In each workout session, it’s best to do 4-5 exercises, 3-6 sets per exercise, and 4-15 repetitions per set. This may not seem like a lot compared to what most people do in the gym, but it will produce the fastest rate of muscle and strength gains for natural lifters.
Building muscle and strength is one of those things where less is more. If you train with less exercises, less sets, less repetitions, and less days in the gym, you would be able to produce more intensity, more strength, and more muscle.
In this article, we are going to address in detail the best number of exercises, sets, and reps per workout.
3-Day a Week Workout Split
It’s recommended that your workouts be divided into a 3-day-a-week training regimen. You would get the best results performing 2 upper body workouts a week and 1 lower body workout a week.
One upper body workout should be more chest-emphasized. Another upper body workout should be more shoulder-emphasized. The back, biceps, and triceps muscles would be getting worked on both upper body days.
Legs should get a solo day. It could be too neurologically demanding for some people to train legs with another muscle group.
If you want to learn more about why training no more than 3 days a week is recommended, check out this article The Fitness and Lifestyle Benefits of Training Only 3 Days a week.
The Best Number of Exercises Per Workout
You would pick 4-5 movements to do in a workout. The first 2 exercises should focus on intensity. The last 2 or 3 exercises should focus more on volume. You always want to perform your heavy compound movements first.
If you know you’re doing your shoulder-focused upper body workout on Friday, then the overhead press must be the first movement you perform. You don’t want to attempt that exercise when you’re already in a fatigued state. You would not be able to train the overhead press with the right amount of intensity.
The last 2-3 exercises should be higher in volume to promote more muscle hypertrophy. High volume exercises can be movements such as
- Pushups
- bicep curls
- lateral raises
The Best Number of Sets Per Exercise
Doing 3-6 sets per exercise is plenty. Depending on how advanced you are on heavy compound lifts, it can be beneficial to do 1-3 strategic warm-up sets before doing your heavy work sets to activate the central nervous system.
If your training chest and you know flat bench press is the first movement you’re doing, you would do 3 strategic warm-up sets with a light weight for a few reps.
- The first warm-up set should be 60% of your 5-rep max. You would do this for 5 repetitions.
- The second warm-up set should be 75% of your 5-rep max. You would do this for 3 repetitions.
- The third warm-up set should be 90% of your 5-rep max. You would do this for 1 repetition.
There should be a 2-minute rest period between each warm-up set. Once you have completed your 3 warm-up sets, then you can go into your 3 heavy work sets.
Reverse Pyramid Training
To get the most out of your heavy work sets, it’s best to do reverse pyramid training. This style of training will allow you to make fast progress on key upper body exercises that includes:
- Incline Bench Press
- Flat Bench Press
- Overhead Press
- Weighted Chin-ups
- Weighted Pull-ups
- Weighted Dips
With reverse pyramid training, there should be a 3-minute rest period in between work sets. These sets are very intense and heavy. Therefore, you want to take longer rest periods to lift with your full-strength capability.
You don’t need to do reverse pyramid training on lower body exercises. It can be too neurologically demanding. Standard pyramid training still works fine for the legs.
If you want to learn more about reverse pyramid training, check out this article How to do Reverse Pyramid Training.
Pump Training
It’s recommended you do pump training on your last 2 or 3 exercises after your strength work is completed. The last 50 – 60% of your workout might be 2 isolation movements or another compound movement and 2 isolation movements.
These can be exercises such as:
- High-volume Push Ups
- Bicep Curls
- Triceps Push Downs.
- Rows
- Face-Pulls
- Machine Chest Flys
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises
- High Volume Chin-Ups
- Calf Raises
- Leg Press
You don’t have to do warm-up sets or reverse pyramid training for pump work. It is sufficient to do 3 or 4 pump sets for each of those last 2 or 3 exercises.
With pump training, you only need to rest for 30 – 90 seconds in between sets depending on the exercise you’re doing.
The Best Number of Repetitions Per Set
The 4-15 rep range optimizes for strength and hypertrophy during training sessions. You need 2 things to build muscle, which are tension and volume. Tension is heavy lifting. Volume is the total number of repetitions you perform.
The first 2 exercises should be performed in the 4-10 rep range if your training upper body. Of course, you would do those exercises reverse pyramid style.
The last 2-3 exercises should be trained in the 8-15 rep range with shorter rest periods. In the last 50 – 60% of your workout, you are doing higher volume and building more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This increases fluid in the muscles and makes them appear larger.
The Best Number of Repetitions for New Lifters
New lifters would benefit the most from high repetition training. They don’t need to do reverse pyramid training if they are new to working out. Since new lifters are still trying to perfect their form and technique, picking a weight they can do for 10+ reps per set would be advantageous to them.
The research shows new lifters can build muscle and strength just fine with high repetitions. You build muscle the fastest at the beginning of your weight training career.
Conclusion
You can build muscle and strength with a very minimalist routine. It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced lifter. All you need is a 3-day a week progressive overload program, 4-5 exercises per workout, 3-6 sets per exercise, and 4-15 repetitions per set.
The 4-15 rep range is going to apply to intermediate and advanced lifters who would benefit from doing reverse pyramid training on their key upper body movements. New lifters should stick to the 10-15 rep range for their first few months of training.
If you feel like you lack energy to train, then consider pre-workout supplementation. If you want to learn more about pre-workout supplementation, check out this article Should You Take Pre-Workout to Improve Training Performance?
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