Minimum Exercise for Strength and Muscle Growth

[saevel25]

A very comprehensive study was done weekly sets that cause strength gains and muscle growth. These are two separate adaptations. 

For strength (how heavy can you lift, AKA 1 rep max improvement), as little as 1 set per week for the specific exercise is enough to show progressive improvement in strength over time. With it maxing out at 4 sets per week. 

For muscle growth, it is the opposite. There really isn't an upper limit found, there are some diminishing returns. Also, it just takes a lot of work out time if you are just going to go at it. There is a limiting factor for like majority of people out there. The minimum amount of sets is 4 sets per muscle group per week. 

4 sets per muscle group per week could be working out 1 muscle group once a week, getting 4 working sets in one exercise routine isn't out of the ordinary. Especially when you consider compound exercises can hit different muscle groups, it adds up. 

This is just good information who think they don't have time to gain muscles. You literally could do a short warmup, get a sweat on, hit 4 working sets in a specific muscle group once a week and see results. You may not get the same results as someone who does like 20 working sets a week, but over time you will gain muscle. 

In terms of number of reps. For muscle gain 5 to 30+ works. There hasn't been an upper limit. 5 to 18 is a good range. When you start getting into high range, form can go to crap, it could get boring. It is also hard to gauge how many reps you have left in the tank at higher reps, so you don't really get an idea if you are taking it close to failure. The science is showing, 1-2 reps in the tank is the best place to stop.

Source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MoL7OLypfA

 

[p1n9183]

It all comes down to your available time, fitness goals and age. For me at 41 I hit the gym twice a week and do a fullbody routine. I end up doing around 6-10 sets per muscle per week and at my current form is enough to maintain and even gain something. Each seassion take´s me 45 mins and that's all I want to dedicate to the gym/health besides tranning/playing golf. I can easily hit the gym on monday and thursday and I'm totally fresh to lift heavy on each tranning, good rest between workouts is vital and it gets more important the older you are.    

Personally i found that 2 things are important for muscle grouth or strenght, a good warm up and progressive overload so if I want to do a 4 set bench press exercise I start with 12 reps and ligth weigth as a warm up, the 2nd set I do 10 reps but I add 5 kgs, the 3rd set I do  8 reps with 5 more kgs and do a final set with 5 more kgs but to failure minus 1 or 2 reps (tranning to failure can give you more gains but you have more risk of injury, as a devote weekend golfer that's not an option) . Always found boring and unproductive the typicall 4 sets of 10 reps with the same weigth. 

On the other hand, I have a friend with the same age that gym is his first (an only) hobbie so he hits the gym 6 times a week for 90 minutes. He of course have more time on his hands and his goals are totally different than mine. As you can figure out he lift a lot more than I do on every muscle despite me been taller and heavier.  

[saevel25]

22 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

Personally i found that 2 things are important for muscle grouth or strenght, a good warm up and progressive overload so if I want to do a 4 set bench press exercise I start with 12 reps and ligth weigth as a warm up, the 2nd set I do 10 reps but I add 5 kgs, the 3rd set I do  8 reps with 5 more kgs and do a final set with 5 more kgs but to failure minus 1 or 2 reps (tranning to failure can give you more gains but you have more risk of injury, as a devote weekend golfer that's not an option) . Always found boring and unproductive the typicall 4 sets of 10 reps with the same weigth. 

In terms of muscle growth that might be the opposite of what you want to do. When you get down to under 8 reps, you are into the range of strength adaptation and not muscle growth. There is some, but not optimal. Also, muscle growth is volume based. So, doing less volume overall is suboptimal. If you want muscle growth there are two better techniques. 

1) super-setting, basically if you have 1 to 2 reps left in the tank, lower the weight for the next set to keep up the volume. 

2) Myo-rep match, how much you do in the first set, you need to hit that number of sets. But, when you take it to 1 rep left in the tank, you pause at lockout for like a couple of seconds, then do as many as you can. You repeat this till you get to that rep count in the first working set. 

Example, bench press. You do 18 reps. In the 2nd set, you do 14, pause, then 15 and 16, pause, then 17 and 18. 

I would never train to failure. Yea, 1 to 2 reps in the tank gets you like 99% results versus going to failure. 

In terms of strength gains (the maximum value of weight you can lift at a single time), you don't need to do more than 4 working sets per week of the exercise. I talk exercise because most people do things like bench press, squats, dead-lift, pull-ups. They are not talking about quads. These are BIG movements. After 4 working sets, there isn't much strength gains. You really don't do volume for strength. 

I would only increase the weight, once you hit a certain rep range on your first working set. 

31 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

On the other hand, I have a friend with the same age that gym is his first (an only) hobbie so he hits the gym 6 times a week for 90 minutes. He of course have more time on his hands and his goals are totally different than mine. As you can figure out he lift a lot more than I do on every muscle despite me been taller and heavier.  

Yep, this is important. What ever you can do consistently is important. Gains happen in terms of years. So, being consistent week in and week out matters more than just trying to go super crazy right out of the gate and then just saying, screw this I am done. 

 

[Shindig]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

Example, bench press. You do 18 reps. In the 2nd set, you do 14, pause, then 15 and 16, pause, then 17 and 18. 

If I'm reading this correctly, that's 18 reps (without a break), then take a break and then do 14 reps?  And this is more effective than doing (3-4) sets of 5 reps (presumably at a higher weight,  than 18 reps)?

[saevel25]

45 minutes ago, Shindig said:

If I'm reading this correctly, that's 18 reps (without a break), then take a break and then do 14 reps?  And this is more effective than doing (3-4) sets of 5 reps (presumably at a higher weight,  than 18 reps)?

Example

Set 1: 18 reps
Set 2: 14 reps, rest, rep 15 & 16, rest, rep 17 & 18
Set 3: 12 reps, rest, rep 13 & 14, rest, rep 15 & 16, rest, rep 17 & 18
Set 4: 10 reps, rest, rep 11 & 12, rest, rep 13 & 14, rest, rep 15 & 16, rest, rep 17 & 18

See how you use a slight rest (3-5 seconds at most) to keep doing reps. You do not want to decrease your total reps over the 4 sets. So instead of doing a drop set, dropping the weight to maintain the volume, you use slight resting. 

To answer your 2nd question, it depends on the adaptation you are doing. 

Reps 1 to 10: Strength, though the best rep range is 2-5. 
Reps 5 to Uknown: Hypertrophy, the best is like 12+ reps per set. Usually like 12-20 is common.  

Both strength and hypertrophy, you can live in the 8 to 12 rep range. You can kind of get away with going to fatigue for muscle growth and also pushing more weight. 

Let's say you want to improve your bench press maximum. You really want to live in the 2-5 rep range. Going over that, you are going to see more muscle fatigue, more muscle hypertrophy, and less overall pushing higher amounts of weight around. You are not measuring by fatigue here. You are just measuring, ok last week I pushed 250 lbs, this week I want to push 260 lbs. Over time you will increase the overall weight, but it will just be slower. 

Let's say you want to improve just muscle mass. You want to be in the 12 to upwards of 30+ rep range. Though, going that high in reps gets boring, you can lose form, and it takes a long time in terms of workout length. You want working sets, not reps. Good luck doing 30 squats, and getting like 12 working sets in a week. Hypertrophy, you are measuring by fatigue. Strength you are just measuring by how much you can lift at once. Those exercises should not be fatiguing. Last week you did 250 bench, this week you want to do 260 bench. You feel good today, you pump out 3 reps. You are done for the day. Come back in like two days, and do it again, rinse and repeat. Slowly adding to the bench press over time. 

Your example, 3-4 sets of 5 reps. Low end hypertrophy. You are going to have to lift heavy to fatigue the muscles. What-ever weight you know will fail at 7 reps. It's just not a lot of volume for hypertrophy. 

[Zeph]

Thanks for sharing. I’m doing strength training these days and getting the most out of available time is important to me. I don’t want to do so little that results lack, but also not more than necessary.

[saevel25]

3 hours ago, Zeph said:

Thanks for sharing. I’m doing strength training these days and getting the most out of available time is important to me. I don’t want to do so little that results lack, but also not more than necessary.

the good thing is, the rate of return in terms of muscle gain versus time spent, benefits the beginner. 

[p1n9183]

23 hours ago, saevel25 said:

In terms of muscle growth that might be the opposite of what you want to do. When you get down to under 8 reps, you are into the range of strength adaptation and not muscle growth.

Agree with this but not that many more reps, 15 or more and you are getting into resistance territory, not much muscle growth there. Me personally I want to live between the 6 to 12 range and maybe 15 for the first set of the session as another lighter warm up. 

 

23 hours ago, saevel25 said:

1) super-setting, basically if you have 1 to 2 reps left in the tank, lower the weight for the next set to keep up the volume. 

I do this for biceps at the end of the workout if I can't do one more rep but I still don't reach a good pump. 

 

23 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Myo-rep match, how much you do in the first set, you need to hit that number of sets. But, when you take it to 1 rep left in the tank, you pause at lockout for like a couple of seconds, then do as many as you can. You repeat this till you get to that rep count in the first working set. 

Never heard of this one. 

 

23 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Gains happen in terms of years.

Visible gains yeah, but as a beginner you can lift heavier and heavier month after month until the point to reach a plateau. 
But yeah, this is something to do all year long, not just 1 month before summer and spect miracle results. 

[saevel25]

28 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

Agree with this but not that many more reps, 15 or more and you are getting into resistance territory, not much muscle growth there. Me personally I want to live between the 6 to 12 range and maybe 15 for the first set of the session as another lighter warm up. 

That is actually not true. 

As long as you are taking your muscles to near failure, putting your muscles under load through a full range of motion then you will get hypertrophy.  Now, you are probably not going to be training much in terms of fast twitch muscle fiber, but you will get muscle growth. It is all about number of working sets per week. 

In terms of practicality, time management, ability to gauge failure... Then probably 10-20 rep range is the best for overall muscle growth. You can go 20-30 reps as long as technique doesn't suffer and you can gauge failure. 

28 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

I do this for biceps at the end of the workout if I can't do one more rep but I still don't reach a good pump. 

1) Are you gauging how many reps you can do before failure? 

2) Are you doing full range of motion, putting the maximum loading of the movement when your bicep is mostly stretched out. 

3) Are you at the correct loading? 

Example, you see people doing a squat. They decrease their knee angle by 30 degrees. That is putting hardly any load on the quads when they are stretched. Quads get stretched when you get into a deep squat. Go like 130+ degrees. Really stretch those quads. Under a heavy load. Do a very controlled eccentric, and a very athletic concentric. Go until you can only do 1 or 2 more reps. 

If you start doing better technique, especially with regards to pacing of the exercise. You may want to drop down in load. If you are the type that go on a bench press, and just start blasting one after another, hyperspeed. You will not be able to do the same weight with a slow eccentric. Like, take a full 1 to 2 seconds eccentric, pause for a full 1-2 seconds at the bottom, then athletic concentric. 

Edited September 16, 2025 by saevel25

[BraydenMiles]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I’m curious if anyone here has tried sticking to just one hard set per week for a lift over a longer stretch. I’ve been experimenting with it on squats, and the strength gains surprised me, but I’m wondering how others handled fatigue and warmups. Did you add anything like extra mobility work or just keep it super minimal?

[Clemsonfan]

On 12/26/2025 at 6:21 AM, BraydenMiles said:

I know this thread is a bit old, but I’m curious if anyone here has tried sticking to just one hard set per week for a lift over a longer stretch. I’ve been experimenting with it on squats, and the strength gains surprised me, but I’m wondering how others handled fatigue and warmups. Did you add anything like extra mobility work or just keep it super minimal?

Mike Mentzer Was Right: The Science, Logic, and Legacy of Heavy Duty Training - Mike Mentzer

---

Modern science backs Mike Mentzer’s one-set-to-failure training. Discover why Heavy Duty works, and how logic, intensity, and recovery lead to real results.

Is this what you mean? If so, I have known bodybuilders to do this and they were very strong.

[saevel25]

On 12/26/2025 at 6:21 AM, BraydenMiles said:

I know this thread is a bit old, but I’m curious if anyone here has tried sticking to just one hard set per week for a lift over a longer stretch. I’ve been experimenting with it on squats, and the strength gains surprised me, but I’m wondering how others handled fatigue and warmups. Did you add anything like extra mobility work or just keep it super minimal?

Like many things, it probably depends on the person. Some people might be gifted enough to only need one working set per week, others might need an absurd amount of working sets per week. 

Working set = under a specific load doing enough sets to be let's say 1-2 reps from failure. 

On 12/27/2025 at 6:56 AM, Clemsonfan said:

Mike Mentzer Was Right: The Science, Logic, and Legacy of Heavy Duty Training - Mike Mentzer

---

Modern science backs Mike Mentzer’s one-set-to-failure training. Discover why Heavy Duty works, and how logic, intensity, and recovery lead to real results.

Is this what you mean? If so, I have known bodybuilders to do this, and they were very strong.

Depends on the person. Look at all the data plots, and the width of the band. You can see that some of the data points, at the very low set range, show significant muscle growth. 

I would probably put my confidence in meta-analyses done more currently than one in 1998. 

I do agree with the following...

Training hard is important. If you want to optimize muscle growth, then go near failure. Resting is important. 

[WUTiger]

Caution for the seniors on weight training: Listen to your body. (I'm 75)

I got a recent session with an orthopedist after a training-related injury. I put too much weight on a new resistance machine at the gym and ended up with bursitis in my left hip. Of course, it's the hip I dislocated back in 2023. I have my first physical therapy session tomorrow.

I remarked that some days I can do 45 lbs. chest press - two sets - without much effort. But other days it drops down to 30 (😩) with just one set. (Complicating factor: I had digestive problems in this fall and lost about 20 lbs., with slip in muscle tone.)

Orthopedist said that I want to feel some resistence, but that I should go with lots of reps with manageable weights rather than trying to set some sort of lift-pound record.

I'm sure I'll get some refinements on lifting during tomorrow's PT.

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, WUTiger said:

Orthopedist said that I want to feel some resistence, but that I should go with lots of reps with manageable weights rather than trying to set some sort of lift-pound record.

I'm sure I'll get some refinements on lifting during tomorrow's PT.

Good advice. In general, you want to take whatever weight you are lifting to a couple of reps before failure, for muscle growth. There are other tactics for PT related stuff. I would trust your PT person. 

For muscle growth, you can go like 30 reps to failure. It is tougher to gauge. Also, it takes 2x as long to do the same number of working sets per week if you are doing 15 instead. It is way less efficient, but your case is special because of the injury/aggravation to the hip.