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On 2026-08-07 @DeanTTraining claimed that 1–3 PROPER sets per muscle per week is…

2026-08-07 · 20:44 UTC ·@DeanTTraining ·1 min read

Brief

DeanTTraining (post dated 2026-08-07) argues that 1–3 PROPER sets/week per muscle won’t drive growth, 4–7 sets/week gives solid gains, and 8+ sets/week maximizes growth rate. Because total weekly workload is limited, he recommends either evenly distributing work or prioritizing/deprioritizing muscle groups and rotating emphasis over time; Ross asked how this maps to 'working sets' per muscle.

Why it matters

On 2026-08-07 @DeanTTraining claimed that 1–3 PROPER sets per muscle per week is unlikely to produce growth, 4–7 PROPER sets/week will produce solid growth, and 8+ PROPER sets/week will produce the fastest possible growth.

Key details

  • He states there is a cap on total weekly work, so you cannot program 8+ sets for every muscle simultaneously; you must either train for balanced development across all muscles or prioritize/deprioritize specific muscle groups and rotate focus over time.
  • User Ross (@RossWDoug) replied asking, '2 working sets is killer, how many working sets per muscle?', highlighting practical questions about translating these weekly set targets into per-session working-set prescriptions.
Source evidence

If you do 1, 2, 3 PROPER sets for a given muscle group per week…it’s probably not going to grow

If you do 4, 5, 6, 7 PROPER sets for a given muscle group per week…it’s probably going to grow at a solid rate

If you do 8, 9, 10+ PROPER sets for a given muscle group per week…it’s probably going to grow as fast as possible

Trouble is, you cannot prescribe 8, 9, 10 sets for EVERY muscle group because there is a cap on the TOTAL amount of work you can do

Thus, you can opt to program for balanced development all at once OR you can prioritize/deprioritize muscle groups for a period and then shift that over time

Video

Ross (@RossWDoug)

2 working sets is killer, how many working sets per muscle?

— https://nitter.net/RossWDoug/status/2085448196247920767#m