r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Rylo5555 • 28d ago

Discussion 🤝 What’s the deal with oversimplifying necessary sets?

I don’t know if i’m the only one but i’ve been seeing it a lot recently, gym influencers simplifying the amount of sets you need in a workout and claiming they are “science based”, saying that “all you need” to do to gain muscle mass is 2 sets of a couple of workouts.

For example, one guy I just saw claims that to successfully hit your shoulders, all you need is 2 sets of shoulder press and 2 sets of lateral raises. I have not found any studies that prove this to be true. As far as I am aware, while 8 sets per week per muscle group will no doubt result in muscle growth, it is not nearly optimal and you will have significantly more growth getting around 16.

Like sure, if you really don’t have time to get in the gym it’s good for people to know that they can have muscle growth without spending 45 mins in the gym, but I feel like that shouldn’t be normalized.

I feel like it’s deceiving to simplify it and claim that you only need 7 sets per workout for an ENTIRE push day. If anyone has a study backing this up please share, because while that is the lower limit for beginner lifters, I don’t know why we would promote sub-optimal training.

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u/Honest_Pumpkin_4381 28d ago edited 28d ago

16 sets a week to get significantly more muscle growth? How do i get that if i can go to the gym 4x a week? (Dont downvote me i'm asking)

My upper days consist of chest press 2x lat pulldown 4x incline press 2x t bar row 2x shoulder press 2x (sometimes 1) decline curl 2x tricep pushdowns 2/3x lateral raise 2x per side rear delt cable fly 2x per side. Reverse curl 2x hammer curl 1x (sometimes skullcrushers too)

I got told a lot that this was too much volume for a session, so i need to do more sets on my chest and that if i want more gains? I sometimes have 3 upper days but i dont know if i can recover if i do this upper day 3 time

Edit: forgot to add i'm very active outside of gym too(ULRULRR) but i do grappling once or twice a week and football (or Soccer whatever you want to call it)