Giant sets in lifting: four or more exercises for one muscle, back to back

Giant set key numbers

Two meanings of giant set

A giant set is four or more exercises for the same muscle group done back to back without rest, and you rest only after the round. That's how the one long-term study used the term: four exercises for one muscle group per round (Demirtaş et al. 2022).

Many lifting guides use the term more loosely, for any four or more exercises in a row, including whole-body groups such as a squat, a press, a row and a carry. Research names vary in the same way: in one study a “tri-set” was three exercises for different muscle groups (Weakley et al. 2017).

In this wiki and in the SmartWorkout app, the name of an exercise group depends on whether all its exercises share a main muscle group:

So four shoulder exercises make a giant set, and the three deltoid heads count as one muscle group. Two biceps and two triceps exercises, or a whole-body group of four, make a circuit. Two exercises for one muscle group are a compound set, and two for different muscle groups a superset.

When giant sets are worth it

Giant sets don't build more muscle than the same sets done separately. They pack one muscle group's sets into a few minutes and tire that muscle more than any other grouping.

In a 6-week study, untrained men doing giant sets gained as much strength and muscle as groups doing compound sets or a modified German Volume Training (Demirtaş et al. 2022). With trained lifters, a tri-set for chest took 48% less time than the same sets with rest after each, and tonnage was 19% lower (De Camargo et al. 2022).

For example, 4 rounds of the shoulder giant set below take about 17 minutes with sets of about 40 s, 15 s switches and 60 s after each round. The same 16 sets done separately, with 60 s after each, take about 26.

Use a giant set when you're short on time for a muscle group you want to bring up, on machines, cables and dumbbells. In your first months, stick with straight sets: you grow without them, and the later exercises of a round are hard to judge on a tired muscle.

How to do a giant set

1. Pick four exercises with the same main muscle group, from the heaviest or multi-joint one to the lightest isolation exercise.
2. Set up close together: at peak hours you can't hold four stations, so build the round around one cable stack and one pair of dumbbells, e.g. lateral and front raises with the same dumbbells.
3. Go 10-20% lighter than usual on every exercise after the first that trains the same muscle.
4. Switch within 10-20 s and rest 2-3 minutes after the round (rest between sets); shorten it to 60-90 s once rounds 2-3 hold their reps.
5. Do 2 rounds in the first weeks and add a third when the second round no longer loses more than 2-3 reps per exercise.
6. Log every set separately and keep the same order every week.

Heavy barbell lifts don't belong in the round: in a compound set, the barbell bench press lost more speed and power than in supersets (Weakley et al. 2020). Do them first and on their own.

Giant set examples for shoulders, chest, back and legs

Each row is one round, done at the end of the workout; every group passes the table above as a giant set.

Giant set vs superset, compound set and circuit

How to count giant sets in weekly volume

In a giant set you count sets as usual: every set of every exercise gives 1 set to each muscle group it trains directly and 0.5 to each it trains indirectly (Pelland et al. 2025).

That adds up fast. The 4 shoulder rounds from the examples give 10 weekly sets for the front delts, 10 for the side delts and 4 for the rear delts. 4 rounds of the chest giant set would give 16 chest sets, already in the MAV range of 10-20 for a whole week, which is why we start chest at 2-3 rounds. Check your week against the volume zones in the sets per muscle group calculator.

Common mistakes

1. The same weights in every round. By round 3 the last exercises lose reps; lower their weight or rep target.
2. Four stations at peak hours. If each switch takes a minute, you're doing straight sets; use one cable stack and one pair of dumbbells.
3. Giant sets for several muscle groups. Compound sets already raised a muscle damage marker almost twice as much as the same exercises done separately (Brentano et al. 2017), and a giant set has twice as many exercises. Use one giant set per workout, at the end.
4. Counting a round as one set. A round of four exercises is four sets, and your weekly volume counts them all.

What the research says

Giant sets have one long-term study, in untrained men over 6 weeks; it's unknown whether trained lifters grow as much with them as with straight sets, and how much more muscle damage four exercises cause than two.

What SmartWorkout logs show

Lifters who link four or more exercises mostly mix muscle groups, so by the table above they log circuits. Every number is based on at least 50 people.

How to log a giant set in SmartWorkout

You log a giant set in SmartWorkout as an exercise group: in the workout log, in templates and in plans.

1. On the workout screen, tap “Add Superset”, select four or more exercises for the same muscle group and confirm.
2. In the menu of every exercise except the last, choose “Set all rest timers” and set 0 s (“Off” on the picker wheel); give the last one the rest after the round, e.g. 120 s.
3. Do one set of each exercise in order; the timer starts after the last exercise of the round.

From version 5.2 the button is called “Add Exercise Group”, and the group gets its name from the table above: “Giant Set” when all exercises share a main muscle group, “Circuit” when they don't.

With Premium, you see these sets against the volume zones while you train, separately for the front, side and rear delts.

None of our free plans has a giant set. You can paste this shoulder round through plan import (Workout > My Plans > “+” > “Import plan”) and add it to the end of an upper or push day; import costs 10 AI credits, so the welcome credits cover it.

DAY: ShouldersLINKED:- Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 2x10-12 RIR 2 | TEMPO 2010 | REST 0- Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 2x10-12 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2010 | REST 0- Dumbbell Front Raise | 2x10-12 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2010 | REST 0- Cable Rear Delt Fly | 2x10-12 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2011 | REST 120END LINKED