The short answer, it depends on your goals.
How many sets should I do?
How many reps should I do?
What weight should I lift?
Keep track of your sets, reps, weight, progressive overload, and personal bests with Legend, on iOS and Android.
When weight training, we’re often faced with the questions: How many sets and reps should I do? How much weight should I lift? Am plateauing? Whether you’re looking to build muscle, increase strength, or burn fat, understanding the balance between sets, reps, and the weight choice is essential to achieving your goals. This guide breaks it all down so you can optimize your workouts and make every rep count.
A set is a group of consecutive reps. So, if you perform 10 push-ups, rest, and then do 10 more, you’ve completed 2 sets of 10 reps. How many sets you perform will impact your workout’s volume and intensity.
A rep (short for repetition) is one complete movement of an exercise. For example, if you’re doing a bicep curl, lifting the weight up and then lowering it counts as one rep. The number of reps you complete affects the kind of muscle adaptation you’ll experience.
Balancing your sets and reps ensures you’re targeting the right muscle fibers to meet your specific goals. Whether you’re aiming for raw strength, muscle size, or stamina, finding the right combination is key.
Finding the appropriate weight is crucial to challenging your muscles without overdoing it. Here’s how you can determine what’s right for you:
Warm-Up Properly: Always begin with lighter weights to get your muscles ready. This reduces injury risk and improves performance.
Test Your Max: For each exercise, use a weight that allows you to complete your target reps with good form but feels difficult by the last couple of reps. This ensures you’re pushing yourself effectively. Find the weight where you can only complete 1 rep (your 1-rep max) while maintaining the correct form and control.
Adjust for Goals:
Your goals dictate the number of sets, reps, and the weight you should lift. Let’s break it down.
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Weight (1RM) | Rest Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3-5 | 1-6 | 80-90% | 3-5 minutes |
| Hypertrophy | 3-6 | 6-12 | 65-75% | 60-90 seconds |
| Endurance | 2-4 | 15+ | 40-60% | 30-60 seconds |
For building strength, focus on lifting heavier weights for fewer reps. The goal is to activate more muscle fibers and build raw power.
If building size is your main goal, you’ll want to work in a moderate rep range with a focus on volume. This combination maximizes muscle tension and time under tension.
Endurance training is about doing more reps with lighter weights to improve muscle stamina and cardiovascular fitness.
No matter your goal, the principle of progressive overload is vital. This simply means that to continue making gains, you need to gradually increase the demand on your muscles. There are a few ways to implement progressive overload:
The key is to make gradual adjustments, allowing your body time to adapt to the increased workload. Tracking these adjustments is easier when you have a reliable system.
Legend Pro Tip: Legend shows you your progressive overload as you’re training. Helping you identify when it’s time to increase your sets, reps, and weight, ensuring continuous progress.
It’s tempting to stick with what you know works, but muscles adapt to repetition. To keep growing, you’ll need to switch things up every 4-6 weeks.
Legend Pro Tip: Legend helps you create plans, routines, and suggests similar exercises. Useful if you’re starting out or looking to switch your routine up.
When planning your workout, understanding the difference between compound exercises and isolation exercises can help you target your muscles more effectively. Each type of exercise serves a different purpose, whether you’re aiming for strength, muscle growth, or overall fitness. Here’s how to structure sets, reps, and weight for various goals using both types of exercises.
Compound Exercises
Compound exercises involve multiple joints and muscle groups working together. Since they engage multiple muscles, they allow you to lift heavier and gain more strength.
Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises target a single muscle group, allowing for focused muscle development. These are often used as accessory movements to complement compound exercises, especially when aiming for muscle growth.
To give you an idea of how exercises, sets, reps, and weight can change based on your goals, here are two sample plans, one for strength and one for hypertrophy. Notice the difference in sets and reps specifically.
An emphasis on compound movements is key for building strength.
Day 1: Upper Body Compound
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 4 |
| Pull-Up | 4 | 4 |
| Dumbbell Overhead Press | 3 | 6 |
| Tricep Dip | 3 | 8 |
Day 2: Lower Body Compound
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Squat | 3 | 4 |
| Barbell Deadlift | 3 | 4 |
| Barbell Bulgarian Split Squat | 3 | 8 |
| Seated Leg Curl | 3 | 8 |
Day 3: Accessory Isolation
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell Bicep Curl | 3 | 10 |
| Dumbbell Tricep Extension | 3 | 10 |
| Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3 | 12 |
| Cable Crunch | 3 | 12 |
| Barbell Wrist Extension | 3 | 12 |
| Barbell Wrist Curl | 3 | 12 |
For muscle growth, a mix of compound and isolation exercises is ideal.
Day 1: Push (Compound + Isolation)
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 8 |
| Dumbbell Chest Fly | 3 | 10 |
| Dumbbell Overhead Press | 3 | 8 |
| Cable Tricep Extension | 4 | 12 |
Day 2: Pull (Compound + Isolation)
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Deadlift | 4 | 6 |
| Barbell Bent Over Row | 3 | 8 |
| Dumbbell Bicep Curl | 3 | 12 |
| Cable Face Pull | 4 | 12 |
Day 3: Legs (Compound + Isolation)
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Squat | 4 | 8 |
| Machine Leg Press | 4 | 8 |
| Machine Leg Extension | 4 | 10 |
| Machine Calf Raise | 4 | 12 |
Legend Pro Tip: Whether you’re doing a simple split or an advanced program like Push-Pull-Legs, Legend’s Plan Library offers a variety of from the standard staples, to the iconic routines of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronny Coleman, and more. Legend also generates plans based on your goals, experience, and equipment availability.
If you’re aiming for strength or muscle growth, the weight should challenge you but still allow for proper form. The last 1-2 reps of each set should feel tough but achievable without sacrificing technique. If you can’t finish the set, the weight may be too heavy. If it’s too easy, you may need to increase the load.
This depends on your goal. For strength, prioritize increasing weight before reps. For muscle endurance or hypertrophy, consider increasing reps first to ensure you’re maximizing time under tension before increasing the weight.
This depends on your fitness level and goals. For strength or hypertrophy, training 3-5 times per week, with a mix of upper and lower body workouts, is typically ideal. Beginners may start with 2-3 sessions per week, while more advanced athletes may work out 5-6 times. Recovery time is crutial for your muscles to repair and grow.
Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed on the body during exercise. This can be done by increasing weight, reps, sets, or reducing rest times. It’s crucial for muscle growth, strength, and continuous improvement because it ensures your muscles are consistently challenged and forced to adapt.
Rest times vary depending on your goal:
It’s generally not recommended to train the same muscle group on consecutive days unless you’re doing light workouts. Muscles need time to recover and grow, so give them 48 hours of rest before working the same group again.
Yes! You can start your workout with heavier compound lifts for strength, then transition to higher-rep isolation exercises for hypertrophy. This allows you to benefit from both muscle-building strategies in one session.
Plateaus occur when your body adapts to the same workout routine, resulting in stalled progress. To avoid this, incorporate progressive overload, change your exercises every 4-6 weeks, and vary your rep and set ranges. Track your sets, reps, and weight, and you will quickly see when you’re stuck in a rut.
A good starting point is 4-8 exercises per workout. Focus on compound movements first, followed by isolation exercises. For example, you might do 4 compound exercises and 2-3 isolation exercises.
Yes, it’s recommended to switch up your routine every 4-6 weeks to keep challenging your muscles in new ways and avoid plateaus. Varying exercises, rep ranges, and even rest times will keep your workouts fresh and effective.
Now that you have a better understanding of how to choose sets, reps, and weight, you can tailor your workouts to meet your specific goals. Remember, consistency is key, so find a routine that works for you and stick with it. With the right balance, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals.
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