Part of a good warm-up routine is the warm-up sets you do. So, let’s learn what they are, what benefits they offer, and how to add them to your training.

Key Takeaways

1. Warm-up sets are less challenging sets where you progressively increase the load until you reach your working weight.
   
   
2. Warm-up sets help further prepare your body, prime your nervous system, and give you extra practice time with the first lift of your workout.
   
   
3. Three to four warm-up sets are generally enough. It can look like this: empty bar (set 1), 50% of working weight (set 2), 75% of working weight (set 3), and 90% of working weight (set 4).
   
   
4. The consensus is to do a general warm-up (say five minutes of dynamic stretching or cardio) and proceed to the warm-up sets for the first exercise.
   
   
5. With Hevy, you can customize the warm-up calculator and add multiple warm-up sets to any exercise with two taps. Also, tap on regular sets and convert them to warm-up sets.

What Are Warm Up Sets and What is Their Purpose?

Warm-up sets are lighter sets done before the working sets of an exercise to prepare the muscles, joints, and nervous system. They help improve performance and reduce the injury risk. For example, if someone were to bench press 225 lbs for sets, they might do three warm-up sets with 45 lbs, 110 lbs, and 175 lbs.

First, by doing warm-up sets instead of jumping straight to your working weight, you target the specific muscles, joints, and connective tissues involved in the exercise. This helps mobilize and warm them up, reducing the risk of feeling stiff or experiencing nagging aches.

Similarly, it’s easier to spot aches or stiffness that may affect your performance by working up to heavier weights. As you warm up, discomfort may disappear, allowing you to train more productively. 

Alternatively, you might do some extra mobility work to prepare for your first exercise or swap it for another if the discomfort doesn’t go away on that particular movement.

Second, warm-up sets serve the essential purpose of greasing the groove by reinforcing proper movement patterns through repeated, low-effort practice. Thanks to warm-up sets, the nervous system engages the necessary motor pathways, which improves coordination, balance, and muscle activation.

Not doing warm-up sets can keep you stiff, uncomfortable, and less able to train through a full range of motion (at least early on in the workout), and it may even affect overall technique and muscle activation.

The warm-up calculator in the Hevy app allows you to configure your warm-up set structure based on percentages and add the pre-determined warm-up sets to any exercise. The exact weights for each warm-up set will depend on the working weight you select.

Warm Up Sets As Part of a Warm Up Routine

Warm-up sets are highly beneficial but do not constitute a complete warm-up. To get the most out of them, you must do them as part of a warm-up routine.

In weight training, you have two forms of warming up that make up this routine:

General Warm-up

This is the warm-up sequence you do to prepare your body, and it is typically the same regardless of what workout you’re about to do. The purpose of a general warm-up is to:

• Raise core body temperature
• Improve muscle elasticity
• Boost blood flow and circulation
• Improve joint mobility and reduce stiffness
• Warm up the synovial fluid that provides cushioning and lubrication for joints
• Engage the nervous system
• Help you get into the proper mindset for training

Here’s an example of how it might look:

• Five minutes of low-intensity steady-state cardio, such as incline treadmill walking
• Full-body dynamic stretching routine: front-to-back and side-to-side leg swings, arm circles, torso twists, shoulder rolls, cat-cow stretches, walking lunges, and hip circles

The entire sequence should not take more than ten minutes. Of course, you can add more activities, such as foam rolling, static stretching, or an additional dynamic stretch for a stiffer area.

The purpose is to feel better, focus on your workout, move more freely, and jump into the next portion of your session with energy and vigor.

Some people don’t want to do any cardio before their workout, and that’s also fine, especially when it’s warm, and you’re already a bit sweaty by the time you get to the gym. A few minutes of light cardio can be particularly beneficial if you train in a colder environment (say, your garage during winter) or you work out in the morning.

Specific Warm-Up

The specific warm-up is where you’re more mindful about what you do to prepare your body for the particular training you’ll be doing––be it a leg workout, chest day, or something else.

Once you’ve done the general warm-up, you can do the following:

• A mobility drill that helps with the first exercise of the workout – for example, this can consist of deep bodyweight squats and hip openers before squats, wall slides and band shoulder dislocations before presses, or hip flexor and adductor stretches and cat-cow stretches before deadlifts.
  
  
• Activation work with light free weights or resistance bands to help improve the mind-muscle connection with areas you struggle to feel during training. For example, if you’re doing bent-over barbell rows as a first exercise, you could lat do light pulls to engage these muscles.
  
  Similarly, you may do some glute activation exercises like bodyweight glute kickbacks and lateral band walks before hip thrusts.
  
  
• Warmup sets, where you start with a light weight (say, just the bar) and gradually increase the load until you reach your working weight.

Remember that warm-up routines don’t need to be unnecessarily complicated. It doesn’t hurt to take extra time to prepare, but try to be efficient and only do enough to warm up and train hard without stiffness, discomfort, or pain.

Everyone has different needs, and there isn’t a scientific consensus on the best warm-up protocol (since there is likely no one best approach for everyone). I highly recommend this narrative review by Neves et al. if you want to read more about warm-ups and their importance.

How to Do Warm Up Sets Correctly

Here is a good blueprint to follow:

1. Start with an empty bar, a pair of dumbbells, or a gym machine weight you can comfortably lift for 15-20 reps. Do the reps slowly and with good control through a full range of motion. Try to engage the target muscles instead of simply going through the motions.
   
   
2. Then, bump the load to around 50% of your working weight and do 5-6 reps with good control through a full range of motion. If you plan to lift 225 lbs, do that set with around 110 lbs.
   
   
3. For your third set, bump the weight to around 75% and do three solid reps. This would mean lifting around 170 lbs if your working weight is 225 lbs.
   
   
4. Optionally, do a final warm-up set with around 90% of your working weight for a single if you need more preparation before jumping into your work sets. This would be a single with around 200 lbs.
   
   
5. Do your first working weight with 225 lbs.

As for rest time between warm-up sets, keep it to 45-60 seconds maximum, or enough to get the weight plates, grab the heavier dumbbells, or adjust the weight on the gym machine. 

Since the goal is to stay far from muscle failure, you won’t need as long rest breaks to feel ready for each upcoming set. Here’s how it looks in a table:

Hevy’s warm-up set calculator has a default formula: 40% for 5 reps, 60% for 5 reps, and 80% for 3 reps. You can stick to it or adjust the percentages, the reps per set, and the number of sets.

Then, when it’s time to train, tap the three dots next to the first exercise, select Add Warm Up Sets, log the target weight at the top, and the app will calculate the load for all warm-up sets automatically.

You can also tap on any set to change its type to warm-up.

How to Adjust the Warm-Up Set Formula For Yourself

The above is a great starting point, but the formula is not set in stone. Here are some factors that determine how you should approach warm-up sets and why they could differ from the above tips:

• You can do additional warm-up sets if you have particularly tight or previously injured areas. For example, let’s say you hurt your left hip in the past, and the area feels tight at the start of each workout. In such a case, you can do two empty bar sets and three sets where you gradually increase the resistance to prepare for squats, deadlifts, and similar exercises.
  
  
• If you’re stronger and you lift heavier weights (say, 300+ lbs), you may need to do more warm-up sets to keep the weight jumps smaller. For example, if you deadlift 365 lbs, you might do five warm-up sets: 135 x 10, 205 x 5, 265 x3, 295 x1, and 315 lbs x1.
  
  In contrast, if you’re new to weight training and lift lighter weights (say, around 135-155 lbs maximum), you could do just two or three warm-up sets. For instance, if you bench 135 lbs, you could do a warm-up set with 45 lbs (empty bar) and one with 95 lbs before jumping into your work sets.
  
  
• Depending on the exercise’s complexity, you might need more or fewer sets. For example, multiple warm-up sets can grease the groove and help improve muscle activation, coordination, and balance for a more complex lift like the low-bar back squat.
  
  In comparison, machine-based lifts like the leg press, chest press, and shoulder press might not need as much preparation simply because they aren’t as technical and don’t require the same balance, coordination, and focus.
  
  
• The rep range you train in also plays a role. The more reps you do, the lighter the weight, so you can get away with fewer warm-up sets. In contrast, the more strength-focused work you do in lower rep ranges like 3-5 or 4-6, the heavier the weight will be, forcing you to do more warm-up sets.
  
  
• Lastly, personal preference also plays a role. If you don’t mind taking a bit longer to warm up and you feel like an extra warm-up set or two makes a difference in how comfortable you feel and how heavy you can go, by all means, take your time.

Do I Need Warm Up Sets For Every Exercise?

In general, you only need to do warm-up sets for the first exercise of your workout, especially if you follow a bro or push/pull/legs split where each session revolves around one to three muscles and movement patterns. 

Take this push workout as an example:

You only need to do some warm-up sets for the first movement. So long as you do a general warm-up and increase the weight over several sets, your body will be prepared to handle the rest of the workout. 

You can throw a warm-up set here and there if you feel like you need it, but it’s generally unnecessary and will only waste your time and energy. 

An exception here would be if you’re doing an upper/lower split or full-body workout where the first and second exercises target different muscles. For example, here is an upper-body workout from an upper-body program (taken from the Hevy app’s free routine library):

Here, you can do warm-up sets for the barbell bench press and the row. This is because the two exercises involve different patterns (push and pull) and target opposing muscle groups. 

Now, here’s a full-body workout where you might do even more warmup sets:

You have a barbell row as the first movement but a leg press as the second. Given how unrelated the two are, doing some warm-up sets for both makes sense. Also, since the third movement is unrelated to the first two, you can do one or two warm-up sets of chest presses, especially if you’re more advanced and use a lot of weight.

Here is how it might look for the first three exercises of a different full-body workout:

Warm Up Sets for Bodyweight Exercises

Let’s say you do bodyweight training (the Hevy app’s free routine library has four equipment-free options for all levels), or you’re doing a bodyweight exercise first in some workouts––for example, pull-ups on back/pull day and dips on chest/push day.

Here are several good options to do warm-up sets without relying on percentages:

• Do an easier variation – for example, if you’re doing pike or decline push-ups as your first exercise, do two or three warm-up sets of classic or incline push-ups.
  
  
• Do assisted reps – for instance, let’s say you’re doing pull-ups as the first movement. You can do band- or machine-assisted pull-ups to target the same muscles while controlling the resistance.
  
  
• Do eccentrics only – another simple option is to focus on the eccentric for a few reps, making sure to be far from failure. For example, step on a box or jump up to get to the top of a pull-up and lower yourself over five seconds. Do three sets of three reps and proceed to your first work set.
  
  
• Low reps, multiple sets – lastly, a practical option is to do the exercise in its original form but only for two to five reps. You can do three to five warmup sets and rest for up to a minute between them.

Can You Warm Up Only With Progressively Heavier Sets?

Let’s say you find general warm-ups like dynamic stretching or cardio boring. Or perhaps you’re pressed for time and would like to save a few minutes if possible. Does it make sense to jump straight into your warm-up sets?

In the narrative review mentioned above, the authors found a significant positive impact of warming up on performance: total volume and strength output. Here is a quote from their findings:

“These positive results were either after using only a specific warm-up or using a general warm-up followed by a specific warm-up.”

Also:

“The increased strength outcomes seemed to be better when a higher load is used during warm-up, with few repetitions. Moreover, the use of a general warm-up showed to be beneficial in some specific assessments.”

In one of the studies from the review, researchers noted better leg press performance in subjects doing a general and specific warm-up compared to just a specific warm-up. A different study from the review showed no difference in muscle strength regardless of whether the subjects did a general, specific, or stretch-based warm-up.

A third study from the narrative review found that a long-duration, low-intensity general warm-up improves 1RM strength in trained individuals. Finally, this study found that running-based and strength-based warm-up protocols lead to similar knee extension force output.

So, it’s hard to say, but current findings suggest that a general warm-up combined with a specific warm-up tends to work best. That said, it’s worth noting that a specific warm-up can also serve to prepare your body as a whole and bring the same benefits:

• Raise heart rate and core body temperature
• Improve circulation
• Warm up the muscles, joints, and connective tissues
• Improve mobility and limit stiffness
• Help wake up your nervous system and prime you for training

The advantage is that your warm-up would be more specific and allow you to get more practice with the first movement of your workout. 

However, this would mean doing more warm-up sets to compensate for the lack of a general warm-up, which could generate more fatigue in the involved muscles, affecting your performance on your working sets. 

So, it’s probably best to do at least a brief general warm-up––for instance, three minutes of brisk walking on the treadmill. Once your heart rate goes up, start your specific warm-up and see how well such a minimalistic approach works for you.

Warm Up Set Mistakes to Avoid

Before we wrap up, let’s look at some of the most common mistakes related explicitly to warmup sets:

• Not doing them – given that some studies don’t show additional performance benefits from a specific warm-up, it can be tempting to cut it out to save time.
  
  However, remember that even if you do a general warm-up, specific muscles and joints will likely need extra attention to be fully prepared to handle the weights, especially if you train for strength.
  
  Plus, the specific warm-up also helps prime your nervous system.
  
  
• Doing too many of them – on the other end of the spectrum, we have people who go all in just to be safe. The problem is that warmup sets don’t move the needle, and doing too many of them can generate muscle fatigue and waste time, distracting you from your actual work sets.

• Doing too many reps – similar to the previous mistake, doing too many reps will generate muscle fatigue, affecting your performance on your heavy work sets. Follow our tips from above and keep your reps between 1 and 5, with the only exception being the first set, where you can go up to 15-20 reps so long as you’re far from failure.

• Ignoring proper form and tempo – just because it’s a warmup set with a weight you can comfortably handle doesn’t mean you should go through the motions. Remember that these sets serve a purpose, so be mindful of your technique, range of motion, and tempo to get the most out of them.
  
  
• Resting too long – as mentioned above, you should rest for around 45-60 seconds between warmup sets. This will help you gain momentum and stay focused as you ramp up the intensity. 
  
  
• Ignoring pain or discomfort – part of the reason to do warmup sets is to see how your body feels that day. So, if you experience any discomfort, don’t ignore it. See how it goes as you increase the weight, and consider swapping the exercise if the pain increases as you get close to your first work set.
  
  
• Counting warmup sets toward your total volume – the idea behind such sets is to prepare your body, not to create a strong enough stimulus for growth and strength gains. So, it doesn’t make sense to count these sets toward your weekly volume. Read more about optimal volume in our guide.

Conclusion

Warmup sets effectively prepare your body for any workout and are crucial to a warm-up routine. When done correctly, they further prepare your body by engaging the correct muscles, activating your nervous system, and helping you alleviate minor aches and discomfort you may feel early on.

Download the Hevy app if you’re looking for a simple tool to log any workout, add warmup sets to any exercise with two taps, and enjoy other features like RPE tracking, automatic rest timers, and tracking your performance on specific exercises. (Read about all of the app’s features here.)

Hevy – Workout Tracker

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FAQ

1. How are warmup sets different from a general warm-up?

Warmup sets are part of the specific warm-up routine that helps prepare your body for the movements you’ll be doing that day. In contrast, a general warm-up is typically the same for every workout and mainly serves to get you moving and raise your core body temperature.

2. How do warmup sets improve performance?

They help you gradually work up to your working weight, which helps engage the nervous system in a specific way and improve muscle activation, balance, and mobility.

3. How many warmup sets should I do?

Generally, three to four warm-up sets are enough. You can go from an empty bar to 50%, 75%, and 90% of your working weight. If you’re a beginner lifting lighter weights (say, around 135 lbs), you can do just two warmup sets.

The post Warm Up Sets Explained: Best Strategies for Lifters appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

Let’s look at how supersets work, what common types exist, their benefits and drawbacks, how to program them into your routine, and what mistakes to avoid.

Key Takeaways

1. Supersetting is when you do two back-to-back exercises with little or no rest.
   
   
2. Common superset types include agonist/antagonist, compound/compound, upper/lower body, pre-exhaustion, and post-exhaustion.
   
   
3. Supersets are time-efficient, offer cardio benefits, and introduce workout variety to help keep your training plan more engaging.
   
   
4. Common mistakes include pairing the wrong exercises, not resting long enough, ignoring proper form, and rushing through your repetitions to save extra time.
   
   
5. Hevy allows you to create supersets with just a couple of taps when creating reusable templates or logging live workouts.

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Hevy – Workout Tracker

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What Are Supersets?

Supersets are a workout technique where you pair two exercises that typically target different muscles and do them back-to-back with little to no rest in between. For example, a set of tricep pushdowns followed by a set of dumbbell bicep curls would count as one superset. Training that way helps save time.

5 Types of Supersets

1. Opposing Muscles Supersets (Agonist/Antagonist)

This is where you do two exercises that target opposing muscle groups, including the biceps and triceps, hamstrings and quadriceps, chest and back, and glutes and hip flexors.

Example include:

• Barbell curl with rope cable pushdown (biceps and triceps)
• Leg extension with lying leg curl (quadriceps and hamstrings)
• Barbell bench press with seated cable row (chest and back)
• Barbell hip thrust with hanging knee raise (glutes and hip flexors)

These are perhaps the most popular type of superset and what comes to mind for most people.

You can easily create these and other supersets when building workout templates or logging live gym sessions through Hevy. Learn about the feature here.

2. Compound Supersets

This is an advanced superset option where you do two multi-joint exercises back-to-back. You should plan the exercises carefully because compound lifts involve more muscles, and too much overlap can lead to secondary muscles becoming the limiting factor.

Let’s take dumbbell Romanian deadlifts and goblet squats as an example. You have two compound lifts that target opposing muscles: the hamstrings and quadriceps. However, there is an overlap in the secondary muscles involved in both movements: the glutes, lower and upper back, and forearms.

For instance, if your back gets fatigued from Romanian deadlifts, you’ll struggle to maintain the proper position for goblet squats and might need to stop the set before you train your quads close to failure.

To clarify, compound supersets don’t have to work opposing muscle groups. The above was simply an example. You should always consider the secondary muscles involved in each multi-joint exercise and how the pair would work together.

In most cases, pairing a compound and isolation lift would allow you to perform better on both and reap the time-saving benefits of supersets.

Related: 12 of the Best Lower Body Pull Exercises for Strength

3. Upper/Lower Body Supersets

Upper/lower body supersets can also be a time-efficient way to train and keep muscle overlap relatively low, especially if you pair isolation exercises or a compound and isolation lift. 

These can also be particularly useful when doing full-body training since you’re doing lower and upper-body movements.

Examples of upper/lower body exercises (compound and isolation) for supersets include:

• Barbell bench press with lying leg curl
• Bent over barbell row with leg extensions
• Upright barbell row with calf raises
• Shoulder press with hip adduction (machine)

As discussed above, you can pair compound exercises, but consider the secondary muscles. Good examples with minimal overlap include:

• Split squat with lat pulldowns
• Glute ham raise with barbell bench press
• Leg press with shoulder press

Here is a full-body workout taken straight from one of the 25+ complete training programs you can access in the Hevy app’s library:

Here is the same workout modified with supersets to take less time:

4. Pre-Exhaustion Supersets

Pre-exhaustion supersets are those where you do two exercises for one muscle group. You start with an isolation lift to create some fatigue in the muscle and proceed to a compound exercise for your primary set.

The advantages of pre-exhaustion include:

• Activating the primary muscle and helping you feel it better during compound lifts
• Being able to exhaust the muscle with a lighter weight
• Possibly experiencing less wear and tear over time by keeping the loads lighter

This means pre-exhaustion is suitable for people who only care about muscle mass but would not be a good option for strength gains.

Examples of pre-exhaustion supersets include:

• Cable chest fly before flat barbell bench press
• Leg extensions before leg press or barbell squat
• Lying leg curl before Romanian deadlift
• Cable pullover before bent over barbell row

Remember that this is a more advanced tactic that carries some risk. Start with a light weight on the compound lift to see how it feels, and ask someone to spot you in case you fail to do the last rep.

5. Post-Exhaustion Supersets

Post-exhaustion supersets are the opposite approach that carries less because you start with the compound lift and conclude with an isolation exercise for the primary muscle. 

For example:

• Flat barbell bench press ⇒ cable chest fly
• Barbell back squat ⇒ leg extension
• Romanian deadlift ⇒ lying leg curl
• Bent over barbell row ⇒ cable pullover

Training that way allows you to maximally stimulate the target muscle and train it with heavy and light weights, which is ideal for generating mechanical tension and metabolic stress, both essential for muscle growth.

This is a good muscle-building tactic similar to the pre-exhaustion method but would not be ideal for strength gains. To understand why, read our strength vs. hypertrophy training guide, where we outline eight key differences.

3 Benefits of Supersets

1. Time-Efficient

The biggest benefit of supersets is that they allow you to condense more training in less time and complete your workouts more quickly. While one muscle is recovering, you can train another and use your time more intelligently.

2. Cardio Benefits

By forcing you to do more work in less time, supersets raise your heart rate higher and for longer than traditional sets. This is supported by research, including Realzola et al. (2022) and Zhang et al. (2025).

The advantage over traditional sets is that this doesn’t come at the expense of excessive local fatigue that affects your set-to-set performance.

For instance, you could shorten your rest periods between regular sets to reap similar cardio benefits. The problem is that doing so would limit muscle recovery, causing your performance and total training volume to be lower.

3. Greater Workout Variety

Workout enjoyability is not discussed commonly because prevailing wisdom suggests that we should suck it up and just do the work, regardless of how we feel about it. 

But the truth is that it’s okay to enjoy your training and look for ways to make it more fun, especially when you’re bored and not looking forward to any of your workouts.

Adding supersets to your training can be a neat way to spice up your workouts, even if you keep most training variables the same.

Drawbacks of Supersets

1. Harder to Do

Even when programmed intelligently, supersets are more challenging to do. Your cardiovascular system works harder, and you need to push yourself more to continue training once you’ve done a set close to failure. 

Here’s what the authors of this paper wrote:

“…it should be noted that supersets generally induce higher internal loads, more severe muscle damage, and increased perceived exertion, potentially necessitating extended recovery times between sessions.”

This is particularly true when doing compound, pre-exhaustion, or post-exhaustion supersets. 

One way to work around this is to take slightly longer rest breaks between supersets. For example, if you typically rest for two minutes between regular sets, consider resting for 2.5 minutes between supersets. 

You can set automatic rest timers for supersets, and the timer will trigger when you mark a set as completed in Hevy.

2. More Difficult to Program

Adding an agonist/antagonist superset here and there is no big deal, but things become more complicated when you want to add multiple supersets or program more advanced options like:

• Compound with compound lift 
• Pre-exhaustion
• Post-exhaustion

This is why it’s great to log your workouts and regularly review your numbers. Doing so helps you see how changes to your training plan affect your recovery and performance and when you should scale things back.

3. Higher Risk of Technique Breakdown

As inherently more fatiguing, supersets carry a higher risk of technique breakdown, which affects muscle activation and can put you at a slightly higher injury risk.

Ways to maintain better technique include:

• Be mindful of the risk and consider filming some of your sets to see how you look from the side
  
  
• Take longer rest breaks between sets to feel recovered; as a rule, your breathing should be somewhat normalized when you start each superset
  
  
• Keep your RPE slightly lower, at least initially; if you typically aim for an RPE 8-9 for most sets, train to an RPE 7 (leaving three reps in the tank) during your initial supersets

How to Incorporate Supersets Into Your Workout Routine

Step 1: See What Exercises You Can Pair

Look at your current program and see what exercises you can pair. For example, here is an intermediate upper/lower split taken from the Hevy app’s free program library:

Here’s how it might look when you create some supersets:

This can be a good way to get some experience with supersets without making too many changes to your training plan. 

You can also add an exercise here and there to work opposing muscle groups and do extra volume without spending too much extra time at the gym. For example:

Don’t start with too many supersets because a) they are harder to do, b) they can be harder to recover from, and c) they may affect your technique as you get tired.

Step 2: Set Your Rest Timer

Take slightly longer rest pauses between supersets to allow your heart rate to decrease and your breathing to normalize. If you take two-minute rest pauses on average, add 30 extra seconds of rest between supersets.

Step 3: Tweak the Weight and RPE

As with any new addition to your workout plan, it’s important to start small, monitor how you feel, and adjust when necessary. Here’s a simple formula that could help:

• Feeling excessively tired? Reduce the number of supersets or lower the weight by 10-20% on one or both exercises.
  
  
• Struggling with form? Lower the weight or increase the rest times.
  
  
• Not feeling that challenged? Increase the weight, add an extra set, or push to slightly higher RPEs.

Common Superset Mistakes

1. Pairing the Wrong Exercises

You have a fair amount of freedom to pair different exercises for supersets. That said, here are some potentially bad combinations to be mindful of:

• Compound with compound – while doable, this is not the best option because it creates too much fatigue, and there are typically too many overlapping muscles that can get overly fatigued and limit your performance or affect your technique.
  
  
• Same muscle group – unless you’re trying to do pre- or post-exhaustion, avoid doing two exercises for the same primary muscle in a superset. The first exercise will fatigue the primary muscle and force you to lift a lighter weight for fewer reps on the second movement.
  
  
• Same secondary muscle groups – some exercises target different muscle groups but involve the same secondary ones. For example, bent-over rows and reverse dumbbell flyes require the spinal erectors to engage and keep you in position.
  
  If these muscles get too fatigued during rows, you might struggle to maintain a good position for the reverse fly.
  
  
• Unilateral exercises – these are exercises that train one side at a time and take longer to complete. You can do them as part of supersets (particularly if you don’t have enough equipment), but they will make supersets less time-efficient.

2. Not Resting Enough Between Supersets

Too little rest affects your performance, limits your total training volume, and may even put you at risk of technique breakdown as a means of compensating.

So, as stated above, consider resting around 30 seconds more between supersets compared to regular sets.

Also, supersetting means doing exercises back-to-back with little or no rest. However, if the first movement gets you too fatigued and winded, it might be worth it to way 30-60 seconds before doing the second part of the superset.

It won’t be as time-efficient, but you’ll be able to perform better, which should hopefully translate into better gains in the long run.

When creating supersets in the Hevy app, you can set an automatic rest timer for the second movement or both.

3. Ignoring Proper Form

This is a fairly common mistake, given that supersets generate more fatigue. It’s one thing to do an exercise in a fully recovered state and a whole other to do it after completing another movement first.

So, be mindful of the potential risk and work hard to maintain good form. This includes:

• Maintaining a steady tempo
• Training through a full range of motion
• Breathing steadily
• Avoiding jerking motions and momentum to complete reps

Conclusion

Supersets are a simple and convenient way to do more work in less time. When done correctly, they don’t compromise technique or affect total volume and could even provide cardio benefits. 

That said, it’s important to pair the correct exercises, program supersets more sparingly (unless you’re strapped for time), rest long enough between sets, and focus on proper technique. 

With Hevy, you can pair exercises into supersets with just a couple of taps and set an automatic rest timer. Plus, as soon as you mark a set as completed, Hevy will scroll to the next exercise of the superset, so long as you have Smart Superset Scrolling enabled in the settings. So, download the app and log your first workout today.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

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FAQ

1. What is the difference between a superset and a circuit?

A superset is when you pair two exercises, whereas a circuit is when you pair three or more movements and do them back-to-back.

2. Are supersets suitable for a beginner?

Supersets can work for beginners, but it might be best to do them under the supervision of a good personal trainer to monitor the technique, effort, and rest periods.

3. Do supersets work in traditional strength training?

You can add supersets to a strength program to do some accessory/isolation work for muscle gain. However, it’s typically best to do them during muscle-building phases.

4. Should I rest between exercises in a superset?

The exercises that are part of a superset are typically done back-to-back. However, you can add 30-60 seconds of rest between them if you feel particularly fatigued or winded. This can help you perform better and maintain good technique.

The post What Are Supersets And How to Use Them appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

But what does the research say? More importantly, how do we interpret the results, and what’s the consensus? Read on because we’ve broken down everything you need to know.

Key Takeaways

1. The most practical way to track your training volume is to count the weekly sets you do per muscle group.
   
   
2. The consensus is to do 10 to 20 weekly sets per muscle group to optimize muscle growth.
   
   
3. You should count indirect and direct sets when tracking volume for smaller muscles like the biceps, triceps, and shoulders.
   
   
4. Factors influencing how many sets you should do include your experience level, recovery capacity, how long you recover between sets, and what exercises you do.
   
   
5. Research recommends training each muscle twice per week and splitting the weekly 10-20 sets instead of doing them all in one workout.
   
   
6. Higher volumes (45+ sets per muscle) can bring more growth. However, that only works when study subjects focus on just a few muscles and don’t do that much training. High volumes across the board are more likely to lead to overtraining and injuries.
   
   
7. Drop sets, rest-pause, supersets, and tightly controlled rest periods can be helpful if you want to do higher volumes but don’t have as much time.
   
   
8. Log your workouts in Hevy to track your sets per muscle on a customizable graph, access 25+ free training plans for all levels, and enjoy cool features like RPE logging, automatic rest timers, and supersets.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

Create my workout

What Is Training Volume and How Do We Measure It?

Resistance training volume measures the total work you do at the gym. Volume load is a common approach to monitor the amount of training you do on individual exercises. It works by multiplying the number of sets by the number of reps by the weight used. For instance, let’s say you lift 135 lbs for four sets of ten reps:

135 x 10 x 4 = 5,400 lbs of volume

Monitoring volume load can work, but you need to be purposeful about changing any of these details to get reliable data in the long run. Volume load is biased toward lower loads for more reps and can make it hard to tell if you’re progressively overloading.

For example, if you used to do sets of 8-12 reps for four sets with 135 lbs and suddenly lower the weight to 115 to do more reps, the total volume would be far higher.

135 x 10 x 4 = 5,400 lbs of volume
115 x 15 x 4 = 6,900 lbs of volume

You may lift 1,500 lbs more, but that doesn’t mean you’ve made a huge jump from one week to the next or that the latter rep/set scheme is superior in any way.

So, when using volume load to measure progress, stay consistent with the weight you use. That way, if you do more reps or add extra sets in the future, you can reliably track overload:

I log my workouts in Hevy and use volume load to track my progress on some exercises, where I don’t change the set/weight scheme but simply try to do more reps over time. I can display my session volume load on a graph.

A more practical option, particularly when tracking weekly volume, is to count the number of working sets for the major muscle groups. This is a simple way to ensure you do enough productive work without worrying that changing the weight/rep target or number of sets will throw the data off.

What’s The Optimal Number of Sets Per Muscle Group Per Week?

• Studies show that 10 weekly sets can lead to twice the muscle hypertrophy compared to five or fewer sets.
  
  
• Increasing the volume beyond 10 sets continues to improve muscle growth, but the gains start to diminish, with 20 weekly sets being the upper limit for most people.
  
  
• Beyond 20 sets per muscle, you may experience recovery issues, leading to performance and muscle loss. (More on this debate toward the end of the article.)

These ideas align with the minimum effective volume (MEV) and maximum recoverable volume (MRV) concepts popularized by Dr. Mike Israetel, a sports science Ph.D. and competitive bodybuilder.

• MEV is the smallest amount of training a person can do and still make progress – this should be around ten weekly sets.
  
  
• MRV is the maximum training you can do and still recover, or approximately 20 sets.

Given the dose-dependent relationship between volume and growth, most experts agree that those who can should train above their MEV. So, every trainee serious about making progress should find their sweet spot between MEV and MRV. 

For example, 10 weekly sets for the chest would likely be the minimum you should do to see decent results, up to 20 sets should lead to incrementally more growth, and over 20 sets will likely lead to recovery issues and may affect your performance.

One reason why I love logging my workouts in Hevy is that it tracks my volume per muscle and displays the number of sets on a customizable graph.

I can show data for the muscles I want, organize it weekly or month to month, and look back at my volume from the last 30 days, three months, year, or all-time (the latter two options are only available with Hevy Pro).

Technically, you can get some results from fewer than ten sets per muscle, but this will be below MEV for most people and unlikely to bring noticeable results. Given how clear the research is, it makes more sense to push a bit harder to cover the minimum. We’ll discuss some time-saving tactics below.

What is Overlapping Training Volume?

The above recommendations of 10 to 20 sets per muscle are not all direct sets––for example, you don’t need to do 20 sets of different curls to optimize bicep growth. Some of the volume will be overlapping or indirect. This is when one exercise trains a primary muscle (say, the quadriceps) but also works secondary muscles like the glutes. 

While you may not think about training your glutes, they will inevitably get some stimulation from exercises like the back squat, Bulgarian split squat, lunge, and even leg press. The more exercises you do that also work the glutes, the less direct work you need to do for that area to optimize its development.

There are different ways to count secondary muscle sets, but one approach that works well is to count the primary muscle as one set and the secondary muscles as half a set. For example, you do a lat pulldown set and count it as one set for the lats/upper back and 0.5 for the biceps.

This approach is not ideal because some exercises target secondary muscles better than others, offering more stimulus. However, it’s a good rule of thumb to follow on average to get reliable set per muscle numbers.

If you do ten sets of rows for your back, you can count that as five sets for your biceps. The same goes for pressing exercises that train the chest: ten sets of those can count as five sets for the triceps and front deltoids.

Let’s now look at a whole workout:

Now, you might wonder how overlapping volume would count when doing back exercises that don’t involve elbow flexion (arm bending), like the deadlift, rack pull, shrug, and pullover. In such a case, you wouldn’t count those sets toward your bicep work since there isn’t any elbow flexion.

This is where nuance comes in, and it’s important to consider what primary and secondary muscles each exercise targets.

If the stuff about overlapping volume and calculating sets for secondary muscles seems unnecessarily complicated, do the following:

• 10 to 20 sets for the major muscle groups: the back, chest, and quadriceps
• 6 to 10 sets for smaller muscles: shoulders, biceps, triceps, hamstrings, and calves

So long as you do at least a couple of exercises per major muscle group, you will get enough indirect stimulation for the secondary muscles, and adding 6-10 direct sets should cover your volume needs.

I got a slightly modified 4-day upper/lower split from our 4-day split article to show you how it works on a larger scale.

The number of asterisk symbols (*) next to individual exercises represents how many secondary muscles it counts toward.

By looking at your splits this way, you can see how many sets each muscle would get and if some areas need more or less volume.

Factors That Affect How Many Sets You Should Do

We’ve covered a lot of information regarding the optimal training volume for muscle mass, but remember that everyone is different. Multiple factors affect how much training a person can do, recover from, and adapt positively. So, let’s look at them:

1. Experience

Beginners can build muscle and see strength gains from a low-volume approach. This is simply because newbies are not used to training stress, which means they are more likely to respond to less.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that beginners start with 1-3 sets per exercise, which equals 6-9 sets if trainees aim for a standard structure of 2-3 exercises per muscle for three working sets each.

Also, research by Schoenfeld et al. (2018) suggests that 5-9 weekly sets can still promote muscle growth in beginners.

Hevy’s routine library has eight beginner programs, each having you train two or three times per week and covering these volume targets.

However, higher training volumes will bring better results as you become more advanced.

2. Recovery

Your ability to handle and adapt to a given weekly training volume largely depends on your recovery. Factors that play a role include:

• Sleep – adequate sleep is one of the best ways to improve your recovery capacity. Most of the tissue repair and muscle growth happens during sleep, and research links sleep deprivation to muscle loss, a performance decline, and body fat gains.
  
  Plus, poor sleep is linked to impaired cognition, loss of motivation, irritability, and other not-so-fun things, all affecting your willingness and desire to go to the gym and push yourself hard.
  
  So, aim for at least seven hours of sleep per night, preferably eight.
  
  
• Stress – stress directly impacts your body’s ability to recover from and adapt to difficult workouts. The more stressed you are outside the gym (e.g., demanding job, long commute, family obligations, newborn baby, etc.), the more your ability and desire to train diminish.
  
  Some stress is unavoidable, so adjust your training temporarily if you feel particularly drained. For example, let’s say you’ve had a brutal week but have a heavy leg day scheduled for Saturday.
  
  In this case, you can a) reduce the number of sets, lower the weight, or train at a lower RPE, b) do an easier workout on Saturday and leave your heavy leg day for a time when you feel better, or c) take the day off and do that workout on Sunday or Monday.
  
  You can side-step short-term stress with basic tweaks to your training plan. However, if you’re dealing with something long-term (for example, starting a more demanding job farther from home), you may need to reduce the number of sets you do across the board to stay within your recovery limits.
  
  
• Diet – what and how much you eat also affects where your training volume’s upper limit lies.
  
  Most notably, you must eat enough total calories to at least maintain your weight over time. Being in a calorie deficit limits your body’s recovery capacity, especially as you do it for an extended period, such as when losing fat.
  
  Similarly, you must eat enough protein (research recommends 1.6-2.2 grams of protein/kg or 0.7-1 gram/lb) to provide your muscles with the amino acids they need for repair and growth.
  
  Carbohydrates also help replenish glycogen (the complex carb form stored in your muscles), which also supports muscle protein synthesis.
  
  Lastly, dietary fats support hormone production, including maintaining healthy testosterone levels. A good intake to aim for is 0.35-0.45 grams per lb; someone who weighs 160 lbs should aim for 56 to 72 grams of fats daily.

3. Training Quality

Most people focus on the number of sets because that’s specific and easy to track. But, how you approach each workout, exercise, set, and even rep can play a role in how stimulative and fatiguing your training plan is and, thus, how many sets you can handle. 

Things that fall under the ‘training quality’ umbrella include:

• Effort (typically tracked through RPE) – the harder you train, the more stimulative each set is and the more fatiguing. Research finds that training close to failure is far less taxing than going all out and doesn’t affect post-training recovery to the same degree.
  
  According to data and expert opinion, we should aim to train to an RPE 7-8 (leaving two to three reps in the tank) most of the time.
  
  The Hevy app allows you to log your RPE on any set. Simply log your reps and RPE, mark the set as complete, and the app will record your effort so you can review it later and more effectively track your progress.

• Tempo – rep quality is another major factor to consider. It takes tremendous discipline and mindfulness to keep your reps identical and good throughout each workout.
  
  A good rep consists of a controlled eccentric (negative; muscle lengthening under load), an explosive concentric (muscle shortening), and a stable isometric (pause) contraction to maximize muscle activation.
  
  Here’s 6-time Olympia winner Chris Bumstead demonstrating what that looks like:

• Notice how he does his best to keep the reps looking identical even as his legs get tired.
  
  The more attention you pay to each phase of every rep, the more effectively you will train the target muscles and the fewer total sets you will need to provide an adequate stimulus.
  
  In contrast, the more you go through the motions and only move the weight from point A to B, the less effective each set will be, and the more sets you will need to train the muscle well to optimize growth.
  
  
• Range of motion – the range of motion you use will also significantly impact the stimulative effect of each set. A longer range of motion will stretch the target muscles better and require more effort.
  
  We also know that the eccentric contraction is more fatiguing because it places the muscle under greater mechanical tension and creates more muscle damage (Proske & Morgan, 2001).
  
  For example, during a deep squat, the quads and glutes are stretched more and experience higher tension at the bottom. In contrast, a partial squat doesn’t require as much energy, doesn’t stretch the target muscles as much, and doesn’t create the same amount of tension.
  
  So, while you could log part of your workout as “Barbell Squats – 5 sets x 10 reps w/ 100 kg,” the range of motion can affect the overall stimulus and effectiveness.

Many people who say that 20 sets per muscle per week don’t seem like enough are probably not paying attention to the quality of each set and could stand to train harder.

4. Exercise Selection & Loading

Each exercise comes with a fatigue cost––that is, how much it tires you out. Another way to classify is through the stimulus-to-fatigue ratio, which is the muscle-building effect a movement has versus the fatigue it generates.

Fatigue comes from the effort it takes to do the exercise as well as to set up for it and clean up after yourself. 

It’s one thing to do barbell squats, another to do leg presses, and yet another to do seated leg extensions. All three exercises target the same muscle, but each tires you out differently because of its impact on your body and the time it takes to set up.

To do a barbell squat, you need to load weight plates on the bar, brace your entire body, and pay careful attention to your technique. In contrast, to do a leg extension, you simply need to sit down, use the pins to select the weight, adjust the back support and shin pad, and do your reps.

This isn’t to say you should only do simple machine exercises, but it’s important to consider the cost of each movement and build your workouts in a way where some exercises are less challenging than others.

Loading also plays a huge role. The heavier the weight, the more effort it takes to complete each set, and the more mindful you need to be of the total number of sets you do. We’ve discussed this at length in our strength vs. hypertrophy training article. 

As a rule, the more free-weight exercises you do with heavier weights in lower rep ranges (say, 3-6, 6-8), the more tiring your workouts are likely to feel. In contrast, the more machine and isolation exercises you do with moderately heavy weights for more reps (say, 8-12, 12-15+), the less demanding each set will feel.

5. Rest Between Sets

Adequate rest between sets leads to higher quality training, muscle growth, strength gains, and improved capacity to handle more sets. 

First, by resting long enough between sets, your target muscles recover better, allowing you to do more reps from set to set and maintain better form. Second, while fatigue builds up, it’s more manageable than taking shorter breaks between sets. 

As such, you can do more sets in each workout without feeling overly exerted. There are ways to shorten your workouts – we’ll discuss them below.

6. Prioritizing Weak Points

You can structure your training to emphasize a lagging muscle group for a while. To do that, you can increase the number of sets to 20+ (so long as the area recovers in time for each workout and isn’t excessively sore) while keeping the number of sets for other muscles lower––say, around 10-15/week.

This helps control overall fatigue and allows you to prioritize some muscles you want to bring up to par with the rest of your body.

For example, let’s say your arms have always been a weak point compared to the rest of your upper body. You can run a specialization phase for a couple of months, gradually increasing your total sets (direct and indirect) for the biceps and triceps while keeping the volume for all other muscle groups lower.

How Training Frequency Relates to Optimal Volume

Training each muscle twice weekly is generally considered better because it allows for better volume allocation. 

Instead of doing 10 to 20 sets for each muscle in one workout, which can be exhausting, you can split the volume into two sessions and make it more manageable. This helps you train harder across all sets and potentially build more muscle. 

Plus, research shows that protein synthesis rates return to almost to baseline within 36 hours of training. So, by training a muscle twice weekly, protein synthesis rates increase more frequently.

Let’s look at how that might look in practice for someone doing 15 weekly sets for their chest. First, we have a classic 4-day upper/lower split:

Next up, we have a more advanced 6-day push/pull/legs split:

As you can see, this is identical to the 4-day split. But since we have six weekly workouts instead of four, we can do fewer total sets in each session. 

Now, let’s look at the final example: a 3-day full-body program.

Training each muscle three times per week instead of two is likely not better, but it can work because it naturally fits into the typical full-body workout.

Download the Hevy app and explore the 25+ complete training plans in the library (Workout tab > Explore). Access push/pull/legs and upper/lower splits, as well as full-body 5×5 and PHUL programs.

How About Training Muscles Once Per Week?

Training muscles once per week can also work and can even be the better option for people who prefer a bro split. The advantage is that you would do many sets for each muscle, which can help with the mind-muscle connection and lead to better pumps. 

As one Reddit user noted, “I get amazing pumps from bro splits and feel way more motivated to go to the gym when I’m only hitting a single muscle group.”

Plus, even if you follow a traditional bro split, your frequency per muscle would still not be precisely once per week. For example, if you train your chest, shoulders, and triceps on separate days, you’d hit the triceps, shoulders, and possibly even the chest two or three times, thanks to the indirect sets we discussed above.

That said, there are trade-offs to this approach. Most notably:

• Your muscles should be fully healed within two to four days, but you’d only train them once every seven days
  
• Set quality will decrease as you get tired, so your latter sets won’t be as productive or stimulative as the first ones
  
• Given the high concentration of training coupled with a low frequency, you may experience more pronounced soreness

More advanced trainees are almost always better off splitting their total weekly volume into two sessions.

How to Tell If You’re Doing Enough Sets

These are some of the signs to look for:

• Your workouts feel hard enough, and the muscles you’ve trained are weaker at the end of each session. However, you’re recovering well for each upcoming session.
  
  
• You experience some soreness, but it doesn’t take longer than two to three days to clear up and doesn’t affect the quality of your subsequent workouts.
  
  
• You’re getting stronger across the board. You see yourself adding weight on some exercises and reps on others. But when you look back at your volume, the weight you use, and your performance on specific lifts, there is a clear upward trend.
  
  
• You’re steadily gaining weight. Newbie = 1-1.5% body weight/month; Intermediate = 0.5-1% body weight/month; Advanced = 0.25-0.5% body weight/month.
  
  
• Circumference measurements are improving in all the right places: arms, chest, and thighs.
  
  
• You’re visually more muscular. You look better in the mirror, and monthly progress photos show modest improvements.

Download Hevy and start logging your workouts. The app keeps track of your performance (including on individual lifts), allows you to record your weight and circumference measurements, and upload progress photos (as well as compare them).

Signs You May Need or Can Benefit From More Sets

Some signs to look for include:

• Your workouts feel too easy. Sure, there is some challenge from set to set but you don’t feel tired at the end of a session.
  
  
• You rarely feel sore. Soreness doesn’t equal or predict muscle growth, but it can indicate that you’ve caused a disruption that can contribute to hypertrophy. Never feeling sore likely means you could do more sets or train harder.
  
  
• Your muscles recover within a day, and you feel like you can do the same workout.
  
  
• Your performance doesn’t improve meaningfully across the board. When looking back at workouts from three, four, or even five months ago, you see the same numbers as you do now.
  
  
• Your body composition isn’t improving. The mirror and progress photos don’t show visual improvements, and circumference measurements in key areas like the upper arms, chest, and thighs don’t increase.

How to Tell If You’re Doing too Much

Doing too much in the short term will not likely create any issues. However, if you’ve been on a high-volume plan for at least a few weeks, look for these signs:

• You feel tired, but you can’t sleep well at night. It’s hard to fall asleep in the evening, or you wake up frequently.
  
  
• You don’t feel as motivated to train. The thought of going to the gym doesn’t excite you anymore.
  
  
• Your grip weakens, and you struggle to hold on to heavier weights.
  
  
• Your warm-up sets feel heavier than usual. As you add weight to the bar, you often ask yourself if you can lift the same weight you did last week.
  
  
• Your performance overall is trending downward. For example, when looking at specific exercises in Hevy, you notice that you’re lifting less weight than before, and your total set/session volume is trending downward.

• You pick up more aches than before, and they impact your workouts.
  
  
• Muscle soreness is more intense and persists longer. If soreness used to clear up within a couple of days before, it now takes three, four, or even five days to go away.
  
  
• You feel more tired in your daily life. Everyday tasks feel more taxing, and it’s harder to stay concentrated.

“45 Sets Per Muscle” – Why Some Studies Show Crazy High Volume Works

If you look at a study like the one by Schoenfeld et al. from 2019, you might conclude that 20 weekly sets per muscle are not the upper limit and that we can and should do a lot more to grow optimally.

In that paper, 45 lifters were split into three groups: low, moderate, and high volume. The 11 trained lifters in the high-volume group did three weekly workouts, each including three quad and four upper body exercises for five sets each (35 total sets per session). The subjects did 8-12 reps per set to failure and rested for 90 seconds.

Their total weekly volume was 45 sets for the quadriceps and 30 for the biceps and triceps.

Compared to low and moderate-volume approaches, the 45-set group saw significantly more growth (12 to 13.7% increase in quad size). 

There was a clear dose-dependent relationship where more volume led to more growth. The most significant jump was seen when comparing the low and moderate-volume groups––6 and 9 sets versus 18 and 27 sets for the arms and quads, respectively. 

Results showed diminishing returns from moderate to high volumes, meaning that per-set growth goes down but can still add up if a muscle is hammered with enough training.

So, what does this mean? Should we all jack up the volume to 30, 40, or 50 weekly sets per muscle since it seems to work? 

No, because the goal of this paper was to look at individual muscles’ response to different training volumes in isolation, not as part of a well-balanced training plan that includes enough sets for all major muscle groups. 

The subjects did 45 direct sets to failure for the quadriceps, which is intense. But they didn’t do much else, and their workouts lasted around 68 minutes. That’s around 3.5 hours of weekly training.

If anything, the paper highlights the difference between total and local recovery capacity. You can subject a single body part to a lot of training and see it grow. But doing that across the board would generate too much systemic fatigue and push you into overtraining territory fast.

Now, let’s say you’re unhappy with a particular body part. In this case, you can gradually increase the number of weekly sets for that muscle while reducing the number of sets for other body parts to compensate for it and avoid recovery issues.

Time-Saving Strategies for High-Volume Training

Here are some strategies to do more work in less time:

1. Do Supersets

Supersets are a popular method for doing more work in less time by pairing exercises and doing them one after the other with little to no rest in between. 

Standard superset options include:

• Pairing isolation exercises (e.g., tricep pushdowns with bicep curls)
• Pairing a compound with an isolation exercise (e.g., a bench press with face pulls)

It’s best to pair exercises that train agonist-antagonist muscles (e.g., the biceps and triceps) or unrelated muscles (e.g., the chest and hamstrings). Pairing two exercises for the same muscle into a superset is generally not the best idea because the first movement exhausts the muscle and affects your performance on the second.

In contrast, by doing exercises for different muscles, you can perform better and do more high-quality sets.

To create a superset in Hevy, tap the three dots next to an exercise, select + Add To Superset, and tap the movement you want to pair it with.

2. Do Drop Sets

Drop sets are a technique where you lift a weight close to failure, immediately decrease the weight by 10-30%, and do as many additional reps as possible. You can stop here or reduce the load several times within the same drop set. 

For example, let’s say you’re doing leg extensions with 175 lbs. Do the set close to failure, reduce the weight to 150 lbs, do as many sets as you can, reduce the weight to 125 lbs, train to failure, drop to 100 lbs, and do one final set. 

That way, instead of four straight sets that take you 6+ minutes with the rest in between, you can do more volume in half or even a third of the time. 

Is that as effective as traditional sets? A 2022 meta-analysis suggests so.

That said, it’s best to do drop sets on exercises where it’s easy to reduce the weight and fatigue doesn’t put you at risk of hurting yourself. So, leg extensions and other machine exercises are fine, but back squats and many other barbell exercises are not.

By the way, you can label sets as drop sets in Hevy for effortless workout logging and to review your progress later.

3. Do Rest-Pause

Rest pause is similar to drop sets in that it allows you to do more work in less time. Instead of reducing the weight to push a muscle beyond failure, you take multiple mini-breaks throughout a long set. 

For example, you do 12 reps to failure, rest for 10-15 seconds, do 4-5 reps to failure, rest for 10-15 seconds, do 2-3 reps to failure, and then take a longer break. The load, tempo, and range of motion stay the same.

The advantage of rest-pause is that you don’t have to reduce the weight multiple times and can use the same setup throughout. This makes rest pause more applicable to a broader range of exercises, including compound lifts like the bent-over row and machine chest press. 

As with drop sets, it’s not recommended to do rest-pause on exercises where failing to complete a rep could get you hurt. The bench, squat, and shoulder press are exercises where you should not do rest-pause.

4. Control Your Rest Periods

Keeping track of your rest periods and adhering to them might not seem significant, but 10 seconds here and 30 seconds there can add up to several minutes within a single workout.

In Hevy, you can set a default rest timer in the settings and adjust it for any exercise you add to any workout. When you mark a set as complete, the timer starts, and you’re notified when it’s time to do the next set.

Additionally, to be as productive with your time as possible, plan your workouts ahead of time to know what you’ll be doing from the moment you step into the gym. You’d be surprised how much time you could save by going in with a plan versus trying to figure it out on the go.

Conclusion

There is a clear relationship between training volume and growth. More sets tend to work better, but up to a point. Beyond that, the stimulus provided is negligible compared to the additional fatigue extra sets generate.

So, it’s essential to find your sweet spot, typically between 10 and 20 direct and indirect sets per muscle, where workouts feel challenging, you’re making steady progress, and recovery isn’t an issue. 

Since you’ve made it to the end, download Hevy to log your workouts. Easily create reusable workout templates, log your sessions, monitor your set count per muscle group, and take advantage of cool features like automatic rest timers, RPE logging, the ability to create supersets, and more.

FAQ

1. What’s the difference between “minimum effective volume” and “maximum recoverable volume”?

Minimum effective volume (MEV) is the smallest amount of training you can do to build muscle and get stronger. Maximum recoverable volume (MRV) is the most amount of training you can do, recover from, and adapt to. You should find the sweet spot between the two for the best results.

2. Do smaller and larger muscle groups require different numbers of sets?

Regardless of size, all muscles will generally benefit from the same number of sets. However, you can do fewer direct sets for smaller muscles like the biceps and triceps because they receive plenty of indirect stimulation from compound exercises like the bench press and barbell row.

The post How Many Sets Per Muscle Group For Optimal Growth? appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

However, as research and practical experience grew, we learned that leaving reps in the tank was not detrimental and could even help us train more productively, stay more consistent, and keep injuries at bay.

RPE is one of the best tools to track our effort and ensure we stay within that sweet spot of just enough but not too much. So, let’s learn what RPE is, how it works, and how to use it in your training.

Key Takeaways

1. RPE is a 10-point scale traditionally used in weight training to track perceived exertion and reps in reserve on individual sets. An RPE 10 means you couldn’t have done more reps; RPEs 9, 8, 7, and 6 mean you had one, two, three, or four reps in the tank, respectively.
   
   
2. RPE was originally a 6-20 scale created in the 1960s to track exertion during cardio training. Mike Tuchscherer, a renowned powerlifter and coach, developed the 1-10 scale based on reps left in the tank that’s widely used today.
   
   
3. Tracking RPE is generally a net positive because it helps you more accurately track your gym performance. However, beginners lack the experience to use RPE effectively and would be better off without it during their first one to two years of training.
   
   
4. You should generally try to stay within an RPE 7-8 (two or three reps in the tank) on most of your sets to promote muscle and strength gains while managing fatigue.
   
   
5. The Hevy app allows you to record your RPE for any set you want and monitor your effort when reviewing workout details later.

What is RPE?

RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion and is a subjective scale used to measure exercise intensity and effort. In traditional weight training, the scale goes from 1 to 10 and works like this:

• RPE 10 – couldn’t do any more reps
• RPE 9 – could have done one more rep
• RPE 8 – could have done two more reps
• RPE 7 – could have done three more reps
• RPE 6 – could have done four more reps

Anything below an RPE of 6 falls into the less challenging training category, is difficult to estimate, and is not worth logging. 

As a subjective scale, RPE requires you to determine the rating for each scale, which can sometimes be unclear. For example, you may finish a set and conclude that you could have done one or two extra reps. In such cases, you can use 0.5, as in:

• RPE 9.5 – maybe could have done one more reps
• RPE 8.5 – one rep left in the tank, maybe two
• RPE 7.5 – two reps left in the tank, maybe three

The Original Borg RPE Scale

The Swedish researcher Gunnar Borg developed the original RPE scale in the 1960s to track perceived exertion levels during physical activity. It went from 6 to 20 and scaled with heart rate. An RPE 6 corresponded with a resting heart rate of around 60 beats per minute (no exertion), and an RPE 20 was the equivalent of 200 beats per minute (maximal exertion).

Borg later made a simplified RPE scale that went from 1 to 10. Like his original scale, the objective was to measure exertion, with one being no exertion and ten meaning maximum effort.

Mike Tuchscherer, an IPF champion and renowned powerlifting coach, revamped the 1-10 RPE scale in 2005 and made it into the modern, more weight-training-specific version widely used today.

His book The Reactive Training Manual introduced the modified RPE scale discussed above.

Should You Bother With Tracking RPE?

At first glance, you might wonder if you should bother with the perceived exertion scale or leave that layer of complexity to more advanced trainees.

To answer your question briefly, yes. Logging RPE will typically be a net positive because the scale allows you to track your effort. This makes it easier to work out hard enough to see progress without constantly training to failure and risking overtraining.

Research shows that training close to failure is just as beneficial as training to failure but doesn’t generate as much fatigue or affect your set-to-set performance.

For example, when logging my workouts in Hevy, I can record my RPE on any set I want and leave the value blank when I want to. I typically log my RPE on compound lifts where I try to stay at an average of two reps from failure but leave the value blank on isolation exercises like the bicep curl.

That way, besides ensuring I train hard enough, I can more effectively track my gym numbers and how they relate to my effort. 

Let’s say I did four sets of 10 reps with 60 kg at an average RPE of 8 on the bent-over row last week. If I can add a rep on each set this week while keeping my RPE the same, it probably means I’ve gotten stronger.

Of course, week-to-week performance can fluctuate, so it’s better to look at long-term trends. However, having an RPE value next to each set can provide additional valuable information and help me determine if I’m improving or just putting more effort into each set.

That said, while a valuable metric to keep track of, beginners tend to be bad at estimating their RPE. This is simply because a gym newbie won’t have as much experience or understand what it feels to train to failure (or close to it) to accurately gauge how close they are to their limit on each set.

So, if you are relatively new to training, focus on the basics like learning proper form, training hard enough, gradually adding weight to the bar, and occasionally taking a set to failure to learn what it feels like, preferably on less complex exercises like curls, tricep pushdowns, and leg extensions.

How to Use RPE in Your Training

Training close to failure is stimulative and doesn’t generate as much fatigue as taking sets to failure. This means you should aim for an RPE 7-8 on most sets, regardless of whether your main goal is building muscle or getting stronger.

By controlling RPE, you can do more productive volume, recover better, and get more out of your training. Here’s a simple example:

Let’s say you’ve put 200 lbs on the bar, and that’s around 80% of your 1RM. You do a set of squats to failure and get 8 reps. The first set is so exhausting that your following sets look like this:

• Set 2 – 200 lbs x 3 reps
• Set 3 – 200 lbs x 3 reps
• Set 4 – 200 lbs x 2 reps
• Set 5 – 200 lbs x 2 reps

Mind you, this likely means training to failure across all sets. You get 18 reps total and are ready to call it a day before doing other exercises. In contrast, if you stop at five reps, your RPE for the first set will be around 7. You won’t get as fatigued, and you can get five reps across all sets, even if you climb to an RPE 9 on the last set. 

As a result, you would get seven more total reps and arguably feel fresher to continue your workout. Plus, you’d be at a smaller risk of technique breakdown.

Things are not that different if you primarily train for muscle growth. Leaving one to three reps in the tank means you get most of the gains from each set while controlling fatigue. That way, you can do more total volume, recover more quickly, train each muscle the recommended two times per week, and likely grow better in the long run.

As a quick side note, stopping two or three reps shy of failure (a genuine RPE 7-8) is still hard training, especially on heavy compound lifts like the deadlift and low-bar back squat. Jeff Nippard recorded what a genuine RPE 10 looks like on multiple exercises, so you can see how much effort it takes to complete the last 2-3 reps.

Setting an RPE Cap

An RPE cap is a pre-determined effort limit that helps you maintain a high training quality without pushing yourself beyond your recovery capacity. 

As noted above, that would generally mean staying between one to three reps away from failure. However, this cap can be a good way to autoregulate your training during more stressful phases of life. 

For example, let’s say you’re going through a rough time (stress at work, poor sleep, newborn baby, etc.) but still want to stay consistent with your training. In such a case, you can set a lower RPE cap of around 6 and adjust your workouts to stay at a more moderate intensity. 

To do that in Hevy, you can start a new workout and write your RPE values beforehand. That way, you’d get a constant reminder not to push too hard, and you can see how hard you trained when reviewing your workouts later.

Is RPE Better Than Percentage-Based Training?

Percentage-based programming is an old-school approach where you calculate your training weights based on your 1RM. For example, if your bench press 1RM is 225 lbs and a program calls for 5×5@80%, that would mean lifting 180 lbs (225 * 0.8). 

You could also work up to a heavy single in each workout (close to that day’s max) and calculate percentages.

That said, programming based on RPE tends to be better because it’s more intuitive and allows trainees to autoregulate based on daily readiness. Rather than prescribing a percentage, you go by RPE targets, which always feel the same. 

For example, you can program your strength sets like 5×5@RPE 8. Rather than programming percentage, you adjust the load to fit within those rules. 

Another factor in favor of RPE over percentage-based programming is that the number of reps people can do at different percentages of 1RM varies. One person might do 15 reps at 70% of 1RM, whereas another might only be able to do 8. 

A personal trainer or coach might give a blanket recommendation of 5×5@80% of 1RM, which might feel super heavy for one person (dangerously close to failure), just right for another, and on the light side for a third person.

In contrast, 5×5@RPE 7 or 8 will require the same amount of effort by every trainee, and it’s just the weight that changes. Check out the table below for rough estimates on the number of reps you should be able to do at different percentages of 1RM and RPE targets:

Conclusion

RPE is an effective tool to measure effort and ensure you’re training hard enough without generating too much muscle fatigue. The original Borg rating went from 6 to 20 and scaled with heart rate, which made it more suitable for monitoring exertion in cardio training. 

However, the scale was made to work based on reps in reserve and is now universally used in weight training thanks to the early changes by Gunnar Borg and the later modification by Mike Tuchscherer.

Monitoring your RPE on big compound lifts can put your numbers into perspective when reviewing progress later. You can use Hevy to log your workouts, record your RPE on the sets, and exercise where it matters most. 

Download the app to see how it works, or click here to learn how the RPE feature works.

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FAQ

1. How does RPE help with fatigue management?

RPE allows you to train hard enough without taking sets to failure. This helps you progress in your training without pushing yourself to your limit all the time. As such, you can keep fatigue under control, maintain your performance better throughout each workout, and recover better between sessions.

2. Should beginners use the RPE scale?

RPE is subjective and not as helpful for beginners because they don’t have as much experience and can’t accurately tell how many reps they have in the tank. As a beginner, focus on the fundamentals for the first year or two, then start looking into RPE tracking.

3. What’s the difference between RPE and reps in reserve (RIR)?

RPE and RIR measure the same thing: how many reps you have in the tank at the end of a training set. The only difference is that RPE goes up with 10 meaning you’ve taken a set to failure, whereas RIR goes down with 0 meaning you couldn’t have done any more reps.

The post Everything You Need to Know About the RPE Scale appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

So, let’s talk about it.

How Long to Rest Between Sets: Key Takeaways

1. Rest for 2-5 minutes for strength and power, 1.5-3 minutes to optimize hypertrophy (muscle growth), and 30-60 seconds between sets for muscular endurance. The ideal rest interval also depends on your available time to train, the exercises you’re doing, and if you’re using an intensity technique like drop sets.
   
   
2. Timing your rest periods as opposed to going by feel is better because it helps you stay laser-focused and ensures you rest long enough to perform optimally for your goal without spending unnecessary time at the gym.
   
   
3. Hevy’s automatic rest timer triggers when you mark a set as complete, so you don’t have to guess when it’s time for the next set or complicate things by using your phone’s clock app. You can set a default rest time, adjust it for each exercise, and add or remove time to an active timer in 15-second increments.

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Intuitive or Timed Rest Periods For Optimal Results?

Intuitive rest periods can work in some circumstances––most notably, for people with enough training experience who can stay laser-focused on their workouts and not get distracted by their phones or people at the gym.

However, even then, timed rest periods would be better, as they allow you to rest enough but not too much to perform optimally without spending unnecessary time at the gym. 

Let’s say you’re doing traditional strength training where you should rest longer than usual to maintain your set-to-set performance. If you rest intuitively, you might feel recovered after just 1.5-2 minutes and be tempted to jump into the next set. 

However, that could cause your performance to drop, limit your training volume, and affect your progression. 

Conversely, let’s say you enjoy scrolling social media or chatting with gym buddies between sets. If you’re not careful, you might rest too long, which would make your workouts unnecessarily long and make it more difficult to stay focused and perform well from set to set.

For example, I use Hevy to log my workouts, and the built-in rest timer works perfectly. I’ve set a global rest interval of two minutes in the settings, and I can adjust it up or down for each exercise I add to my workouts. Then, as I mark a set as complete, the timer starts and I’m notified when it’s time for the next set.

It’s clean and simple and takes the guesswork out of the equation. Plus, I can easily add or remove rest time in 15-second increments. For instance, if I’m about to do my fourth set of squats and the fatigue has piled up, I can tap twice and add 30 seconds of extra rest time.

Rest Time Between Sets for Muscle Growth

Shorter rest periods used to be more popular among people looking to maximize muscle growth. The idea was that by resting less, you could maximally exhaust the muscle group and force it to grow. 

However, research from the last few years has shed more light on the subject, and we now know that longer rest intervals tend to work better on average. In one 2016 study, Schoenfeld and colleagues split 21 trained men into two groups: one resting for a minute and the other resting for three minutes between sets.

All subjects did eight weeks of 3x/week full-body training. Following the experiment, performance and body composition tests revealed that the group resting longer between sets saw significantly better muscle and strength gains.

But simply saying “rest for three minutes” is not enough because there is still a lot of nuance in resistance training––the load you’re using, the exercise you’re doing, how close you train to failure, and such. 

In general, you should consider these factors before starting each new set:

• Is your breathing back to normal?
• Is the main target muscle relatively recovered?
• Are secondary muscles recovered so they don’t limit you in any way?
• Do you feel ready to do your next set and push hard?

How About Recovery for Drop Sets and Supersets?

First, we have drop sets, where you train close to failure, immediately reduce the weight by 20-40%, and do a few extra reps without rest. 

Since the goal with these is to push beyond failure and generate more metabolic stress, you might need to rest slightly longer than usual to maintain your performance between individual drop sets.

For example, if you typically rest around 1:45 minutes between regular sets of bicep curls, you might add 30 seconds between sets for the same movement where you do drop sets.

Second, we have supersets, where you pair two exercises and do them back to back (see how to easily create supersets in Hevy). You can include some rest time between the two exercises to catch your breath if you feel like you’re getting winded and that’s stopping you from performing well on the second exercise.

You don’t typically need longer rest intervals between supersets because the two exercises should train different muscles, so there won’t be that much localized fatigue. 

Plus, when done as intended (pairing isolation exercises or a compound lift with an isolation activity), the total fatigue shouldn’t be much higher than a standard set of one exercise taken close to failure.

I currently do one superset in my arm workout and have a brief 20-second break between the exercises. However, the rest interval once I complete each superset is 1.5 minutes––enough for the target muscles to recover and my breathing to mostly normalize.

This allows me to stimulate the target muscles maximally and do 12 productive sets in around 15 minutes without experiencing a drop-off in my performance.

Keep in mind that being slightly more out of breath is okay since the goal is to be more efficient with your time. So long as the involved muscles recover well enough, don’t rest unnecessarily long.

How Long Should I Rest Between Sets for Strength?

Training for maximal strength requires performing at your best on each set, which means:

• Lifting the prescribed weight
• Doing all reps on each set
• Not being too close to failure

Doing so allows you to maintain good technique, develop neuromuscular efficiency, and improve your skill on the specific exercise and within a particular loading range. As a result, you can gradually add weight to the bar. 

To achieve this, you need longer rest periods––typically 3-5 minutes between sets. Your cardiovascular system won’t typically require that much time to recover, but the fast-twitch muscle fibers, the ones producing the most force, also take the longest to recover. 

The 2016 study by Schoenfeld and colleagues mentioned above also found that longer rest intervals (three minutes) are better for strength gains than one-minute breaks.

You might feel recovered enough on shorter rest intervals, but you will likely perform worse from set to set: doing fewer sets, forcing yourself to reduce the weight, or relying on compensatory movement patterns to continue hitting your rep target.

How About Recovery for Power Training?

The same rest interval rules apply since this is also a performance-oriented goal. You should take longer to recover between sets to do each rep with maximum velocity, recruit as many fast-twitch fibers as possible, and ensure that fatigue doesn’t affect your performance.

For light, low-RPE work (say, dynamic bench training @ 60% of 1RM for 2-5 reps per set), you could take around 2 minutes to recover between sets. For heavy, max-effort explosive sets (say, Olympic lifting @80+% of 1RM), you might need close to five minutes to recover between sets.

Rest Interval Length for Muscular Endurance

The goal of resistance training for muscular endurance is to stress the target area for an extended period and make it better able to resist fatigue. 

This helps improve the lactic threshold, aerobic (with oxygen) energy production, glycogen utilization, and slow-twitch muscle fiber force production and size. As a result, the target muscles become better at high-rep training, which can transfer to various sports and activities, including football, track and field, and swimming.

To help force these chronic adaptations, it makes sense to keep rest intervals brief––ideally, around 30-60 seconds.

Conclusion

As with other training details, paying attention to your rest times is an effective way to stay on track during each workout and ensure you’re recovering enough but not too long. 

Hevy’s automatic rest timer makes it effortless because you can set it and forget it. Adjust your global rest timer in the settings and then increase or decrease the duration on some of the exercises you add to different workouts.

The timer starts once you mark a set as complete and notifies you when it’s time to do your next set. 

Plus, you can see how much longer you should rest on the live activity screen (so you don’t even need to have Hevy open) and can easily increase or decrease the active rest timer in 15-second increments.

So, download Hevy today or click here to learn more about the app’s features.

FAQ

1. Can I use different rest intervals in the same workout?

Since rest intervals depend on the exercises, loads, effort, and other factors, it makes sense to have different recovery periods. For instance, you can rest longer between early sets of a workout where you lift 75-80+% of your 1RM, and gradually shorten the intervals as you transition into light, isolation work close to the end of the session.

2. Is a 1-minute rest between sets a good average?

It’s a good average when training for muscle endurance or doing light (15+ reps) sets of isolation exercises. However, it’s not enough when doing traditional strength or hypertrophy training.

3. Is there such a thing as resting too long between sets?

Yes, you can rest too long between sets. This can affect your momentum, make it more difficult to focus, and even cause your muscles to cool down, directly affecting your performance.

The post Rest Between Sets For Muscle, Strength, Endurance & Power appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

There is some overlap between the two, but you must ultimately follow different training rules when working toward one of the two goals. 

Stick around to learn about the similarities and differences between hypertrophy and strength training, how you may choose to switch between the two, what rules you must follow in each training cycle, and how the two goals complement each other.

Key Takeaways

1. Strength training involves doing fewer sets at a higher intensity and practicing the key lifts more often. Hypertrophy improves with more sets at a more moderate intensity.
   
   
2. Strength develops best in heavy sets of 3-6 reps, whereas muscles grow well in the much wider range of 5-30 reps.
   
   
3. Strength progression revolves around adding weight to the bar, whereas progression in hypertrophy can also come from doing more reps and adding more working sets.
   
   
4. The exercise selection for strength is more narrow, with an emphasis on core barbell lifts and their close variations. In contrast, if you want to optimize growth, you can do more exercises for each muscle.
   
   
5. You should take longer rest intervals (3-5 minutes) between heavy sets that aim to build strength; however, in a hypertrophy plan, you can rest as little as 1-2 minutes between sets.
   
   
6. Strength training revolves around straight sets like 5×5. In contrast, hypertrophy training is more flexible and allows for more varied training, including using techniques like drop sets and supersets.
   
   
7. You can combine strength and hypertrophy training into a plan like PHUL. However, understand that you won’t progress optimally toward both objectives.
   
   
8. Use the Hevy app to log your strength and muscle-building workouts, track progress on each lift, record body metrics (like circumference measurements), and upload progress photos.

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An Overview of Hypertrophy vs. Strength Training

At first glance, muscle and strength gain go hand in hand. After all, any weight training that will get you strong in the long run will also build muscle and vice-versa. 

But as you dive into the nuances, you realize how different the two approaches must be and how they contradict one another in key aspects like exercise selection, loading, and training volume. 

As you advance, it becomes increasingly important to remember the differences between the two training styles. Your training must become increasingly fine-tuned as you get stronger and more muscular to continue seeing improvements.

In short, hypertrophy training includes more exercises, isolation and machine work, lighter loads, shorter rest periods, and higher training volume. In contrast, strength training includes more heavy compound lifting, longer rest intervals, less isolation and machine work, a lower training volume, and better fatigue management.

This means optimizing for strength will differ from what’s considered ideal for muscle gain and vice-versa. If that seems a bit far-fetched or inaccurate, you can look at the training of powerlifters and bodybuilders. Most of the time, these two types of athletes train in different ways. 

For example, here’s a powerlifting workout example:

And here is how a bodybuilder might approach their training:

Granted, these are just two examples. But as we dive into the differences between the two training styles, you will see why it’s generally better to chase both goals separately, even if you ultimately want to be as big and strong as possible.

Resistance Training For Growth vs. Strength: The Differences

1. Training Volume

Let’s begin with a massive difference between maximizing muscle hypertrophy and strength: volume, which measures the amount of productive training you’re doing at the gym. 

At its core, strength development comes from performing well on a limited number of sets to manage fatigue. This allows you to recover well between workouts, do the important lifts more frequently (more on this in a bit), and gradually add more weight to the bar.

For instance, let’s say you’re doing five working sets on the squat. This doesn’t seem like a lot at first glance. But consider that you’ll be doing a demanding full-body lift with a weight close to your 1RM.

Plus, given that traditional strength training is more fatiguing (between setting up the weights, lifting heavy loads, and unracking afterward), keeping the total volume lower to avoid overtraining and reduced performance or a plateau makes more sense.

In contrast, training for muscle gain is not as fatiguing on a set-to-set basis (or as a whole). You don’t necessarily need to be as well-rested and have high daily readiness to perform close to optimal and continue progressing. 

Because of that, you can do more productive sets, which is also supported by research to further contribute to muscle growth.

It’s one thing to set up a gym machine and do a few sets of 12 to 15 reps when you’re tired and a whole other to do multiple sets of heavy squats or deadlifts. Even being slightly tired can throw off your strength performance and force you to reduce the load across all sets.

Given all of that, it’s typically not ideal to chase strength and muscle gains together because what’s optimal and close to your recoverable limit for strength will be below what you can and should do for optimal hypertrophy.

For example, 10 weekly sets of squats can be fantastic for strength gain; you might not need more than that to see steady improvements. However, most people, at least those with a few years of training experience, will generally need more than 10 sets of direct quadricep work to optimize growth.

A middle ground here could be to do your meat-and-potatoes strength work and include some hypertrophy assistance or isolation work in the form of less demanding exercises like leg extensions. 

However, you must consider systemic fatigue. Even if the local muscle is not overly tired, high-volume training can lead to recovery issues and may affect your performance in subsequent workouts, limiting future strength gains.

To help with this, Hevy automatically counts the number of sets per muscle. You can access and display the data on a customizable graph to see your volume and whether you’re doing enough to grow.

2. Loading

Building strength occurs best when lifting weights at 80-95% of your 1RM in the 2-6 rep range. In contrast, muscle-building training occurs anywhere in the 5—to 30-rep range. 

Another similarity is that you should have some loading variation regardless of your goal. For strength, this could mean doing heavy triples and more moderate sets of six reps; for muscle, this could mean doing sets in the 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, and 20-30 rep ranges.

But despite the similarity, the only small overlap here is that you can build good strength and muscle when doing 5-6 reps per set, but that’s about it.

You might think, “Well, what if I mostly do heavy sets of 5-6 reps. Then I can get stronger and bigger.” 

Sure, that can work if applied to a part of your training, but it’s unsustainable if you want to do enough volume to optimize muscle growth. First, sets of 5-6 reps are mentally demanding and taxing on your joints. Doing too many of them is a recipe for overtraining or burnout.

Second, high loading works for compound lifts like the bench press and deadlift, but it’s not a good approach when you need to do simpler exercises like the tricep pushdown and lateral raise. In such cases, you need to lift lighter weights for more reps to maintain proper form and maximally stimulate and isolate specific muscle groups.

3. Frequency

Training frequency for muscle growth is measured by how frequently you target each muscle, whereas for strength, it means how often you do the lifts you want to improve.

Research suggests that training each muscle two to three times per week is better than once for optimal growth. However, we could argue that a lower frequency still works and might be better if that’s all you can handle without feeling pressured to train more often. 

For instance, many people continue to be fans of approaches like the bro split. You dedicate each workout to one, two, or three muscles and do all weekly working sets. Plus, some people prefer to maximally exhaust the target muscles in one workout instead of splitting up their training volume into two or three smaller sessions that don’t feel as challenging.

Additionally, you may find a lower frequency to be better for the mind-muscle connection. Think of it like this:

If you only do five sets for the upper back in each session, you might struggle to feel the area work because it can take time to get in the groove. But if you do 15 sets for the lats in one session, you might not feel them work in the first few sets, but they will become increasingly more active as you get to sets 6, 7, and 8+.

As one Reddit user wrote, “I get amazing pumps from bro splits and feel way more motivated to go to the gym when I’m only hitting a single muscle group.”

That said, while plenty of people have seen good growth from a low frequency, doing the main lifts at least twice weekly is mandatory for optimal strength gain. As the prominent weightlifting coach John Broz said:

“If your family was kidnapped and in order to get them back, you had one month to put 100 pounds on your squat, would you squat just once a week?”

It makes sense because the more you practice a given lift, the more your skills, neuromuscular efficiency, and comfort with heavier weights improve.

So, this is another significant difference between hypertrophy and strength training. But even if we conclude that a high training frequency is equally better for both goals, it’s still important to structure individual workouts differently. 

As discussed, you can be more tired and less motivated and still perform well enough to train specific muscles for (close to) optimal growth. However, under-recovery will almost always affect your strength and performance and hinder progression.

So, a key aspect of successful training for strength gains is to train hard enough, perform well on each set, and recover well so you can return to the gym a couple of days later and do well again. 

It’s not just about the current set and how it affects the rest of your workout; it’s also about how the current session affects subsequent ones.

If your training is too challenging and affects your performance, scale back on your performance, overall volume, or effort (RPE). In some cases, especially for more advanced strength athletes, it might be beneficial to do fewer sets in favor of putting more weight on the bar simply because each set requires so much effort.

One strength approach that works quite well is to undulate the loads within a week. For example:

Monday – 5-6 sets of 3-4 reps @ RPE 8-9

Wednesday – 4-5 sets of 4-6 reps @ RPE 8

Friday – 5-6 sets of 3-4 reps @ low RPE (<7)

You would do these at different percentages of your 1RM. For example, you would train the hardest on Monday (with the highest load and effort), do more volume on Wednesday for additional practice and skill development, and finish the week with a low-volume, moderate-effort session to further work on your technique. 

That way, you’d get plenty of practice on a given lift while managing fatigue at the end of the week, so you can train hard again on Monday.

(By the way, you can record your RPE for every set when logging a workout in Hevy.)

With traditional hypertrophy training, the reps don’t need to be varied because you typically do different exercises, and there is enough rep and load variety within the same workout.

For example, you might start with slightly heavier sets on compound/assistance exercises and gradually decrease the weight and increase the reps as you transition into less complex, single-joint isolation exercises near the end of your session.

4. Progression

At its core, strength gains come from gradually lifting more weight while maintaining proper form––balance, range of motion, tempo, and control. As such, the go-to progression approach is to add more weight to the bar instead of doing more sets or reps. The latter two can also work, but not as well as simply lifting more.

Here’s an oversimplified example of linear progression:

Week 1: 5×5 w/ 50 kg

Week 2: 5×5 w/ 52.5 kg

Week 3: 5×5 w/ 55 kg

Week 4: 5×5 w/ 57.5 kg

Week 5: 5×5 w/ 60 kg

Week 6: 5×5 w/ 62.5 kg

Week 7: 5×5 w/ 65 kg

Week 8: 5×5 w/ 67.5 kg

Hevy lets you track your performance on each lift you do. Simply navigate to the Exercises tab in the Profile section, search for the relevant exercises, and gain access to important data like the heaviest weight you’ve lifted, your projected 1RM, and how your progress looks on a graph.

The goal isn’t to unnecessarily do more sets if the current number is enough or more reps but to add weight on the bar, which is what you’re after, anyway.

Progression in muscle growth training is more nuanced and less rigid because you can do more to create the necessary overload in multiple ways. These include:

• Doing more reps with the same weight
• Lifting a heavier weight for the same number of reps and set
• Doing more sets within a training week

The specific exercise will also affect how you progress. For example, you may do a compound lift in the 6-8 rep range, which allows you to add weight more frequently. 

However, you may also do an isolation exercise in the 15-30 rep range, which means your go-to method of progression would be to do more reps. This is because increasing the weight, even by a small amount, can affect your technique and your ability to target a specific muscle. 

So, by first increasing the number of reps per set, you can build enough strength to handle a small increase in the weight without it affecting your form.

Here is a broad example of how you might go about creating an overload by strategically increasing the number of sets, reps, and the load you use:

Week 1: 10 sets (baseline)

Week 2: add a rep or two

Week 3: 12 sets (same performance per set)

Week 4: add a rep or two

Week 5: 13 sets (same performance per set)

Week 6: add a rep or two

Week 7: increase the weight

Week 8: 14 sets (same performance per set)

Your average RPE will likely increase throughout this sample progression, so it’s good to leave around three reps in the tank at the start. As you do more sets and reps, and add weight here and there, you will get closer to failure each week. 

Once you do seven or eight weeks of productive training, deload for a week and then maintain the volume while striving to increase the reps, then add a bit of weight, then increase the reps again.

Of course, consider how you feel and how well you recover (looking at things like energy levels, grip strength, sleep quality, mood throughout the day, and motivation to train) before adding more to your training.

5. Exercise Selection

Like loading and progression, exercise selection tends to be more rigid when optimizing training for strength gains rather than muscle growth. This is because, as discussed in the Frequency section above, to get better at an exercise, you must practice it often enough. 

So, you don’t have as much wiggle room to do multiple exercises and must instead focus on the main lifts you want to improve and include some close variations. 

This is even more important if you compete (or plan to) in a sport like powerlifting because you need to develop a strong back squat, deadlift, and bench press, and learn to do them in a specific way that adheres to the sport’s rules.

In such a case, you might only do a handful of exercises like the three main lifts and some variations to build strength and bring up weak points that may be affecting your performance:

• High-bar back squat
• Front squat
• Box squat
• Safety bar squat
• Belt squat
• Paused squat
• Split squat
• Deficit deadlift
• Romanian deadlift
• Good morning
• Glute ham raise
• Close-grip bench press
• Pause bench press
• Spoto press
• Weighted dips
• Overhead press

But even if you simply want to get stronger and don’t care about powerlifting, compound lifts with free weights are more suited for heavier loading.

For muscle growth, you can (and should) do two or more exercises for most body parts to promote more balanced regional growth that leads to better overall development. 

To give the back as an example, that might mean doing at least a horizontal and vertical row. However, you can also include a hip hinge for the lower back and a shrug for the trapezius. 

Can you build a solid back with just deadlifts and barbell rows? Of course. But it may not be as balanced (you’d stimulate some muscles a lot and undertrain others), it’s impractical and highly draining to do 15-20 sets of rows and deadlifts each week, and it’s boring––this affects enjoyability and motivation.

The same goes for other muscles, even small ones like the shoulders, biceps, and triceps. As you vary the angle of attack, range of motion, loading, and other variables, you preferentially target some muscles and some areas of the same muscle better.

To give the quads as an example, you can do high-bar back squats three times per week, but it would likely be far better and more sustainable to do something like back squats on Monday, leg presses on Wednesday, and leg extensions on Friday, or all in the same workout, if you follow a bro split or 3-day push/pull/legs plan, similar to some of the 25+ training plans you can find in the Hevy routine library.

Again, these are contradictory. If you want optimal strength, you must do fewer exercises, but that’s generally not the best strategy for muscle gain.

6. Rest Intervals

First, we have training for muscular strength. Let’s say your goal is to do sets of five reps at 85% of your 1RM. In that case, you should rest long enough to do all prescribed reps without lowering the weight or training at an unsustainably high RPE. This typically means recovering for 3-5 minutes between sets.

You don’t generally need as much rest for your cardiovascular system and slow-twitch muscle fibers to recover, especially from low-rep sets. However, research shows that fast-twitch fibers (the ones producing the most force and impacting your strength output the most) are the slowest to recover.

In practice, you might feel ready to start the next set after two minutes of rest. However, you might not be as strong and be forced to train at a higher RPE or alter your technique to get the same number of reps.

Second, we have training for muscle size. As with other differences like progression, loading, and exercise selection, you also have more flexibility with your rest intervals. 

Similar to training for strength, the main purpose is to rest long enough to maintain your performance from set to set or only experience a slight drop-off. For example, if you get 10 reps in the first set, you should ideally get at least 8-9 reps in the last set with the same weight and at roughly the same RPE.

However, given that the hypertrophy rep range is broader (5-30 reps), you can follow these guidelines:

• 2-3 minutes on moderate (5-10 reps) sets on compound lifts
• 1.5-2 minutes on accessory/isolation lifts where you do 10-15 reps
• 1-1.5 minutes on light (15-20+ reps) isolation work close to the end of your workout

If you use Hevy to log your workouts, you can set a default rest timer in the settings and adjust it up or down on each exercise you add to a session.

Ask yourself the following questions if you’re debating when to do the following set:

• Is my breathing normal and is my heart rate somewhat back to normal?
• Is the primary muscle I’m training relatively recovered?
• Are there any secondary muscles that need more time to recover because they might otherwise limit my performance?
• Do I generally feel ready to do my next set and train close enough to failure?

7. Advanced Techniques

Strength training revolves around straight sets, such as 3×5, 4×6, and 5×3. The goal is to lift heavy weights (80%+ of 1RM), rest enough between sets, and progress by adding more weight to the bar. 

Training for growth is more flexible and allows you to try different approaches, so long as they train the target muscles well and can be logged and tracked. This means you can also use advanced resistance training techniques like supersets and drop sets. 

Both techniques allow you to do more work in less time without seeing a significant reduction in your performance.

For instance, a superset is when you pair two exercises that target different parts of your body and do them back to back with little to no rest in between:

• Bicep curls with tricep extensions
• Barbell rows with calf raises
• Chest presses with bicep curls

You can easily pair two exercises into a superset in Hevy by tapping the three dots icon next to a movement and selecting + Add To Superset.

Drop sets are also a time-efficient option. Here, you lift a weight close enough to failure, immediately reduce the weight by 20-40%, and do a few extra reps. 

A viable alternative to drop sets is a cluster set, in which you train close to failure, rest only briefly (say 10-20 seconds), do a few extra reps, rest for a bit again, and do a couple of reps. You can repeat this several times to train a given muscle quite well in a limited time.

8. Progress Tracking

Like other categories, muscle strength and growth overlap because both require monitoring performance. This is obvious for people looking to get stronger: If you lift more weight over time, you’re moving in the right direction.

Overall performance improvements are also a good indicator that you’re building muscle because bigger muscles produce more force on average. However, we must look at the data a bit differently. 

While you can get impressively strong on compound lifts by working on your neuromuscular efficiency and skill, simply lifting more in any context doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve built muscle. For example, your bench press 1RM might go up, but that doesn’t always mean your chest, shoulders, and triceps have gotten bigger.

So, what progress metrics do you look at when trying to build muscle? 

Most notably, long-term strength improvements on most, if not all, exercises you do in all rep ranges. 

To give the bench press as an example again, a 1RM max increase doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve built muscle. Similarly, strength gains in sets of three to five reps can also be attributed to neuromuscular improvements. 

But if you lift more weight on sets of 5-10, 10-15, and 15-20 and can maintain that performance for multiple sets, and then go on to lift more weight on several other exercises like the incline dumbbell press, the chest fly, the tricep pushdown, and the lateral raise, you’ve probably gained muscle mass.

For example, I use Hevy to log my workouts. On the left is a column labeled Previous that shows my past performance on each exercise. This gives me a target for the current workout to create an overload.

I can also look at my performance history on each exercise I log and track metrics like the heaviest weight I’ve lifted, my projected 1RM, the most reps I’ve done in a set and a workout, and my best set and session volume. I can see each of these on individual graphs to determine if I’m actually progressing on any lift.

As long as there’s a positive trend in at least some of my exercises, I can take this as a sign that I’m building muscle.

Additionally, for muscle growth, you should also monitor your weight, body fat, circumference measurements, and overall appearance through progress photos. This will give you a more complete picture.

• Weight – step on the scale at least three to five times per week, in the morning, on an empty stomach, and calculate the average. It should ideally go up every one to two weeks.
  
• Circumference measurements – measure different body parts, such as the upper arms, chest, waist, hips, and thighs (also the calves and forearms if you care about growing them) every three to four weeks and write the values.
  
• Progress photos – take the same progress photos in the same conditions, using the same poses, and compare your visual changes over time.

Record these metrics and upload your progress photos to Hevy to compare the data easily and look at the long-term trend.

What Would a Good Strength & Muscle Growth Plan Look Like?

You must accept the tradeoffs and realize that you’re not getting the best of both worlds because it’s simply impossible to. If you train optimally for one goal, your progress toward the other objective will inevitably be slower.

That said, it is possible to train for strength and muscle gain simultaneously. In fact, some popular plans include the PHUL split. 

Here are tips for combining strength training and hypertrophy:

1. Do more free-weight compound exercises. These are more fatiguing but also make you stronger. This means using more barbells and dumbbells and less cables and gym machines.
   
   
2. Start most or all of your workouts with your heaviest sets. Use heavier weights in the lower rep ranges at a moderate to high RPE on free-weight compound lifts.
   
   
3. Include accessory exercises that train multiple muscles and can safely be loaded in the 6-10 rep ranges. This range is a good middle ground because it’s growth-promoting but also carries over to strength development.
   
   For example, if a bodybuilder does back squats and leg extensions, you may choose to do back squats and leg presses, Smith machine squats, hack squats, or Bulgarian split squats.
   
   Because of the exercise selection, you should generally avoid doing more than 15 reps per set. Leave the 15-30 range, along with less challenging bodyweight exercises, when strictly doing a hypertrophy phase.
   
   
4. Do fewer total sets per muscle than you would during a hypertrophy-focused training phase. The exercises you’ll be doing are more fatiguing and harder to recover from. Also, because you will do more exercises that train more than one muscle, there will be more volume overlap.
   
   This means secondary muscles like the shoulders, biceps, and triceps will get more indirect stimulation and will not need as much direct work to grow while you build strength.
   
   
5. Prioritize the load by mostly doing ten or fewer reps per set but always focus on proper technique. Make sure your range of motion, tempo, and body position remain consistent as you lift more.

Conclusion

While similar in some ways, training for optimal strength and muscle growth differs in key aspects, such as the number of sets, loading strategies, training frequency, progression, exercise selection, rest intervals, progress tracking, and the ability to include advanced workout techniques. 

You can set up a balanced training program that helps you work toward both goals, but you will have to accept some trade-offs––most notably, that you won’t progress optimally toward both goals. 

Download the Hevy app if you’re serious about optimizing your training. With it, you can log all the relevant training details like the sets, reps, weight, and RPE, set up an automatic rest timer, track your performance on each lift, log body measurements, and upload progress photos.

Also, navigate to the routine library for two free PHUL programs that can help you build muscle and get stronger.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

Create my workout

FAQ

1. Should I train to failure for strength and hypertrophy?

Taking a limited number of sets (for example, the last set for a given muscle group) to failure can offer modest benefits for muscle growth. However, you should generally avoid pushing to the limit on heavy compound lifts because that can affect your technique and put you in danger.

2. Can you get stronger without getting bigger?

Yes, it’s possible to get stronger, especially in lower rep ranges (1-5 reps), without gaining muscle. This is because, in addition to muscle size, factors like overall skill, neuromuscular efficiency, and how comfortable you feel with heavy lifting impact your strength output.

3. Do I need to eat differently for strength vs. muscle growth?

You should maintain a slight calorie surplus (100-150 over maintenance) for steady weight and muscle growth. The same approach can also work if you want to train for strength and muscle gain.

If you strictly want to gain strength without gaining weight, you can at around maintenance (that is, aim to maintain your current weight) and eat 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound to support muscle recovery.

The post Strength vs. Hypertrophy Training (8 Key Differences) appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

Adhering to this principle is the essence of ongoing muscle growth, strength gain, and improvements in cardio capacity. But how do you track your performance at the gym and ensure you’re doing better than before?

The answer is straightforward when you have the proper tool and know exactly what metrics to track. Let’s discuss.

Key Takeaways

1. Progressive overload means doing more challenging training over time to force your body to adapt to more physical stress and continue getting stronger and building muscle.
   
   
2. A progressive overload example is to lift a certain weight until you get 12 reps across all sets with proper form. Then, add 5 lbs and work up to sets of 12 reps again. Rinse and repeat.
   
   
3. Tracking your workouts is the most practical way to eliminate guesswork from the equation and stay objective when looking back to determine if you’re doing better than before.
   
   
4. The main ways to log workouts and track overload are to use a physical log, spreadsheets, a note-taking app, or a workout-logging app like Hevy.
   
   
5. With Hevy, you can easily reference previous workouts’ performance, track progress on a graph for each lift, monitor your volume load, examine all completed workouts, and more.

What is Progressive Overload?

The progressive overload principle states that you must continually subject your body to more physical stress to keep seeing improvements in strength, muscle mass, and overall athletic performance.

Doing so forces your body to continue adapting to handle the same stress in the future. In contrast, doing the same thing repeatedly only works to a certain point because your body doesn’t see a reason to keep adapting.

According to the SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demand) principle, the body adapts to the type and magnitude of stress it needs to overcome. For instance:

• If a person runs, they become more endurant
• If a person lifts heavy, they get stronger
• If a person practices explosive movement, they become faster and more agile

How much stress you place your body under impacts the rate of progression, so long as you can recover in time and perform well in each workout. Ways to improve your recovery include getting adequate sleep, maintaining low stress, and proper nutrition.

How to Progressive Overload

In weight training, one common way to create an overload is to lift a heavier weight, but it can also come from:

• Doing more reps with the same weight
• Doing the same sets and reps but with less rest in between
• Doing the same workout more often
• Maintaining performance while losing body fat and weight

These are the more popular and objective measures, making them the go-to options for most trainees. 

Other ways to create and monitor overload include:

• Lifting the same weight more explosively
• Lifting the same weight through a greater range of motion
• Lifting the same weight with better form and more control

Here’s a basic progressive overload example for one exercise over 8 weeks:

This is a basic linear progression scheme in which the trainee works up to 15 reps per set, increases the weight by 5 lbs, and works up to 15 reps again. The goal is to incrementally push your limit and expand your work capacity to continue forcing adaptation.

Why Tracking is Essential for Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is essential if you want to continue improving. Without it, you would only exercise (as opposed to train) and maintain what you currently have.

This is why you need to log your workouts––and yes, doing that can be tedious, especially compared to the alternative of getting to the gym and simply lifting. But think about it this way:

Logging training details like exercises, the number of sets, the reps per set, and even your RPE means you have concrete information on what you’re doing and if you’re improving. Even if you use a notebook, you can flip the pages a few months back, see how much you were lifting on a given exercise, and compare it to now. 

Without this, you would solely rely on memory. The problem is that there are a lot of details to remember. 

• What exercises do you do, and in what order?
• How many sets do you do per exercise?
• How much weight do you lift on each movement?
• How many reps did you do on each set?
• How long do you rest between sets?

For most people, this would mean thinking about each workout, exercise, and set, which is tedious and a waste of time and energy. 

But by logging your training, you can review last week’s progress and monitor your performance over a longer period to see if it’s trending up. More importantly, you can see if you’re plateauing and make changes to your training to kickstart progression.

How to Log Your Progressive Overload Training

As discussed, you must log your strength training to see what you’ve done before and create the necessary overload. Here are key metrics to log:

• Exercises – write the specific exercises and variations you’re doing.
  
  
• Sets – write the number of sets per exercise.
  
  
• Weight – log the load you lift on each set.
  
  
• Reps – write the number of reps per set, especially on bodyweight exercises like push-ups. Alternatively, log the duration for exercises like the plank.
  
  
• RPE – you don’t need to log RPE for every set; maybe just log it for the main lifts you want to improve: squats, bench press, deadlifts, and such.

It’s also nice to leave room for small notes to clarify different things, such as:

• Modifying or doing an exercise in a specific way
• Aches or discomfort you might have felt during an activity
• Life events that might have affected your performance on that day

That extra information can be helpful when reviewing your workouts later to better understand why you performed a certain way, better or worse. If you’re using a basic log, your entry for one exercise can look like this:

Decline push-ups: 5 sets x 18, 18, 17, 16, 14 @ RPE 8, 9, 9, 9, 8 (Used my push-up handles)

I can log all of that information when using Hevy. The app allows me to add any exercise I want, add as many sets as I need, mark my sets by type (say, warm-up), and log the load, reps, and RPE per set. 

As a bonus, I can see my previous workout’s performance on each exercise to set a goal for my current session and write a note for each exercise. When doing duration-based activities like static holds, I can track and log my duration per set and see how it improves over time.

The great thing is that I don’t need to write each workout from scratch. Instead, I’ve created routines (reusable templates), and I only need to update some of the numbers for each workout, which makes for a seamless and efficient logging experience.

How to Track Progressive Overload

Logging your workouts is only helpful if you also take the time to review your history and make changes when necessary. Let’s go over some simple ways to track your data, starting with the most straightforward option:

1. Simply try to do a bit better than before.

The simplest way to ‘implement’ progressive overload in your resistance training is to see your performance from the previous workout and aim to exceed it, even slightly. For example, did you do 3×8 with 155 lbs last workout? Try to get 3×9 with the same weight today. 

In Hevy, you can easily do that by seeing what you did before in the ‘Previous’ tab. The app lists your set-to-set performance, so you know how hard you need to train to match or exceed what you did before.

Linear progression can work for many people, and you’d be surprised at the improvements you can see in a year of serious training. 

For instance, you can go with the classic method of increasing the number of reps, then adding weight, and then increasing the reps again. Like so:

20 lbs x 15, 15, 15 ⇒ Increase to 25 lbs > 25 lbs x 13, 13, 12 ⇒ Don’t increase ⇒ 25 lbs x 15, 14, 14 ⇒ Don’t increase ⇒ 25 lbs x 15, 15, 15 ⇒ Increase to 30 lbs ⇒ And so on.

2. Track your volume load.

Tracking and increasing volume load (calculated by multiplying weight time reps times sets) is also a good way to see if you’re doing more over time. 

For instance, if you did three sets of 10 reps with 200 lbs last week, your volume load for the exercise was 6,000 lbs. If you do 3 sets of 11 reps with 200 lbs this week, your volume load will increase to 6,600 lbs. 

In Hevy, you can access your volume load for most exercises and display the data on a graph to see how your performance changes.

However, keep in mind that volume load can be misleading. For example, if you lift a lighter weight for more reps, this will cause the volume to go up:

5×6 with 225 lbs = 6,750 lbs

5×15 with 135 lbs = 10,125 lbs

In this example, the volume load is around 33% higher, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the training is more effective. So, when monitoring your volume load, consider the load per set and whether the rep and set scheme make sense for your goals.

3. Track the weight you’re lifting.

Monitoring the weight you lift on an exercise is the most straightforward way to track strength improvements. For example, if you’re doing a training cycle where you must do sets of five reps and you’re progressively lifting more, you’re doing good. 

Hevy allows you to track the weight you’re lifting on each exercise and display the data on a graph. You can also select any individual performance from the graph to see the whole workout for more data.

For instance, the above graph shows a decrease in the weight used, and I can click on that date to see why. In my case, it’s because this was part of a planned deload workout.

4. Track the total reps.

Another effective way to stimulate muscle growth is to do more reps over time. If you mostly do bodyweight exercises at home, this might be your primary method of creating overload.

Research suggests that high loads for fewer reps and lighter loads for more reps can promote growth, so long as you train close enough to failure. 

For instance, let’s say you’re doing incline push-ups at home. You can start with five sets of 10 reps and aim to do more over time. To get a complete picture, track your best set performance and the total number of reps per workout.

5. Review your old notes.

The numbers provide most of the information needed to make sound programming decisions. However, reviewing notes associated with specific workouts is also beneficial, as they might provide crucial information for future workouts. 

You should take notes for specific exercises or workouts when it makes sense and helps you better review your performance in the future. 

For example, let’s say you felt exhausted after a long workday and had an impromptu deload session instead of skipping the gym. Writing a note to go along with the workout would help explain that deviation in your performance when looking back. 

You can also write notes to list training details that might be relevant––for example, you modified an exercise in a specific way. 

With Hevy, you can write a note for any exercise of your workouts as well as a description for the entire session before saving it to your profile.

Workout Tracking Methods And Their Pros & Cons

1. Physical Log

Pen and paper is an old-school approach that’s still used today. Having a physical log and writing on paper can be satisfying and help you stay motivated to log workouts. Plus, pocket-sized logs are easy to carry around and use to record your gym sessions. 

That said, this method is not without its drawbacks. For one, you need to write every workout from scratch, whereas other methods allow you to use a template and simply fill in the day’s numbers. Second, making changes can be messy. 

Also, as discussed above, it’s not just about logging workouts. You must also review your performance and make changes when necessary. 

Using a physical log can be tedious and time-consuming because it often means flipping back and forth between the pages to try and spot a trend. You might even need to write performance numbers side by side for easier comparison.

2. Spreadsheet

A more modern approach is to use spreadsheets, such as Google Sheets. These are customizable, easier to edit, and accessible through your computer and phone. 

You can also create workout templates once and not have to write each session’s details from scratch. 

They are certainly a more modern solution but come with the same drawbacks:

1. Typing numbers into a spreadsheet on your phone mid-workout is clunky. You often need to zoom in and out, and it’s easy to get frustrated when you tap the wrong cell.
   
   
2. While you can set up spreadsheet columns to track week-to-week performance (which works better than a physical log), analyzing progress is still a manual process and takes time to access older data on specific exercises.

3. Note-Taking Apps

Note-taking apps like Evernote are another modern alternative with some distinct advantages. I used to be a fan of this approach because I could freely write the details for every workout, include notes, and store my data in one place.

However, these are still not the ideal solution because you don’t get a streamlined way to analyze your training data and look at long-term trends. Sure, all your numbers are there, but you must scroll up and down each note to see what you did before and how it compares to now. 

The advantage is that it’s easier to log workouts in a gym setting, but it’s still not the most practical way to go about it.

4. Workout Logging App

Workout logging apps are the most practical solution because you can:

• Create reusable templates and start each workout with a single tap
• Change any of the training variables to fit your needs
• Log your performance from set to set (weight, reps, and duration)
• Write exercise and workout notes for more information

A good workout logger like Hevy also allows you to:

• See your performance from the previous workout
• Log your RPE on each set
• Mark individual sets by type (like a warm-up or drop set)
• Set up and use an automatic rest timer

There’s a field for each variable to keep things clean, organized, and easy to review later. 

You can scroll through your past workouts to see all the details. Individual graphs display important workout data, such as reps, weight, duration, and overall training volume.

Common Mistakes When Tracking Progress

Before wrapping up, let’s review some common mistakes trainees make when logging workouts and tracking their progressive overload:

• Logging inconsistently – log inconsistently, and you’ll get incomplete data, making it hard to tell how you’re doing in the long run.
  
  
• Obsessing over the weight they lift – some people, particularly those who mainly care about getting stronger, may only focus on the numbers they lift, which misses important nuance.
  
  You should always examine this data in the overall context of your training and consider other factors, such as your technique, the number of reps you’re doing, how long you rest between sets, and how hard you’re pushing (RPE).
  
  
• Ignoring proper form – any type of progress, be it lifting more weight or doing more reps, is only valid if you can maintain proper form throughout. This means training through the same range of motion, using the same tempo, and maintaining a proper body position.
  
  For instance, you might be squatting more, but does it count if each 10-lb weight increase reduces your range of motion?
  
  
• Changing variables too often – while some people change the exercises, their order, and other details to ‘shock’ or ‘confuse’ their muscles, this often does more harm than good because it’s harder to tell if you’re doing better than before.

For example, if you constantly change the order of your exercises, how can you know if you’re doing better or worse on any of them? It’s far easier to get reliable performance data if you always do your exercises in a particular order.

Final Words

Progressive overload is a key training principle based on the idea that your body needs to overcome increasingly more training stress to continue adapting. So, you must train harder and do more to keep building strength and muscle.

Tracking your workouts is essential for providing an adequate overload because it helps you see what you’ve done in the past, how you’re doing now, and whether you’re stressing your body enough. 

However, an essential progressive overload rule is to focus on proper technique while striving to do more over time. One common mistake is to focus solely on the numbers, such as the weight on the bar or the number of reps.

Using Hevy allows you to build workouts and reusable templates, log your workouts on your phone or smartwatch, and analyze workout stats like your volume load, weight, and number of reps. You can also review old workout or exercise notes and easily refer to the previous session’s performance to set a goal for the current workout.

Click here to learn about Hevy’s features, or download and use the app for free.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

Create my workout

FAQs

1. Should I increase weight, reps, or both?

You can leverage load or repetition progression to gradually increase the stress and force your body to adapt. For example, rep progression works great for bodyweight exercises, whereas adding more weight is ideal for strength gains.

2. How often should I try to increase the weight?

Most people work up to a specific rep target and increase the weight when they reach it on all working sets––for example, lift 135 lbs for four sets of 6 reps. Once you do it, add 5 lbs and work up to 6 reps again. 

Remember proper technique and be conservative rather than aggressive to avoid a situation where your form suffers, and you lift too much weight.

3. Can I progressively overload if I’m not lifting more weight?

Progressive overload can come in different forms, including lifting more weight, doing more reps, and even completing the same amount of training in less time. Rep progression is often the go-to method for creating an overload, especially when doing an isolation exercise for a small muscle group like the shoulders.

The post The Best Way to Track Progressive Overload (With Examples) appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

But are you actually improving?

Tracking your workouts eliminates the guesswork because you always know:

• If you’re getting stronger over time
• If you’re doing enough training volume
• What you previously lifted, and for how many repetitions
• How hard you train on average

So, let’s explore the best ways to track workouts, what metrics to monitor, and what to look for in a training log.

Key Takeaways

1. Logging workouts helps you assess your performance and progress toward objective goals, such as gaining 16” arms or squatting 315 lbs.
   
   
2. To log workouts effectively, keep track of the exercises you’re doing, the number of sets, reps, RPE (or duration), and even your rest periods. Where relevant, write custom clarification notes (e.g., “Left knee pain affected my squat performance today.”).
   
   
3. Additional things worth logging include your body weight, how you feel (daily readiness), and recent life events that may have impacted the workout.
   
   
4. Logging workouts with an app involves less writing, it’s easier to change details, you can see your previous performance and notice trends more quickly, and the data is stored securely.
   
   
5. You can use workout templates (routines), change workout variables, monitor exercise performance, log crucial details like movements, sets, repetitions, and RPE, and write custom notes with Hevy.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

Create my workout

Why Track Workouts in the First Place

Logging workouts means recording your performance in key metrics, regularly reviewing your progress, and taking action to improve your training plan. It helps you make guided programming decisions that help you get closer to objective goals like getting 16” arms, squatting 315 lbs, or running a 5K in 25 minutes.

For example, if you notice that your current training program doesn’t lead to an increase in your squat strength, you can make changes like:

• Doing the squat more often
• Experimenting with the load and repetitions
• Adjusting the number of sets and your target RPE
• Taking longer rest breaks between sets
• Adding one or two squat variations to your training 

But without data, it’s hard to remember all the details about your training, let alone make effective changes.

Of course, some people exercise to feel better and have more energy without chasing performance or aesthetic goals. If you’re in this camp, you’re okay with that, and you don’t want to bother with workout logging, keep doing what you’re doing.

The Most Important Gym Training Metrics to Track

1. Movements & Variations

Start each workout with the exercises and variations you’re doing. To be as detailed and accurate as possible, you can also write notes to clarify things, such as:

• A modification you’re doing for an exercise like split squats (e.g., front foot elevated on a 4” step platform)
• Your body weight for that day on bodyweight activities like pull-ups (e.g., 155 lbs this morning)
• A nagging ache that may have affected your performance (e.g., sciatic flare-up after the third set of squats)

In Hevy, you can freely add movements to any workout and write a note to any exercise to clarify details that could be useful when reviewing your completed strength training sessions later.

2. Sets, Repetitions and Weight, or Duration

Log the number of sets, reps and weight, or duration. You could go with a minimalistic approach like “5×5 w/ 285 lbs” when doing identical sets, but a better approach is to document your performance on each set individually. 

This makes it easier to review your performance later and see precisely how you’ve done on a particular exercise. As such, it’s easier to tell if you’re making progress now. 

For example, I use Hevy to log my workouts. I can easily add or remove sets for any exercise, write down my repetitions and weight for each lift, and see my previous performance (under the Previous column). 

That way, I don’t have to guess what I did before or wonder if I’m actually doing better now than I did previously. Plus, logging my sets one at a time means I don’t have to remember if I just completed my 3rd or 4th set and can instead focus on catching my breath so the purple spots go away.

3. Rest Periods

There is debate about whether you should monitor your rest intervals between sets and adhere to specific rules or rest intuitively and start each set when you feel somewhat recovered. 

In general, you can rest intuitively, but it takes some experience to tell when you’re ready for the next set. Rushing back can affect your performance and overall training volume, which could lead to slower strength or muscle gain progress. 

For instance, let’s say you’re doing the 5×5 beginner strength program, which generally calls for 2—to 3-minute breaks between sets. This is necessary to recover well even if you don’t feel out of breath and to continue getting five repetitions on each set, and will create the required overload so you can add more weight for the next workout. 

Resting too little can cause your set-to-set performance to drop and prevent you from adding weight for the next session.

On the other hand, resting too long can break your momentum, cause your muscles to cool a bit, take your mind out of it, and affect your performance. So that’s not good, either.

As in Goldilocks’ tale, the sweet spot is in the middle. But unless you’re disciplined and mindful at the gym (i.e., no excessive chatting with gym buddies or endless scrolling on Instagram) to tell when you’ve rested enough, it might be best to follow basic rules and use a timer:

• 3-5 minutes of rest on heavy (1-6 reps), strength-promoting sets
• 2-3 minutes on moderate (5-10 reps) sets on compound lifts like leg presses and pull-ups
• 1.5-2 minutes on accessory/isolation lifts where you do 10-15 reps
• 1-1.5 minutes on light (15-20+ reps) isolation work close to the end of your workout

You can set a global rest timer in Hevy’s workout settings (say, two minutes) and adjust it up or down on individual activities. Then, as you mark a set as complete, the timer starts, and you don’t need to guess when to start the next set or exercise.

4. RPE

RPE, or rate of perceived exertion, is a chart to monitor your effort from set to set. In the context of weight training, this is a 10-point scale you can use to see how many repetitions you’ve left in the tank at the end of a set. For example:

• RPE 10 – to failure; couldn’t have done more repetitions or lifted more weight
• RPE 9.5 – couldn’t have done more repetitions but could have possibly lifted a bit more
• RPE 9 – one rep in the tank
• RPE 8.5 – one or possibly two repetitions in the tank
• RPE 8 – two repetitions in the tank
• RPE 7.5 – two or possibly three repetitions in the tank
• RPE 7 – three repetitions in the tank
• RPE 6 – around four repetitions in the tank; moderate effort
• RPE 1-5 – low effort, hard to tell the exact number of repetitions in the tank

The closer you are to muscle failure (RPE 10), the more accurate you’re likely to be with your estimation. 

As a rule, you should do most of your training within an RPE of 7-8 to ensure you work hard enough without reaching failure and risking technique breakdown or excessive fatigue. 

For instance, Hevy allows you to log your RPE on all sets and exercises or just the main lifts you want to get stronger on: squats, bench presses, deadlifts, rows, shoulder presses, and such.

Other Things to Log For a More Complete Picture

Tracking the above already puts you ahead of many people who train but don’t take the time to log their workouts. That said, you can take things a step further to get a more complete picture and make it easier for yourself when reviewing your performance later. 

So, let’s look at three additional things worth monitoring:

• Body weight – weigh yourself in the morning and write it down next to your workout or as a note for a bodyweight exercise like pull-ups. This can provide additional insight into your performance and why it might be better or worse than usual.
  
  
• Daily readiness – a subjective measure of how prepared and motivated you feel to train on a given day. It’s influenced by factors such as sleep, nutrition, hydration, life stress, and recovery from previous workouts.
  
  You could measure it as bad, average, or excellent and write the score once you’ve completed your workout. Also, make a mental note of how you feel before the session and compare it to how you feel afterward.
  
  I recommend doing it that way because you may not initially feel super energized and motivated, but that can change as you warm up and do your session.
  
  
• Unforeseen circumstances – this broad category can include different things currently happening in your life. For instance, maybe you have a newborn baby that kept you up for four hours last night or knee pain that stopped you from going heavy on leg day.
  

These notes can be brief or detailed – whatever makes it easier to review your performance later. For instance:

How to Track Workouts in 1-2-3

1. Write the date, the workout’s title (e.g., Push 1), and your body weight at the top. Leave some room for a brief note at the top: weight, daily readiness, and other relevant info.
   
   If you plan to use Hevy to log workouts, you can write the session title and a note at the end. The app will automatically add the date, time, and session duration.
   
   
2. Log the exercises, individual sets, and the repetitions, weight, and RPE, or duration for each set. You can also write how long you rest between sets if it’s relevant to your own training.
   
   
3. Write notes next to relevant exercises––for example, if a nagging ache affects your performance or you feel strong on a given lift.

You can add more details, but a simpler approach is generally better. It’s easier to review your performance later and not feel overwhelmed when it’s time to change training variables.

Why a Workout Logging App > Pen & Paper Fitness Journal

Using physical log books is an old-school approach that works well enough. However, as someone who’s tracked my workouts extensively using both methods, I can confidently say that an app is more efficient. Here’s why:

1. Less Writing Involved

One cool advantage of a good workout tracker is that you don’t have to create every workout from scratch. Instead, you can make your templates, reuse them, and change details about them only when necessary.

It looks like this:

Open the app > Start a workout from a template > Maybe adjust some details (like swapping an exercise if a gym machine is super busy) > Log your performance > Write a note or summary for the workout > Save

(This is how logging a workout in Hevy looks.)

A good app like Hevy will also work on smartwatches (like an Apple Watch or a WearOS device), so you can log workouts even if your phone is not with you in the weight room.

In contrast, using pen and paper means you must write everything from scratch, which can take you a good few minutes and get tedious after a while. 

2. Less Messy

The problem with pen and paper is that changing training details can get messy. For example, imagine you’ve written your workout and only need to add the weight and repetitions. But then something comes up, and you need to leave the gym early or change an exercise.

In contrast, logging workouts with an app is always clean because you can freely add or remove exercises and change details without making a mess.

3. Easier to See Previous Performance

The easiest way to see what you did last time is to open the log, flip through the pages to last week, and find the exercise. Then flip to the current workout and start logging. Then flip back because you forgot the numbers. 

In Hevy, you can readily see your past performance on any exercise in your workout under the Previous tab. The info is always right there, so you know what you need to do now to create an overload.

4. Easier to Spot Trends

Monitoring performance on a single exercise can be difficult when using a workout log because it involves a fair amount of flipping through pages and typically requires writing the numbers side by side.

A good workout logging app stores the data so you can easily see your performance on each lift, track your personal records, and determine if you’re getting closer to your goal. 

No flipping through pages and writing numbers side by side. Simply log your workouts and access your history when you need to.

5. Automatic Rest Timer

This isn’t a concern if you have the experience and prefer to rest intuitively, but it can be a disadvantage if you want to track your rest times. You’d need to log a set, open the stopwatch or timer on your phone, and start it. 

In contrast, Hevy allows you to set a rest timer for each exercise and trigger it automatically when you mark a set as completed. This allows for a more seamless logging experience.

6. Training Logs Wear Out

Some people prefer the physical feel of a log in our increasingly digitalized world. But keep in mind that, between carrying it around and opening it to write and review workouts, the log wears out, especially if you use it with sweaty or chalk-covered hands. 

And what if you lose it or spill a liquid on it? You could lose months of valuable training data. 

In contrast, while an app might not give you that same feeling you’d get from a log, it doesn’t wear out, and your data is safely stored even if something happens on your phone. You can always access and export your training history.

Conclusion

Logging your workouts is essential to monitoring your performance and ensuring you’re doing enough on your fitness journey for continuous improvement toward your goal. 

It also eliminates the need to remember every tiny detail about your training. Simply look at what you did before, adjust for the current session, and get to work.

An app is more practical than a physical log because it’s less messy when making changes to a workout, you can more easily see your previous performance, and you can spot progress trends on each exercise. Plus, you don’t need to write all the details from scratch before every workout.

Hevy is a fantastic workout logger you can use to document your training, see your previous workouts at a glance, dive into advanced statistics (such as your performance on specific lifts), and enjoy neat options like an automatic rest timer.

Learn about the app’s features here, or download it and test everything for free.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

Create my workout

FAQ

1. How often should I review my workout data?

You can review your weekly performance to set goals for your upcoming sessions and monitor monthly trends to see if you’re progressing.

2. Should I use a workout logger app or a log book?

A good app will be more convenient because it will allow you to log sessions more automatically, reference your previous performance more easily, and use analytics to track long-term progress and spot strength plateaus.

3. What are some common workout logging mistakes to avoid?

Common mistakes include logging workouts inconsistently, focusing only on the numbers and ignoring proper technique, and changing workout details (like the order or selection of the exercises) too often. These can lead to inconsistent and inaccurate data, making it difficult to tell if you’re actually improving.

The post How to Track Workouts (And Why You Should) appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

If so, kettlebells are an excellent tool because you can do plenty of fun chest movements and challenge yourself, regardless of your experience level.

So, let’s explore 11 of the best kettlebell chest exercises and see how we can arrange them into effective workouts based on experience.

11 Effective Kettlebell Chest Exercises for Balanced Development

1. Flat Kettlebell Bench Press

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, triceps, and midsection (isometrically)

Experience level: beginner

The flat kettlebell press is an effective alternative to the barbell press to train the chest muscles through an extended range of motion.

You can lower the weights to a greater degree than when using a barbell (so long as it doesn’t bother your shoulders), which provides a greater stretch and could help with muscle growth. 

How to:

1. Grab a pair of kettlebells by the handles, sit on a flat gym bench, and place the weights on top of your thighs.
   
2. Straighten your wrists and lie back carefully as you lift the weights and position them over your chest. You can thrust them up through your knees to get them in position more easily.
   
3. Bring your shoulders back, plant your feet on the floor, inhale, and engage your abs.
   
4. Slowly lower the weights to your sides while keeping your elbows close to your torso.
   
5. Pause momentarily and press the weights to the top, squeezing your chest muscles. Exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Resist the pull of the weight and avoid bending your wrists if the bell rests against the top of your forearms. Instead, keep your wrists straight (even if that means using a bit less weight early on) to promote stability and avoid joint discomfort.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

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Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

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2. Incline Kettlebell Bench Press

Muscles worked: chest (particularly the upper portion), shoulders, triceps, and midsection

Experience level: beginner/early intermediate

The incline bench press offers the same benefits as the flat version, the only difference being muscle activation.

Performing the press at an incline allows you to emphasize the upper (clavicular) portion of the chest, which is beneficial for balanced development.

How to:

1. Grab a pair of kettlebells and sit on a gym bench with an incline set to 35-45 degrees.
   
2. Lift the weights and place them on top of your thighs.
   
3. Straighten your wrists and lie back as you thrust the weights with your thighs, positioning them over your chest with your arms straight.
   
4. Bring your shoulder blades back, take a deep breath, and engage your abs.
   
5. Slowly lower the weights to your sides until you feel a stretch in your chest (particularly the upper portion below the clavicle).
   
6. Press up and in, meeting the kettlebells at the top position as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Don’t incline the bench too much, as that can shift the emphasis to the shoulders more than the upper chest. A low incline (just one or two adjustments beyond flat) may be ideal, depending on the bench. Experiment to see what feels best.

Related: Upper Chest Workout and 9 Exercises to Achieve Robust Pecs

3. Flat Kettlebell Chest Fly

Muscles worked: chest and shoulders

Experience level: beginner

The chest fly is an excellent isolation exercise that primarily works the pectorals and involves the front of the shoulders to some degree.

Performing the movement with kettlebells typically increases the difficulty because the weights are farther from your chest. As such, you may experience a slightly more intense stretch at the bottom position.

How to:

1. Grab a pair of light kettlebells and sit on a flat gym bench.
   
2. Lie back and simultaneously raise the weights, positioning them over your chest. Keep your wrists neutral (palms facing one another).
   
3. Bring your chest back, straighten your wrists, and grip the kettlebells firmly to keep them in position (the bell should align with your hand instead of moving back and forth).
   
4. Take a deep breath, engage your abs, and lower the weights to your sides while slightly bending your elbows.
   
5. Go down until you feel a stretch in your chest, pause, and bring the kettlebells back to the top, squeezing your chest. Exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Maintain a slight bend in your elbows to avoid stretching your biceps as you move your arms to your sides.

4. Incline Kettlebell Chest Fly

Muscles worked: chest (particularly the upper portion) and shoulders

Experience level: beginner

Like an incline press, performing flyes on an incline emphasizes the upper portion of the chest.

Other than that, this movement offers the same benefit as other kettlebell flyes (i.e., potentially allowing for a slightly better chest stretch at the bottom position).

How to:

1. Grab a pair of kettlebells and sit on a gym bench set at an incline (30-45 degrees).
   
2. Lie back carefully and lift the kettlebells, positioning them above your chest, with your wrists neutral (palms facing one another).
   
3. Bring your chest back, plant your feet on the floor for stability, and inhale.
   
4. Slowly lower the weights to your sides until you feel a stretch in your upper chest, and return to the top as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Consider adding these to your training even if you already do an upper-chest-specific activity (e.g., an incline press) if your upper chest is lagging.

5. Kettlebell Floor Press

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, triceps, and midsection

Experience level: beginner/early intermediate

The floor press is a minimalistic option for training your chest, especially at home if you don’t have access to a bench. 

It’s a good exercise that allows for a good concentric contraction at the top, but it doesn’t provide as good of a stretch at the bottom because of the limited range of motion.

How to:

1. Grab a pair of kettlebells and sit on the floor with your legs straight.
   
2. Carefully raise the weights close to your torso and lie back.
   
3. Position the back of your upper arms on the floor with your elbows close to your body and your forearms vertical. The bells should be behind your hands, resting close to the top of your wrists.
   
4. Bend your knees, plant your feet on the floor for stability, and bring your chest out.
   
5. Take a deep breath and press the weights up and in.
   
6. Pause briefly and slowly lower the weights as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Lower the weights slowly to avoid hitting the floor with the back of your arms. This may not seem bad, but it could lead to significant wrist and elbow stress.

6. Glute Bridge/Decline Floor Press 

Muscles worked: chest (middle and lower portion), triceps, and shoulders, as well as midsection, glutes, and hamstrings (isometrically)

Experience level: intermediate

The glute bridge press is a creative and somewhat unorthodox kettlebell chest exercise, where you set your upper body at a decline and shift the emphasis toward the middle and lower chest.

One limitation is that your elbows cannot travel down too much, so you can’t stretch the chest as much as when doing a decline press on a bench.

How to:

1. Grab a pair of kettlebells and sit on the floor.
   
2. Tense your upper body, lift the weights close to your torso, and lie back, positioning the back of your upper arms on the floor. Position your elbows close to your body and keep your forearms upright.
   
3. Bend your knees, plant your feet on the floor, inhale, and push through your heels to assume a bridge position. Don’t hyperextend your lower back––keep your knees, hips, and shoulders in a straight line.
   
4. Breathe in and press the kettlebells up and in.
   
5. Slowly lower the weights to the bottom as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Given the body’s position for this movement (the fact that your buttocks are in the air), there’s a risk of back hyperextension, which can place more stress on the spine. Avoid that by contracting your abs when you assume the position to draw your belly button toward your spine.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

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Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

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7. Kettlebell Crush Grip Press

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, and triceps

Experience level: early intermediate

The crush grip press involves grabbing the lower portion of the kettlebell by its sides, which means you use a close grip, similar to a narrow-grip bench press. 

Doing so keeps the chest engaged but places additional emphasis on the triceps, forcing them to produce more force.

You can also perform a kettlebell crush grip floor press if you don’t have access to a bench.

How to:

1. Grab a kettlebell and sit on a flat gym bench.
   
2. With your arms grabbing the kettlebell by its sides, lie back and position the weight over your chest.
   
3. Plant your feet on the floor, bring your shoulders back, and engage your abs.
   
4. Lower the kettlebell to your upper stomach/lower chest, pause briefly, and press it back to the top as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Actively squeeze the kettlebell (as if trying to flatten it from the sides) during each rep to maintain a secure grip and improve chest activation.

Related: Killer Chest and Tricep Workout to Obtain Large Sculpted Muscles

8. Kettlebell Pullover

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, triceps, lats, and midsection

Experience level: intermediate

The pullover is a movement where subtle tweaks in technique can shift the emphasis to your chest or lats.

How to:

1. Grab a kettlebell by the horns (bell facing up) and sit on a flat gym bench.
   
2. Carefully lie back and position the kettlebell over your chest. Keep your arms slightly bent and wrists straight.
   
3. Bring your shoulders back, inhale, and engage your abs.
   
4. Slowly lower the weight behind your head without changing the angle of your elbows.
   
5. Pause briefly, move the kettlebell to the starting position (roughly over your chest), and exhale.

Trainer’s tip: To avoid engaging your lats too much, lower the weight to the point where you mostly feel a stretch in your chest––typically to where the kettlebell is behind your head.

9. Kettlebell Floor Chest Fly

Muscles worked: chest and shoulders

Experience level: beginner

Performing the exercise on the floor limits your range of motion to a degree and may result in a slightly lesser stretch of the chest fibers at the bottom position.

However, this may be more beneficial if you experience shoulder discomfort when you lower the weight too much.

How to:

1. Grab a pair of kettlebells and sit on the floor.
   
2. Lift the weights to your sides and lie back, lifting the kettlebells and positioning them over your chest. Have your palms facing one another) and maintain a slight elbow bend.
   
3. Bring your shoulders back and inhale. You can keep your legs straight or plant your feet on the floor for balance––whichever feels more comfortable.
   
4. Lower the weights to your sides until the back of your upper arms touches the floor.
   
5. Move the kettlebells back to the top as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Similar to a floor press, keep the movement controlled and avoid hitting the floor at the bottom position, as that can lead to some undue joint stress.

10. Kettlebell Crush Grip Push-Up

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, triceps, serratus anterior, and midsection

Experience level: intermediate

The close-stance (diamond) push-up is an excellent movement for the triceps and shoulders. One issue is that this close hand position can lead to wrist discomfort. 

However, when performing the exercise with your hands on top of a kettlebell (crush grip), your wrists are more comfortable, and the risk of ulnar wrist pain is lower.

How to:

1. Set a kettlebell on the floor, get down on your knees, and place your hands on top of it.
   
2. Extend your body into a push-up position with your legs straight (a slightly wider stance can help with balance) and toes supporting your lower body.
   
3. Keep your fingers pointed forward to prevent your elbows from flaring.
   
4. Bring your shoulders back, inhale, and engage your abs.
   
5. Slowly lower yourself as much as possible and press back to the top as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Use a heavier kettlebell with a wider lower portion (bell). This will ensure a more stable base and provide enough surface area for your hands.

11. Kettlebell Push-Up

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, triceps, serratus anterior, and midsection

Experience level: intermediate

Like the previous kettlebell movement, the goal is to use the weight as your foundation instead of lifting it to create a stimulus. 

This is a more advanced push-up variation, where the goal is to place a pair of kettlebells on the floor, grab them by the handles, and use that as your foundation. Doing so increases the range of motion, allowing you to lower yourself more than you could during a floor push-up.

As such, you can stretch your chest muscles better at the bottom and hopefully enjoy more growth.

How to:

1. Place a pair of kettlebells (preferably the heaviest possible for stability) on the floor.
   
2. Lean forward, grab both handles and extend your body into a push-up position. The weights should be shoulder-width apart, but experiment to see what feels best.
   
3. Bring your shoulders back, breathe in, and engage your abs, drawing your belly button toward your spine.
   
4. Lower yourself as much as you can and pause momentarily.
   
5. Press back to the top position as you exhale.

Trainer’s tip: Control the descent (negative) on each rep and go down as much as possible, so long as it doesn’t bother your shoulders. Doing so will provide a fantastic stretch of your muscles, which is valuable for growth.

Kettlebell Workouts for Chest Growth: Beginner & Advanced Options

Beginner Kettlebell Chest Workout

This is a simple kettlebell chest workout suited for someone new to lifting. It provides a good stimulus for the whole chest and has just enough volume to support growth.

Why aren’t there more exercises? A beginner wouldn’t need much more variety to build a solid foundation so long as they can do these movements safely and without experiencing shoulder pain.

Eight sets is also enough for most beginners, even if they only train the chest once weekly. Of course, each set must be challenging enough (close to failure) to force a positive adaptation (e.g., muscle growth).

You can log your workouts, track your performance on each movement, and follow your friends using the Hevy app.

Advanced Kettlebell Chest Workout

The following workout features more exercises, sets, intensity techniques, and ‘rules’ to make the most of it and continue seeing results as a more advanced lifter.

*Rest-pause is an intensity tactic that allows you to complete more work in less time and push your muscles to utter exhaustion. Doing these can be pretty fun (if pain is fun for you), especially at the end of your workout.

To do these, I recommend testing how many kettlebell push-ups you can do in one go before you hit failure and use that as your base. Add 50% to that number to get your target for that movement.

For example, at the end of your chest workout, you can bang out 20 smooth and controlled kettlebell push-ups through a full range of motion. So, add 50% (10 reps) and aim to do 30 total reps while resting as little as possible.

It may look like this:

20 reps ⇒ (10 seconds rest) ⇒ 3 reps (10 seconds rest) ⇒ 2 reps (10-15 seconds rest) ⇒ 2 reps (10-15 seconds rest) ⇒ 2 reps (10-15 seconds rest) ⇒ 1 rep

Other than that, there isn’t anything that special about the workout. It has more exercises and sets because that’s necessary to create a significant enough disruption for growth. 

You also have one superset (learn how to easily create supersets in the Hevy app), where one movement emphasizes the chest, and the other works the chest but focuses on the triceps.

Related: Free Workout Plans for Every Fitness Level

Are Kettlebells Good for Chest Training?

Kettlebells are a good workout tool to train your chest and other muscle groups, such as the quadriceps, biceps, triceps, shoulders, and lats. All you need are a few kettlebell exercises organized into a proper routine. 

As you can see, there are plenty of chest exercises you can add to your kettlebell training. You can also use intensity techniques (such as rest-pause and supersets).

Plus, as with barbells, dumbbells, and gym machines, you can challenge yourself to do more by lifting more weight, doing more reps, and adding more sets.

Conclusion

So, there we are. The above are 11 of the best kettlebell chest exercises, along with two simple and effective workouts for beginners and advanced lifters. 

All that’s left is to pick a few movements you want to try, organize them into a simple workout, and get to work. 

Looking for a way to log your workouts and track your performance over time? Check out Hevy––the ultimate workout-tracking app.

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workouts with Hevy and track your progress.

Create my workout

Hevy – Workout Tracker

Create and log your workout with Hevy and track your progress

Create my workout

FAQs

1. Can kettlebell chest workouts replace the bench press?

Kettlebells can replace traditional barbell training to get fit and build muscle. Still, it wouldn’t be ideal if you want to compete in a strength sport like powerlifting because you need enough practice with the specific lifts you’ll be doing to build the necessary skills.

2. How heavy should the kettlebell be for chest training?

It largely depends on the exercise and your goals. Lift lighter weights on isolation movements (e.g., chest fly) and pick heavier kettlebells for compound lifts (e.g., chest press), especially if you want to build strength.

3. Can I train the chest effectively with just one kettlebell?

Training one side at a time can work just as effectively, but it may be more difficult to balance yourself. So, start with a lighter weight and increase it gradually.

The post 2 Kettlebell Chest Workouts + 11 Exercises appeared first on Hevy - #1 Workout Tracker & Planner Gym Log App.

To that end, let’s review 21 pull-up variations for trainees of all levels. I’ve also shared programming tips to help you incorporate some of these into your training.

Best Pull-Up Variations for All Levels

Beginner Pull-Up Variations

• Lat Pulldown
• Dead Hang
• Jumping Pull Up
• Negative Pull Up
• Pull Up (Band)
• Pull Up (Assisted; Machine)
• Inverted Row
• Half Pull Up

Intermediate/Advanced Pull-Up Variations

• Pull Up
• Chin Up
• Scapular Pull Ups
• Isometric Pull Up Hold
• Commando Pull Up
• Wide Pull Up
• Sternum Pull Up (Gironda)
• Kipping Pull Up
• Pull Up (Weighted)
• L-Sit Pull Up
• Frenchies
• One-Arm Pull Up
• Muscle Ups

Beginner Pull Up Variations Breakdown

Lat Pulldown

Lat pulldowns are not precisely a pull-up variation but more of an exercise with a similar movement pattern.

That said, pulldowns are the perfect starting point for a beginner because they teach proper form and build some strength to help you eventually do a regular pull-up.

Plus, they are far less intimidating for beginners who lack the strength and skill to do any pull-up variation. As such, you can build some momentum in your training early on rather than lose your confidence because you can’t yet do pull-ups.

Dead Hang

With the dead hang, you’re simply hanging from the pull-up bar. Despite its simplicity, the exercise is still highly beneficial because it develops grip strength, helping you get used to suspending yourself in the air.

Plus, your lats are stretched under load, which is beneficial for growth (1).

Pull Up (Assisted; Machine)

An assisted pull-up machine removes some of the resistance (you decide how much), allowing you to practice the movement pattern in a more controlled way.

This makes the variation beneficial if you’re a beginner who can’t do unassisted pull-ups. 

More advanced trainees can also incorporate machine-assisted pull-ups into their workouts for extra training volume to develop the back.

Pull Up (Band)

Band-assisted pull-ups are a good alternative if your gym doesn’t have a pull-up machine. However, they are more challenging because:

• It’s more difficult to pick the ideal band
• You get virtually no support near the top (as the band shortens)
• Bands don’t stabilize you the same way the pull-up machine does

You can still use this variation to build strength for pull-ups and get used to the instability.

Jumping Pull Up

You can do jumping pull-ups in a couple of ways:

• Jump to the top and control the descent (more on that next)
• Jump a bit and use the momentum to complete the rep by pulling yourself up

The latter option is suitable for building strength at the top of the pull-up, and you can still lower yourself slowly (say, for five seconds) to stretch your back under load for muscle gain.

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Negative Pull Up

The idea behind this variation is to get yourself to the top by jumping or stepping on something and controlling the lowering phase.

Negative (eccentric) pull-ups work great because muscles are stronger in the lengthening phase, which means you can control the descent even if you can’t pull yourself up yet (2).

So, you will eventually have enough back and bicep strength for a regular pull-up by doing the movement and applying overload (e.g., lengthening the descend duration or doing more reps over time).

Inverted Row

Inverted rows are not your traditional pull-up variation because they are classified as a horizontal pull (pull-ups are a vertical pull), and your feet remain on the floor.

However, they are ideal for building strength in your back, and you can adjust the difficulty with your body position. Staying more upright would make the exercise easier, whereas being more horizontal would force you to pull a larger percentage of your body weight.

The Hevy app has a rich exercise library with various pulldown and pull-up variations you can easily add to any workout you log. Download it here.

Half Pull Up

The objective is to start from a bottom position (arms fully extended) and pull yourself halfway up.

While this is a partial range of motion, the advantage is that you can stretch the lats under load at the bottom position.

Trainer’s tip: Extend your arms at the bottom of each rep, even if that means pulling yourself slightly less than halfway up.

How I Recommend Learning Pull-Ups as a Beginner

Here is how I recommend learning these movements in order:

Lat Pulldowns ⇒ Dead Hang ⇒ Pull Up (Assisted) ⇒ Inverted Row (more vertical body position) ⇒ Pull Up (Band) ⇒ Negative Pull Up ⇒ Inverted Row (more horizontal) ⇒ Jumping Pull Up ⇒ Half Pull Up

You don’t have to try all these, but this is a decent progression scheme you can follow for several months.

Also, consider doing more than one variation at a time for quicker results. For example:

• Monday – lat pulldowns
• Wednesday – Pull up (assisted)
• Friday – Dead hang

Do a few sets and focus on gradual progression while maintaining proper form.

Intermediate/Advanced Pull Up Variations Breakdown

Scapular Pull Ups

Scapular pull-ups are an overlooked variation, where the goal isn’t to pull yourself up but to retract your shoulder blades while hanging from the bar.

You essentially move from a dead hang to an engaged position––the one you must master for strong and powerful pull-ups.

Trainer’s tip: Move slowly between the two positions and hold each for two seconds to engage your back muscles.

Pull Up

Classic pull-ups through a full range of motion are simple and highly effective for developing your back, biceps, grip, and whole-body stability.

You can experiment with tempo, grip width, and rep/set schemes to keep your workouts fun and see what works best.

Wide Pull Up

Wide-grip pull-ups are slightly more advanced and generally more beneficial for lat activation and growth.

That said, don’t go too wide, as that can shift the emphasis to the shoulders and lead to some joint discomfort.

Chin Up

Chin-ups are the same as pull-ups, with the primary difference being that you’re using an underhand grip (palms facing back).

Doing so puts your biceps in a more advantageous position, allowing them to produce more force (3). As such, you may feel slightly stronger on chin-ups than on pull-ups.

Isometric Pull Up Hold

Holding the isometric contraction at the top of pull-up reps is an effective way to build strength in that part of the range of motion. This can help you to more consistently and explosively get your chin over the bar for full range of motion pull-ups.

One option is to pull yourself up to the top and hold. Alternatively, jump up or step on a stool to get to the top position and stay there as long as possible.

Commando Pull Up

Commando pull-ups are a variation where you stand sideways and grab the bar with one hand in front of the other. As you pull yourself up, you must guide your head to the left or right of the bar.

The movement is not inherently better than a regular pull-up, but it allows you to use a neutral grip and might lead to better back activation in some trainees. It’s worth a try if regular pull-ups or chin-ups feel stale.

Sternum Pull Up (Gironda)

Sternum pull-ups are a more advanced variation where the goal is to look up and lean the upper body back to a greater degree. Touch your lower chest to the bar as you pull yourself up to better engage your upper back. 

When done through a full range of motion (fully extending the arms at the bottom), these can train your back quite well and lead to intense muscle pumps.

Kipping Pull Up

Kipping pull-ups are another advanced version of the exercise, typically done in a CrossFit setting. 

Rather than doing slow and controlled pull-up reps, you must leverage kipping (jerking your body from head to toe) to generate momentum and do more explosive reps. 

This pull-up variation can benefit athletes looking to build explosive strength.

Pull Up (Weighted)

Weighted pull-ups are essentially the final step for trainees who want to focus on the basics for strength and muscle gain.

The overloading potential is virtually limitless because you can continue to add weight via a special belt and provide the necessary overload.

L-Sit Pull Up

This fancy pull-up variation builds isometric strength in your midsection while working the back and biceps through pulling. To perform these, you must raise your legs forward and keep them in that position while doing reps.

A potential limitation is that the abs can get tired before the back muscles. This would force trainees to stop a set before they’ve effectively trained the primary target: the lats and other upper back muscles.

Frenchies

Frenchies are a pull-up variation that’s particularly popular among rock climbers. These translate well to that sport because they involve partial reps that build strength in specific ranges of motion. 

There are several variations of the movement. A straightforward way to do them would be:

Dead hang (5 seconds) ⇒ Pull halfway up (and hold for 5 seconds) ⇒ Pull yourself to the top (5 seconds) ⇒ Lower yourself halfway down (5-second hold) ⇒ Move down to a dead hang (5-second hold)

This would be one rep. Once done with it, repeat the whole sequence.

One-Arm Pull Up

If regular pull-ups are impressive, one-arm pull-ups are even more so. The ability to pull yourself up using just one arm is rare and reserved only for the strongest and most skilled calisthenics athletes.

It’s also important to note that one-arm pull-ups are more of a vanity exercise than a good back training approach.

Regular pull-ups provide just as good of a training stimulus, and you can always do weighted, Gironda, or wide-grip pull-ups to challenge yourself further.

Muscle Ups

Muscle-ups are another advanced pull-up version worth mentioning. The goal is to perform a powerful pull from the bottom to generate momentum. This allows you to get your shoulders and upper arms over the bar.

Once in this position, you can complete the rep by performing a bar dip, shifting the emphasis from the back and biceps to the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

How to Program Pull-Ups Into Your Training

How you program pull-ups into your training will largely depend on your training goals and fitness level. 

For the sake of simplicity, let’s see how beginners and intermediate-level trainees can incorporate pull-ups into their workouts to build muscle mass and strength.

Beginner Pull-up Programming

As a beginner, your pull-up ability will typically range from 0 to 5 reps per set. Regardless of where you stand, you can incorporate the following activities to improve your skills and build pulling strength:

• Lat Pulldowns
• Pull Ups (Machine Assisted)
• Negative Pull Ups
• Inverted Rows

You should spread these throughout your training week to manage fatigue and practice the movement pattern more frequently.

For example:

• Monday – lat pulldowns and inverted rows (as part of pull or ‘back’ training)
• Wednesday – negative pull-ups (during another workout)
• Friday – machine-assisted pull-ups (during your third workout of the week)

This approach would work regardless of whether you do full-body or push/pull/legs training. Here is how these might look in your training:

Click here and tap the Save Folder button to get this program on Hevy (login to hevy.com with your app credentials or be on your phone with the Hevy app installed).

Workout 1 – Pull

• Inverted Row – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets of  10-12 reps 
• Seated Cable Row – Wide Grip – 3 sets of 12-15 reps
• Bicep Curl (Barbell) – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Face Pull – 3 sets of 15-20 reps

Workout 2 – Push

• Bench Press (Barbell) – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Incline Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Seated Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Negative Pull Ups – 3 sets of 5×5-second negatives
• Lateral Raise (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Workout 3 – Legs

• Squat (Barbell) – 3 sets of 6-10 reps
• Romanian Deadlift (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Leg Extension (Machine) – 3 sets of 12-15 reps
• Standing Calf Raise (Machine) – 3 sets of 12-15 reps
• Pull Up (Assisted) – 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Doing a handful of sets here and there doesn’t generate as much fatigue, which means you can practice each activity in a recovered state with better form for more reps.

It’s also important to mention that since pull-ups are a bodyweight activity, losing excess body fat can improve your performance. It’s one thing to pull yourself up if you weigh 200 lbs and another if you hover around 175-180 lbs.

Download the Hevy app and explore the library with 25+ training programs for beginners, intermediates, and advanced lifters. These programs have a pull-up variation or inverted row:

• Beginner Full-Body (Equipment-Free)
• Intermediate Upper/Lower (Gym Equipment)
• Advanced Full-Body (Gym Equipment)
• Advanced Push/Pull/Legs (Gym Equipment)
• Advanced Upper/Lower (Gym Equipment)

Intermediate Pull-up Programming

Adding pull-ups to an intermediate program involves doing the movement often enough (ideally, two to three times per week) and managing fatigue.

In other words, it’s similar to doing pull-up variations as a beginner, with the primary difference being that you must be more mindful of your training volume and avoid doing too much. 

The primary reason is that you can do more unassisted pull-up reps, generating more fatigue than easier variations like assisted pull-ups or inverted rows.

You can add the pull-up (and variations) to your training in multiple ways, but follow these rules:

1. Do them early in your training.
2. Do them no more than two to three times per week.
3. Recover for at least 48 hours between sessions.
4. Don’t take sets to failure (leave at least a rep or two in the tank) (4).
5. Vary the rep and set structure. 

That way, you would get enough quality practice without generating too much fatigue. This will further improve your skills with the exercise and help you steadily build strength.

For example, let’s take a four-day upper/lower split that’s fit for an intermediate lifter:

Upper A

• Pull Up – 3 sets to RPE 8-9 (1-2 reps in the tank)
• Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
• Bent Over Row (Barbell) – 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
• Shoulder Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
• Low Cable Fly Crossover – 2 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Dumbbell Curl – 2 sets of 12 to 15 reps
• Rope Cable Face Pulls – 2 sets of 15 to 25 reps

Lower A – no pull-ups

Upper B

• Pull Up – 5 sets to RPE 7-8 (2-3 reps in the tank)
• Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Seated Shoulder Press (Machine) – 3 sets of 8-12 reps
• Straight Arm Lat Pulldown (Cable) – 3 sets of 12-15 reps
• Push Up – 2-3 sets to RPE 8-9
• EZ Bar Biceps Curl – 3 sets of 10-15 reps
• Triceps Kickback (Dumbbell) – 3 sets of 12-15 reps

Lower B – no pull-ups

Conclusion

Pull-ups are a simple and effective bodyweight exercise with numerous benefits for trainees of all levels. 

You can choose from numerous variations and modify the classic exercise to fit your current abilities––for example, by using a band to remove some resistance or adding external weight to challenge yourself more.

Check out the Hevy app if you need help organizing your training, logging your workouts, and tracking your performance. The app provides in-depth analysis and makes workout tracking a breeze.

FAQs

1. What is the best pull-up variation for the lats?

There are multiple variations to build thick lats, rhomboids, traps, brachialis, and biceps. Regular pull-ups are one fantastic option, but you can also consider machine-assisted ones if you’re a beginner or weighted pull-ups if you’re more advanced.

2. Do I need to do multiple pull-up variations?

You can build thick lats with just one pull-up variation. Choose one that allows you to train through a full range of motion and focus on gradually increasing the difficulty of your training (e.g., doing more sets and reps).

3. What if I can’t do a single pull-up?

Machine-assisted pull-ups, band pull-ups, slow negatives, and inverted rows are good movements to build strength and work your way up to your first unassisted rep.

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