Throughout the literature, the benefits of resistance training are clear. There’s no denying regular resistance training is better for you than none at all. This applies when working towards common training goals, including muscular strength, hypertrophy, power, and endurance.

With these goals in mind, can you just enter your local gym and start lifting? While this will certainly help, it’s not going to be optimal. Each of these goals requires a different lifting stimulus for proper development.

This is provided by the main training variables. These include your workout intensity, lifting volume, and rest. Governing each of these are the sets and repetitions, or reps, you perform.

Reps refer to the number of times you perform a movement. Sets refer to the number of times you perform the specific amount of reps. For example, if you do three sets of ten reps, you’ll do ten reps three times. 

If you’re thinking, “How many sets and reps should I do?” we’re here to give you the answers. Here’s how you should organize your training according to your workout goals.

How Many Sets & Reps Should You Do?

Performing different sets and reps affects your body in different ways. Performing lower reps and sets generally means lifting more weight, while higher reps and sets mean less weight. This changes your workout structure and physiological responses. 

You’ll have some overlap in this, but generally speaking, changing your reps and sets will go towards one main goal. For example, if you choose the hypertrophy reps, you’ll build strength as well. However, it won’t be as optimal as using the strength reps. 

Let’s take a look at each goal, what they mean, and what sets and reps you should use. Here’s a quick summary table to use as a reference. 

These values are taken from the National Strength And Conditioning Association or NSCA. While the principles discussed remain the same, the values may differ slightly between organizations. 

* ≤ means equal to or less than.

Hypertrophy Training

Muscular hypertrophy, commonly known as muscle growth, focuses on building muscle. This is often the most common goal of most beginners and recreational gymgoers.

Training for muscle mass means you’ll also build strength. However, it’ll be at a much slower rate than doing dedicated strength training. There’s a bit of a crossover for each of the goals. 

With this as your main goal, the primary resistance variable to focus on should be training volume. This refers to the total amount of work done over a set period.

Increasing volume leads to more muscle growth. This is up to a certain point, as you’ll still need to manage your rest and recovery. 

So, how many sets and reps to build muscle? Here is what the NSCA suggests:

Muscular Hypertrophy = 3–6 Sets Of 6–12 Repetitions.

This means that you’ll be lifting moderate weight for a moderate to high amount of sets and reps. Compared to strength and power training, you’ll be focusing more on volume than intensity. 

With this focus, you’ll spend most of your workout using this rep and set scheme. You can use the other set schemes, but make sure this is the bulk of it. 

Strength Training

Muscular strength refers to the maximum amount of force a muscle can exert in a single contraction. In this, your main goal is to overcome the resistance placed on your body. This may be used in dedicated strength events such as Olympic lifting or applied to strength-based sports.

Building muscular strength is achieved by activating the body’s adaptive strength response. In this, muscle fibers break down and build back stronger when exposed to a suitable training stimulus. They adapt to the stimulus placed on them to better deal with it the next time it comes around.

With this, the main strength training focus should be training intensity or difficulty of exercise. Generally speaking, you’ll lift more weight for fewer reps than when training for muscle growth. 

According to the NSCA, to achieve muscular strength, you should split your sets and reps into two different schemes. 

This depends on whether you’re using compound exercises that require multiple muscle groups, or isolation exercises that focus on one. Examples of compound exercises would be deadlifts, rows, and bench presses. Isolation exercises include bicep curls and tricep pushdowns. 

Here are their specific recommendations for strength training.

Strength Training:

• 2–6 Sets Of 6 Or Fewer Reps (Compound Exercises).
• 1–3 sets of 8 Or Fewer Reps (Isolation Exercises).

This means you’ll be using fewer sets and reps but lifting at a higher intensity. We’ll discuss intensity recommendations more in the workout routine section. Again, you’ll spend most of your workout here, but you can add in some muscle-building ranges as well. 

Endurance Training

Muscular endurance refers to sustaining a physical movement or activity over a longer period. It’s the ability of the muscle to perform sustained contractions against a load consistently and repetitively. 

This is important for many exercises, activities, and tasks of daily living. For example, sitting with proper posture requires your core muscles to contract repeatedly to ensure an efficient body position.

In sports, endurance events like running, cycling, and rowing also require large degrees of muscular endurance. This is so the working muscles can sustain the force output and exercise can continue. 

The goal here is to develop the ability of your muscles to contract for longer. Because of this, you’ll be using higher sets and reps. However, this will be at a much lower lifting intensity than when training for muscle growth or strength. 

These are the NSCA’s recommendations for muscular endurance training:

Muscular Endurance Training = 2–3 Sets Of 12+ Repetitions Using Light Loads. 

With this, you’re training your muscles to work over a much longer period against sustained force at a lower intensity. 

Power Training

Muscular power can be defined as the ability of the body to produce large amounts of force over a short period of time. This involves quick, high-intensity movements, such as performing a squat jump or push press. 

While it sounds similar to strength, it’s actually quite different. Strength is the ability to move large amounts of weight, while power is the ability to do it quickly. Because of this, someone with high strength levels won’t necessarily have good power levels and vice versa. 

Having good muscular power is beneficial for many power-based sports requiring well-rounded development. Throwing events like javelin and shot put require power. Driving your opponent back in rugby requires strength and power. 

Power is involved in most things that we do. Because of this, it’s important to focus on this aspect of training as well as the other more common ones. 

Within this, you can train for strength and power at the same time using low reps and sets with high-weight training. You’ll overcome the resistance to build strength and do it quickly to build power.

The NSCA’s power training recommendations are:

Power Training = 3–5 Sets Of 1–5 Repetitions. 

Rest Duration Between Sets

Getting adequate rest between sets is vitally important to ensure sufficient energy replenishment and performance. The correct rest period depends on the intensity of training. For example, lower intensities will require less rest, while higher intensities will require more. 

These are the suggested rest periods based on exercise goals according to the NSCA:

This means that you’ll need to change your rest periods throughout your workout if you’re focusing on different goals. This also applies if you’re not using the same rep and set range for every exercise. 

A good idea is to time your rest using a timer to keep focus and ensure you’re getting the correct amount.

How To Build A Workout Routine?

Now that you have your sets and reps, it’s time to implement this into your workout routine. The missing piece of the puzzle that we mentioned briefly is your lifting intensity. This fits in with the stated sets and reps we’ve given above. 

This requires you to test your one repetition maximum. This is the maximum amount of weight you can lift using a single rep with good form. Ensure this is done under supervision when needed.

The NSCA suggests the following intensities according to your different goals:

Implement the principles of progressive overload discussed here in our article while using the information we’ve discussed regarding sets and reps. 

To bring this all together, here’s an example of a hypertrophy-based push routine:

• The compound movements use strength rep and set ranges, while the others focus on hypertrophy. With this, you’re performing some strength work while maintaining the main hypertrophy focus.
• The chest and shoulders have a total session volume of 9–18 sets. Performing this session twice per week would put you within the suggested weekly hypertrophy range. The workout frequency can depend on your weekly schedule and preferences.
• The warm-up and cool-down periods are programmed to ensure sufficient muscle temperature and blood flow while limiting potential injury risk.

Should You Change Your Set & Rep Scheme?

The differences in sets and reps between each goal are clear. However, in truth, most people tend to perform a combination of rep and set schemes. This is especially true at beginner and intermediate levels. 

For example, you might warm up using higher reps at a lower weight before switching to your working sets. This would be done at a higher weight using lower reps. This is all part of how you’ll correctly program your workout according to your goals using the advice above. 

There isn’t necessarily a correct answer. It’s more about how you use the information while keeping the primary focus on your goal. 

In many cases, you’ll regularly change your set and rep schemes when periodizing your training. This refers to the deliberate manipulation of the main training variables to improve performance. Periodization tends to be done over a long period and commonly at an intermediate or advanced level.

These are guidelines to follow, meaning they don’t need to be rigorously followed. Sometimes, you’ll go outside of the range, and that’s totally okay. The main thing is that you stay around the range for most of your workout.  

Conclusion

Use our sets and reps guide to inform your training and achieve your goals. Remember, these are guidelines to follow and not exact values to hit. The main thing is that the majority of your training focuses on them if that’s your main goal.

We’ve given you the important scientific information. It’s your turn to put in the hard work, go to the gym, and implement what we’ve told you. Hopefully, this will go some way towards helping you achieve your health and fitness goals! 

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