Weekly sets planner: hard sets per muscle, split across your days

How many sets should each muscle get in a week, and on which days? How many sets per week explains the research. This planner does the layout: it takes your training days and your muscles, gives each muscle a weekly number inside the ranges that page cites, and splits the numbers across your days.

Plan your week

The planner needs JavaScript, which looks to be switched off. The tables here are the worked example, three days for someone new to lifting, and the rules below work by hand.

Where the numbers come from

Every weekly number the planner prints sits inside the two ranges on how many sets per week. Only the ends at 10 and 20 trace to the studies below; the 6-to-10 range for new lifters is that page's practical range.

• A floor. A 2021 review of time-efficient training recommends at least four weekly sets per muscle group, and preferably more, about 10, if more muscle is the goal.¹
• Ten is a useful line. The American College of Sports Medicine’s 2026 position stand, an overview of reviews in healthy adults, found muscle growth was enhanced by higher volumes, 10 or more sets per week. Reading a 2026 meta-regression, its authors put diminishing returns at about 18 to 20 weekly sets for muscle growth, and write that the exact number of sets for the most gain can’t be pinned down.²
• A working range for experienced lifters. A 2022 systematic review of trials in young, trained men (aged 18 to 35, with at least a year of lifting) suggested 12 to 20 weekly sets per muscle group may be an optimum standard to aim for.³

From those, the sets page gives two ranges, and the planner uses them as they stand:

The 6 to 10 for new lifters is the sets page’s own practical range, set between the four-set floor and the ten-set line above. The 12-to-20 range came from trials in young, trained men, so treat 20 as a ceiling to approach, not a place to start: if a muscle is getting fewer sets than the range now, start at the low end and add a set at a time.

How the sets are split across your days

This part is practical, not a trial result. Three rules:

1. Every muscle trains on at least two days, so no single session carries a whole week of sets.
2. About five sets or fewer per muscle per session. On the sets page’s own examples, ten sets over two sessions is five each, and over three sessions it’s three or four. A muscle’s days go up to fit, and never past the days you picked.
3. Days are spaced and kept even. Each muscle takes an evenly spread set of your days, choosing the ones with the fewest sets so far, so the sessions end up close in size.

“Day 1” and “Day 2” are your training days in order, not calendar days. Put them where your week allows.

What the planner leaves out

• Indirect sets. A 2026 meta-regression of 67 studies found the strongest support for counting indirect sets, such as triceps work from a press, as half a set.⁴ The planner doesn’t subtract them: it counts a muscle’s own sets. How to count your week shows how to count both.
• Exercises, reps and loads. It plans sets. How many reps covers reps, and the exercise pages below cover which lifts to use.
• Recovery and your life. A page can’t see your sleep, your job or how the last week went. If your lifts are slipping and every session feels heavy, fewer sets is often the answer. How many rest days you need covers it.
• Outcomes. Hard sets per week is a way to plan training. The numbers say nothing about what you will gain, and the trials measured groups of people.

If you have an injury, a medical condition or a medical question, talk to a doctor before you change how you train. I’m a fitness coach, not a doctor.

Exercises for each muscle

Once you have the numbers, these pages list what to do with them: chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings, glutes, biceps and triceps, calves and abs. Workout split covers how to lay a week out, and how often to train covers how many days.

Common questions

How many sets per muscle group per week?

It depends on your experience, and the research gives ranges, not one number. The ranges the planner uses are in the table above: 6 to 10 if you’re new, 10 to 20 if you’ve trained for a year or more. How many sets per week has the studies.

Why does every muscle get at least two days?

It’s a practical rule: it keeps any one session from piling up a muscle’s whole week of sets. It isn’t a finding from a trial.

Is anything saved or sent?

No. The arithmetic runs in your browser, and the page keeps nothing once you close it.

If you’d rather have the week built for you

A planner can lay out sets, but it can’t see your logbook. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in the Trainerize app, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and apply tells me where you’re starting. Otherwise: pick your days above, write the numbers in your logbook, and keep them for four weeks.