatness hits.

Thank you Dr.Mike, the fitness world is lacking these straightforward educational videos, learned a lot watching this

Using Mike's hypertrophy template I, being a stickler to instructions, kept marking exercises as "1"mostly meaning +1 set the next time this body part gets worked out. This resulted in massive volumes at the end. I think 40+ or so sets for some body parts. Then Mike released a video on how limiting volume and re-sentisizing to lower volume is what makes people make huge gains and I followed his advice. My findings. Huge volume was not a game changer. I'd argue this time yielded poorer results than restarting and keeping volume within normal ranges (10-20 sets). Another thing is psychological strain. I love working out, really do. But most workouts in the crazy volume range would make me hate it and feel miserable. I'd also argue that going really close to failure (0-1 rir) and often beyond with myoreps etc is king.

2034 Papers: “we’re gonna need a minimum of 172 sets for growth”

The fact that we get this kind of 1 on 1 interviews it's mind blowing, thank you so much for this videos! Much love and respect!

Thank you guys so much for this video. I’ve been struggling for a long time with a couple lagging body parts and i think this may help

It's important to repeat what he said about biceps and triceps: triceps benefit from more sets, while biceps do not. So it all depends on which muscle. And different muscles recover at different speeds.

I’m all about 52 sets a year

Great video! I would like to see a similar study using down sets and/or drop-sets.

More amazing content. The amount of information covered was beyond impressive!

Crazy value in these videos, thank you so much Drs!!

Can't wait to watch this with fullrom

10 to 15 is more than enough for me personally.

Going from 22 sets to 52 sets is insane. Tell me on top of that they also added reps and weight.

So glad that I found dr mikes channel I’ve been lifting and into health and fitness for years very experienced in the “chemistry and special supplements “ and yet have been dealing with major plateaus and even straight up losing muscle and gaining fat and before I start rambling I just want to say thank you for the wealth of knowledge in all of these free videos. I feel like I have learned more from dr Mike in the past few weeks that I have been fortunate enough to find and watch multiple videos than I have after years of working out and research etc. thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge and nothing but the upmost love and respect 🤜🏼🤛🏼💪🏼

I hope you guys took Milo through a training session on video. PS: Fantastic video.

I've done 24 sets/dropsets per muscle group doing full-body workouts 6 times a week when bulking for over 12 weeks. Pumps were amazing; doms barely felt, and energy was pretty good as well. But I was keeping the RPE of each set down to around 7. I don't know how high you can push the RPE doing more sets than that per muscle group on a full body workout split. When I'm doing a 6 day a week full body split pushing at an RPE of 9, I'm struggling to get 14 sets per muscle group. Looking forward to that study being conducted.

Pure gold, thanks!

Congratulations 🎉 young Dr.! Welcome to the club! 😊

I always appreciate how much I learn when watching the conversations between these two, even when Dr. Mike ruins cookies for me. Thanks again!

Mike mentzer if he saw this 💀

So much goes into these studies that it's so hard making them apply to everyone. Age,genetics,injuries,leisure time,stress,diet and enhancements are just some of the situations that could possibly be game changers.

Always great to see Milo Wolf on the channel

Just trust the science, trust the experts... Ive heard this before

Rich piana was ahead of his time. 2024 studies gonna be recommending the 8hr arm workout

Love it boys. More study reviews please!

Super cool discussion, love these kind of videos👍

I've noticed this to be true in my own experimenting I've been doing with my training. I put lower body on maintenence, and just hammered volume in my arms, and in 2 months, they grew a quarter of an inch. I'll be upping the vol for a whole year to see how big I can get them.

Like Mike said, it tends to be the joints and connective tissue that end up with problems with the really high volumes over time. The muscle itself will grow and recover, but there's a tendency to run into problems for a lot of people. Learned this the hard way more than once unfortunately.

I love this channel so much. I have learned so much over the years and I am looking how to become a sport scientist in my own country.

Amazing video!! Thanks for all of the thought provoking information and humor! :)

I’m glad you clarified that this was specific to hypertrophy. I’ve been doing 10-15 working sets per week but I’m doing sets of 3-6 at about 90% of my estimated one rep max. That is enough to wear me out. The thought of increasing sets to 22, never mind higher, made my connective tissue ache. I’m also 52 so that doesn’t help.

The MRV BS was actually really good, Mike. I still consider that in my programs, and since people only have so much time, and stresses external to training, MRV is such a multidimensional consideration.

Great interview, great questions.

Well I'm just in the middle of reorganising my programme and came across this. I've gone through Mark Ripptoe's Starting Strength, Mark Berkhan's Lean Gains, Greg Doucette, Eric Janicki, Dorian Yates, Mike Mentzer and jist now discovered mylo reps. Excited for the future; thanks for this.

I’ve BEEN WAITING for this video, Christmas came early. As a higher volume enthusiast (zealot at times). The human body is frighteningly resilient but, as usual, nuance! Thanks Dr. Mike & (now) Dr. Wolf!

I love watching the videos. I have been training full body 5 to 6 days a week, 5 sets per muscle group each day for 20 years now. This is where I get my best results. I'm 45 and a natty I'm 6' tall. In 2002 I weighed 165 and now I weigh 200 lean. Firmly believe in the high volume.

thank you for this wonderful information, I have always been afraid to lose strength by cutting back volume on other body parts but this makes training fun again!

This was such a fascinating interview!Do more now.

German sport science has some papers that actually showed "more is more" in the late 80ies, early 90ies i believe. it was just stated that the amount of work gets more, the gains smaller, yet more volume = more growth.

I average at 8-12 sets a week. I start off with 6 sets and ramp up to 12-15 sets over a 6 week meso (sets range depending on what muscle(s) are the focus). But EVERY set is to failure, and towards the end of the meso i also extend the last 1-2 sets (per exercise) with lengthen partials to push further into failure. Can confidently say i'm 8 years in and still getting stronger & Bigger.

This acually helped me out, understanding some of the problems and results im running into

Very interesting. Mike is exceptional at asking the right questions.

damn i was only doing 51 sets a week for years thats why i have no gains

I would really like to see the physical appearance of these test subjects!

Awesome stuff!!

Amazing interview, thank you @WolfCoaching and as always Dr Mike. Finally science catching up to bro science. Fun fact the guy with the biggest chest in the my gym (ex training partner) used to do 5 sets of flat bench every day (2 plates per side for 20 reps X 5) plus our regular chest workout. He would do 4 plates for 10 reps for 5 sets in our regular session for flat bench plus all the other exercises we would do, no sweat. When I tried to push him for more weight his elbows would start hurting so that was his limit. He had been doing that EVERYDAY since the day he was 14 years old. His chest was that big we could balance a can of coke on top it (big triceps as well). As I disclaimer he did have awesome genetics (half Samoan) and was enhanced but he would still destroy all the other enhanced guy in the gym in strength and chest size. I know its bro science but I had seen the evidence first hand and now it sounds like we have the studies to back it up. Thanks for all the amazing science and training tips as always Dr Mike, massive fan of the channel. Grateful for your work!!!

I had Milo's arm size when I was 12, maybe he should try 104 sets

Hope to see a study that includes the whole body instead of just one muscle group shortly! Exciting results nonetheless.

So this begs the question as to changes, if any, to the hypertrophy app. Great discussion, that just reinforces the adage, train up to whatever you can recover from.

Fantastic discussion thank you

I do around 120 Sets Total for my whole body a week so 52 on a single muscle group is crazy

Everyone talks about muscle recovery. No one talking about central nervous system recovery 😖 Dorian Mike and Arthur has been my route of choice

This channel is PURE VALUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I learned a lot from this, thanks guys!

I've personally found the sweet spot of growth (for me) as 5 sets of 10 reps at 70% of my estimated 1RM after completing my top set of any given lift. If I attempt to do this more than once per training day, growth suffers - so I pick an exercise where I have a lagging body part.

This video hs made me realise that I can probably do way more and see some growth always kinda been in 4-8 set range for muscles (training HIT) gonna up it to 6-10 now and see what it brings but like the guys said I don’t know how you can do 15 sets of every muscle a week if you are actually training hard unless you are a recovery god

Love your sense of humor!

Always entertaining and informative

Mike Mentzer has left the chat

I think there’s a big caveat in the study they only trained legs and no other muscle so it could be the body’s recovery was allocated on the legs because no other muscle was trained. It would be a different story if they trained like normal people for example if they did 52 sets distributed between the body parts chest back legs etc., the body’s recovery would be the same but distributed. I think if they would have tried a normal routine they would have definitely find a cap at most 20 sets per muscle because the body’s recovery is distributed.

That's the shit I'm here for. Science. I like the training reaction videos but I love learning more!

This makes sence, I have allways had so difficult making my calves growth, and I thought I did a tons, like 35 sets pr week but still did not see much growth. Then I went for 12 sets 5 times a week, basiclly trained calves on all my training days, so 60 sets, and it was the first time I could actually see they grew

Doctor Mike, I've always wondered if there was any research comparing volume vs strength training on postural muscles or muscle that are in constant use. It always seemed to me like muscles under constant stress should respond well to heavier loads. I.E. load the calf muscles and traps under heavy loads since they are nearly always on.

Mike Mentzer rules

great content!!

Loving these interviews. Bloody hilarious😂 👏🏿🇬🇧

Phil Hernon a legend and great trainer advised 8 - 10 sets a bp a week. All you high volume people are ao misguided unless you are on massive amoints of PEDS

I did 11 sets for quads today, next time i'll do 93 to catch up then drop back to 52

Awesome video. You guys are the best. No one ambulates better

Amazing interview

Anecdotal - when I was a new lifter I wanted huge pectoral muscles like Stimpy. I benched 6 sets per day to failure. 4 - 5 days a week for about a year. My 3 Rep max bench went from 185 to 335 in a year and I grew some pretty good boobs starting at a point you could see my ribs through my chest. I've mentioned this in comment sections here and there and every time poop faces jump up to say I'm full of shit. After watching this video it seems I was on to something and should have just rotated the approach to all body parts.

This is why "science based training" cannot be taken seriously

One of the best episodes/podcasts I ever listened to 👌

Fantastic video.

I agree with the high volume. I kinda ignored what people said for years about this topic especially with the legs. During my hypertrophy training phases I always do a huge volume during the week to see change. The guys always look at me in the gym like I am crazy. I know my body and 2-3 days with 4 sets per exercise don’t cut it for me.

What's the minimum adaptive volume for hypertrophy of the phallus? I'm at 50 sessions per week and haven't noticed any growth. Do I need to up the sets or maybe start taking creatine?

At 50 I discovered the Mike Metzler way a few months back. I feel better and have gotten stronger.

Never done this. Excited to try

I think it also speaks to what you say about not training a muscle hard when it's already roasted. Certain muscle groups can take the volume better. Thoughts?

im not convinced 52 is enough thank you very much, ill be sticking to me 104 sets per muscle per week, cant fool me !!!!!!

banger after banger, keem em' coming chris! I did not understand the difference between convection ovens and air fryers until now.

Dr mike a real truth seeker and humble I love this guy

I just did 23,500 sets and I look like Branch Warren now. Findings confirmed.

Long before Mike, Chad Waterbury was the neuro-physiological science guy who taught average joes on TNation how to train when/if bro spits were not working for them. I remember he said quads and forearms were notorious for responding to much higher training volume compared to other muscle groups. Scott Abel said something similar IIRC

Dr. Mike mentioned internal validity and selection criteria of the participants… I really appreciate this I can’t recall if demographics of population or size n was mentioned

Probably one of my favorites so far.