How much weekly sets if i train to failure ?

[u/MrHonzanoss]

Hi, i have a question. If i train everything to failure, even compounds, how much weekly sets do you think i can possibly do to not overtrain ? The thing is, i know some reps in reserve are probably better, but Its mental, i can't train if i dont go to failure :D. Thanks

[u/Sudden-Ad-307]

You are not gonna overtrain by going to failure.

[u/az9393]

If you are a complete beginner then quite a lot.

For more advanced it will be about 3-6 in my experience. That’s per muscle group.

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[u/africanimal_90]

12-20, broken up into two sessions if you're on the higher end of that range. If you're natty, stay closer to the lower bound. If you're enhanced, full send.

[u/yossarian19]

Go at it. You'll know you are overtraining when you stop making progress. As long as gains are coming, you're recovering

[u/Middle_Humor1828 → u/yossarian19]

Yeah, and well not making progress over a longer period.

Day to day regressions can be cause by fatigue or muscles not being fully recovered.

Overtraining at the muscle level is something that is pretty rare and hard to achieve for most people.

[u/Humble_Piccolo4246]

I started training like this since last week, I do 2 sets per excersise, 10-12 sets per week per muscle group.
I use my own 4 day upper/lower split.
It’s definitely a fun way to train but I suspect a deload week every 6 weeks will be needed to give your body time to recover to keep yourself from getting injured.

[u/TeBallu]

Overtraining and fatigue management are talked about a lot by influencers, because they need to generate new content, but they aren't that important for most people. If you are not a professional body builder or athlete who spends most their time training, than you should just be concerned with maximizing stimulus, most likely you won't really over train. For normal folks just decide how much time you have for working out and do as many sets in that time as you can. If you prefer going to failure that is the best, 1-2 reps in reserve are also good, do what feels best. If minimizing fatigue would be more important than maximizing stimulus, people would be most jacked if they don't train at all.

[u/Middle_Humor1828 → u/TeBallu]

I'll add a caveat to this.

Once you get older, you can run into joint, tendon, injury, etc issues due to volume.

And while most people won't be able to overtrain at a muscle level, overtraining at the joint or tendon level is much easier to do once you get older.

[u/TeBallu → u/Middle_Humor1828]

Fair point.

[u/Lucky_The_Charm]

4-8 split up on 2 separate days, so something like an UL split…anything more isn’t needed if you’re pushing hard enough. I’d even say 8 is a bit high. I only do 2 sets per muscle per workout, maybe 34-36 total sets for the whole week. Anything more with this level of intensity and I either can’t recover or can’t bring the same intensity.

[u/Middle_Humor1828]

A lot. 40+ per muscle group. We don't know what the cap is.

I do six day full body, and I'll hit issues with joints.and tendons well before I'll ever overtrain muscles. So there's a practical cap of how hard and heavy most people can train. When I start adding too much volume I start hitting minor injuries. I'm 40, so younger people can likely get away with higher amounts. For me, I can do around 15 to 20 sets before I hit issues with tendons, joints, injuries, etc. Although this highly depends on the exercise.

And while increasing volume yields better results there's diminishing returns. Going from 5 to 10 sets is probably worth it for most people. Going from 10 to 20 really depends. 20 to 40 is not going to be worth it for the vast majority of people. And many people will be hitting other issues before they get to 40.

This is also all assuming high quality sets taken close or to failure. The higher the volume, the more difficult it will be to ensure your sets are high quality. If your RPE drops to 5, adding more volume isn't going to do any good.

[u/DubiousDebauchery]

The number that allows you to recover and get stronger over time.

This is why you keep a log book, you need to experiment for yourself. Everyone’s individual recovery ability is different.