Training volume: MEV, MAV and MRV sets explained

Training volume at a glance: how many sets and how to count them

In hypertrophy training, training volume is the number of working sets a muscle group gets per week. A working set uses your target weight and ends with no more than 4 reps in reserve; sets that end 0-3 reps short of failure give the most.

Parameter	Value	Source
Which sets count	at most 4 reps in reserve (RIR), ideally 0-3; no warm-up sets	the limit of 4: our practice; 2026 ACSM position stand: 2-3 RIR is enough
Exercise where the muscle group assists	1 set for the main muscle group, 0.5 for the assisting one	Pelland et al. 2025
Smallest dose with measurable growth	about 4 sets per week	Pelland et al. 2025
More growth	10 or more sets per week	ACSM 2026
Per muscle group in one workout	up to about 10 sets	our practice; Remmert et al. 2025, preprint: no detectable advantage above about 11
Target in a plan	regular muscle group 4-10 sets (MEV), 1-2 priority groups 10-20 (MAV)	our practice

Sets of 1-5 reps count too, but one such set builds less muscle than a set of 6-20 (rep ranges); and it's in that range that set count describes the training dose well (Baz-Valle et al. 2021).

Volume zones: MV, MEV, MAV and MRV

A volume zone is a range of weekly sets per muscle group that tells you how much growth each additional set brings.

Zone	Sets a week
Below maintenance	below 2
MV Maintenance zone	2-4
MEV Growth zone	4-10
MAV High volume	10-20
MRV Very high volume	20+

A set counts as 1 for the muscle group an exercise trains directly and as 0.5 for one it trains indirectly. Above about 30 sets a week there are almost no studies.

A boundary belongs to the higher zone, so 4 sets is already MEV and 10 is already MAV. In the coaching practice these abbreviations come from, MEV and MRV are individual thresholds and MAV is the range with the best results; in SmartWorkout each abbreviation names a fixed range of sets.

MV: maintenance zone (2-4 sets)

MV (maintenance volume) is 2-4 sets per muscle group per week: usually enough to keep the muscle you've built, but too little for clear growth. In a review by Spiering et al. 2021, younger people kept their strength and muscle even with 1 set per exercise once a week, as long as the weight stayed heavy.

MV is the target for a muscle group you deliberately only maintain: on a cut, when you're short on time or when another group takes priority. Below 2 sets, SmartWorkout shows the group as below maintenance. For young people lifting heavy that may still be enough, but over many months give the group at least 2 sets of an exercise where it's the main muscle.

MEV: growth zone (4-10 sets)

MEV (minimum effective volume) is the smallest volume at which muscle growth becomes measurable; in SmartWorkout it names the growth zone, 4-10 sets per muscle group per week, where each set gives the most growth. In a meta-analysis of 67 studies, the 5-10 set range was the most efficient: each further detectable gain in muscle took about 6 more weekly sets (Pelland et al. 2025).

MEV is a good default target for most muscle groups: you can stay in it for months as long as your weights or reps keep going up.

MAV: high volume (10-20 sets)

MAV (maximum adaptive volume) is 10-20 sets per muscle group per week: high, still productive volume where the muscle grows more per week, but each set gives a little less. In the meta-analysis the 11-18 set range had intermediate efficiency (Pelland et al. 2025), and a review of studies in young trained men pointed to 12-20 sets as the standard (Baz-Valle et al. 2022).

MAV is the target for 1-2 priority muscle groups. Spread those sets over at least 2 workouts. When progress stalls and fatigue builds, take a few sets away.

MRV: very high volume (20+ sets)

In SmartWorkout, MRV (maximum recoverable volume) is very high volume: 20 or more sets per muscle group per week, where the muscle can still grow but extra sets add little.

In the meta-analysis the 19-29 set range had lower efficiency. The authors found no point where growth stops, but there are few studies above about 25 weekly sets (Pelland et al. 2025): for 30-42 sets the meta-analysis reports the lowest efficiency and the most uncertainty, and above 42 there's no data. Single studies disagree. In trained men, 45 weekly sets for the quads built more muscle over 8 weeks than 9 sets, while the advantage over 27 sets was uncertain (Schoenfeld et al. 2019). In very strong lifters, 12, 18 and 24 weekly sets for the legs gave similar growth (Aube et al. 2022).

Choose MRV deliberately, for one muscle group for a few weeks, with its sets spread over 3-4 workouts; then take a deload or go back to MAV.

How many sets per muscle group per week

For hypertrophy, aim for 4-10 sets per muscle group per week (MEV), and give the 1-2 groups you want to grow faster (muscle priority) 10-20 (MAV).

Your situation	Weekly target per muscle group	Why
First six months of training	MEV, 4-10 sets; if one muscle group matters to you, a mild priority at most, 10-12 sets	early on, many programs work as long as you train regularly and progress (2026 ACSM position stand)
Women	the same targets	with the same training, muscle grew about as much as in men (Roberts et al. 2020)

The 4-10 set target is a minimum, not a ceiling. If you've trained for years, aim for about 8-12 sets for each major muscle group, on the border of MEV and MAV: that's where the ACSM threshold for more growth sits, and such a week fits into 4 workouts. If you're growing on what you do now, your current set count is a better starting point than the zone table.

For strength, a few sets per week are already enough to make progress, and extra sets add less to strength than to muscle (Pelland et al. 2025). If you want a better result in one lift, such as the barbell squat, do heavy sets of 1-6 reps in it at least twice a week (training frequency); that gives you more than adding sets.

Sets for back, shoulders, arms, legs and abs

The 4-10 or 10-20 range is the same for every muscle group; what differs is how many sets the group already gets from other exercises.

Muscle group	Sets from compound exercises	Direct exercise
Back	rows and pulldowns are back exercises, every set counts in full	1 vertical and 1 horizontal pull
Front delts	half a set from bench presses, a full set from overhead presses	usually unnecessary
Side delts	a full set from most overhead presses, nothing from bench presses	Dumbbell Lateral Raise if they're a priority or you don't press overhead
Triceps	half a set from bench presses and the barbell overhead press	1-2 exercises
Biceps	half a set from chin-ups and neutral-grip pull-ups; usually nothing from overhand exercises such as the Pull-Up	needed
Hamstrings	half a set from the deadlift, nothing from the barbell squat	Romanian Deadlift or Seated Leg Curl
Glutes	a full set from a full-depth barbell squat and the deadlift, half from the leg press	usually unnecessary with an MEV target; Barbell Hip Thrust if they're a priority
Calves	almost nothing	if you want them to grow
Abs	nothing from squats and deadlifts, nothing from the plank either	2-4 sets of crunches, such as Machine Abdominal Crunches, if you want them to grow

Count your own week in the training volume calculator; the other weekly variables are covered in the volume, frequency and rest section.

How many sets per workout

In one workout, do usually 6-8 working sets per muscle group, at most about 10; if you want more in a week, move them to another workout. In a meta-analysis of studies with different numbers of sets per session, extra sets above about 11 per muscle group no longer showed a detectable advantage, but the authors don't treat this as an upper limit (Remmert et al. 2025, a preprint not yet peer reviewed).

Spreading a muscle group's sets over more workouts costs little, because at the same weekly set count training frequency barely changes muscle growth (a meta-analysis of 25 studies, Schoenfeld et al. 2019).

Weekly target per muscle group	Workouts with that group
up to 10 sets	1-2
10-20 sets	2-3
more than 20 sets	3-4

For example, 16 chest sets in one workout are about 40 minutes of chest alone with 2-minute rest periods, and you do the last sets very tired. In trained men, 16 sets per muscle group once a week gave similar growth over 8 weeks to 2 workouts of 8, with no significant difference (Brigatto et al. 2019), so splitting doesn't build more muscle; it gives you shorter workouts and fresher last sets.

How to set your volume step by step

List the muscle groups you want to grow and pick 1-2 priorities among them.
Count the working sets of a typical week: 1 in an exercise where the group is the main muscle, 0.5 in an exercise where it assists, no warm-ups.
Compare the totals with the zones in the table above or enter them in the training volume calculator.
For a group below target, add 2-3 sets a week, ideally in an isolation exercise you already do: an extra set on the seated leg extension machine or of dumbbell lateral raises tires your whole body less than another set of barbell squats.
Keep this volume for 3-4 weeks and check whether the weights or reps go up in the same exercises (double progression).
When a group's results drop for 2-3 weeks, cut its sets by about a third or take a deload.

In two 12-week studies of trained people, adding leg sets every 2 weeks gave more strength than constant volume, while the advantage in muscle was uncertain (Enes et al. 2024; Enes et al. 2025).

Signs you're doing too few or too many sets

Signal	What to do
the group has stalled for 3-4 weeks and you end sets with 4 or more reps in reserve	first end your sets at RIR 1-3; don't add sets yet
the group has stalled for 3-4 weeks, the sets are hard and you recover well	add 2 sets a week; if it's still stuck after 3-4 weeks, another 2, up to 20 at most
weights and reps are going up	keep the volume, even above target
strength drops for 2-3 weeks, joints or tendons hurt	first check sleep and food, especially in a calorie deficit; then take away about a third of the sets or take a deload
the workout is too long to keep up	move some sets to another day or go from MAV down to MEV for groups outside your priorities

Example weeks in sets

The table shows week 2 of two free intermediate upper/lower plans: the regular one and the chest-priority one.

Muscle group	4-day upper/lower plan	chest-priority plan
Chest	9	17
Back	11	11
Quadriceps	10	9
Hamstrings	10.5	9
Glutes	11.5	7.5
Side delts	7	6
Triceps	9.5	9
Biceps	6	5
All working sets in the week	75	72

Priority doesn't make the week longer: the chest gets 8 more sets, the glutes 4 fewer and the other groups 0 to 1.5 fewer. The plan spreads the 17 chest sets over 3 workouts so that none has more than 7 and the last ones don't come under heavy fatigue. In week 8, the deload, the chest gets 5 sets in the regular plan and 10 in the chest-priority plan.

How many sets popular exercises give each muscle group

A compound exercise gives a set to several muscle groups at once: 1 to the main muscle and 0.5 to the assisting ones. The most popular exercises are broken down on the how to count sets page, and the table below adds four more.

Exercise	1 set for	0.5 set for
Leg Press	Quadriceps	Glutes
Dumbbell Lateral Raise	Side delts	Front delts
Barbell Overhead Press	Front delts, Side delts	Triceps
Close Grip Bench Press	Triceps	Chest

Training volume vs tonnage, intensity and frequency

Volume is the number of working sets; tonnage, intensity and frequency describe the same training from other angles. Reviews of studies rarely used weekly tonnage as a measure of training dose (2026 ACSM position stand).

Term	What it measures	Unit	What it's for
Volume	how many working sets a muscle group gets	sets per muscle group per week	planning muscle growth
Tonnage	how many kilograms you lift in total; studies also call it volume load	weight × reps × sets	progress in one exercise
Intensity	how heavy the weight is	%1RM	strength training
Frequency	how many times a week you train a muscle group	workouts with the group per week	spreading your sets

Common mistakes

Counting warm-ups. You end warm-up sets far from failure, so they aren't volume; mark them as warm-up sets.
Sets with lots of reps left, often called junk volume. A set with 5 or more reps in reserve isn't a working set, and one with 4 counts but gives less, because muscle grows more the closer to failure you end a set (Robinson et al. 2024). Aim for 0-3 reps in reserve; failure isn't necessary.
Counting assisting muscle groups in full. A set of the barbell bench press is half a set for the triceps and front delts; counting it as a full set inflates their week.
Every muscle group in MAV at once. If every major group in the 4-day upper/lower plan got about 15 sets instead of about 10, the week would grow from 75 to about 110 working sets and each workout from about an hour to an hour and a half. Pick 1-2 priorities and keep the rest in MEV.

What the research says

The largest body of data on volume is the 67-study meta-analysis; the certainty ratings in the claims table are our assessment.

Common claim	What studies show	Certainty
“More sets, more muscle”	yes, but each additional set gives less	high
“Muscles don't grow below 10 sets”	in the meta-analysis, growth was measurable from about 4 sets; 10 sets is the threshold for more growth (result above)	moderate
“Muscles stop growing above 20 sets”	there's no clear plateau, but studies with that much volume are few and conflicting	low

Study	Type and sample	Result	Limitation
Pelland et al. 2025	meta-analysis, 67 studies, 2,058 people	result above; for strength, the benefit of extra sets falls off faster	short studies, mostly young men (methodology below); the thresholds come from the preprint version of the paper
2026 ACSM position stand	overview of 137 systematic reviews, more than 30,000 people	result above; diminishing returns above about 18-20 sets	most data from untrained people
Baz-Valle et al. 2022	review, young trained men	result above; above 20 sets only the triceps grew more	young men only

The abbreviations MV, MEV, MAV and MRV come from coaching practice; Renaissance Periodization popularized them as volume landmarks.

It's unknown whether more than 25 weekly sets builds more muscle over many months, or whether different muscle groups, such as the glutes or calves, need a different number of sets, because the meta-analysis had no such data.

Volume zones in SmartWorkout: methodology and sources

The volume zones in SmartWorkout compare each muscle group's weekly sets with what research says about muscle growth. They're a general guide, because people respond very differently to the same number of sets. In a study of 85 people aged about 68, a leg trained with 2 sets of leg extensions a week grew in 34 of them; in the rest of the people, taken as a group, the other leg, trained with 8 sets, grew more (Lixandrão et al. 2024).

We count only working sets: 1 for a muscle group the exercise trains directly, 0.5 for a group it trains indirectly, and nothing for stabilizers or timed exercises such as the plank. Volume counted this way fit the data of the 67-study meta-analysis best (Pelland et al. 2025).

A drop set is 1 set: the working set before the first drop counts, and the drops add nothing, because there's no rest between them.

What comes from research and what is our rule

Research gives a curve, and the zones split it into ranges with round boundaries: 2 near the smallest doses that maintained muscle, 4 from the minimum effective dose in the meta-analysis, 10 from the ACSM 2026 threshold, and 20 near the meta-analysis efficiency thresholds and where ACSM sees diminishing returns. A set or two either side of a boundary changes little. The targets, MEV for a regular group, MAV for a priority and MV for maintenance, are our recommendations, not research findings.

One table applies to all muscle groups, because the studies in the meta-analysis measured only a few muscles, without the glutes, lats, calves or abs. It also applies to all levels, because 39 of the 67 studies in the meta-analysis involved trained people and training status was accounted for in every model; the ACSM position stand also rates the effect of experience as minimal.

Research limitations

About 79% of the meta-analysis participants were men, 25 years old on average, and the studies lasted about 10 weeks on average, so little is known about high volume kept up for many months. About 78% of the muscle outcomes in the meta-analysis came from training to or close to failure, so 10 sets ended with 3-4 reps in reserve probably give less than 10 sets in those studies. The meta-analysis also doesn't describe the costs of high volume: injuries, burnout or whether you can keep it up for months.

What we changed in October 2026

Before, every muscle group and every training level in SmartWorkout had its own ranges taken from coaching guidelines, with upper limits that were too low: 11-14 chest sets was MRV for intermediates. This changes how your past weeks are rated, and any custom zones you set stay as they are. A priority group with 6-9 sets may now show that it's a few sets short of target.

Custom zones

If a muscle group grows at a different set count than the table says, set custom ranges for it. In 16 trained people, a leg trained with the volume from their training log plus 20% grew more than a leg on a standard 22 weekly sets (Scarpelli et al. 2022).

What SmartWorkout logs show

In men the chest is usually in the growth zone or above, while the quads are often below maintenance, so the legs are where adding 2-4 sets a week most often moves a group into another zone. Every number is based on at least 50 people.

How to check your volume in SmartWorkout

SmartWorkout counts volume from your log: each working set goes to a muscle group as 1 or 0.5 sets according to the exercise atlas, and warm-ups don't count.

In weekly sets and volume zones, SmartWorkout counts the whole drop set sequence as 1 set.

You log rest-pause, Myo-reps and cluster set mini sets as separate sets, so SmartWorkout counts each as a full set and shows more sets than studies would count (how to count sets). Don't add sets just to hit a zone target.

Volume zones are part of Premium: you see them in Analytics and during your workout, set priorities and check the sets per muscle group in every week of a plan (what Premium includes).

Open the Analytics tab: each muscle group has a bar with this week's sets against the zones and the number of sets it still needs to reach its target.
Tap a muscle group, then “What does this zone mean?” to see what to do next.
Tap “Set Priorities” and choose the groups that should aim for MAV, ideally 1-2; the rest aim for MEV.
Set custom ranges for a group in “Configure volume zones”.
Open “Workout Settings” and turn on “Show volume zones” to see a group's bar during your workout.

Weekly sets per muscle group in the MV, MEV, MAV and MRV zones

You can paste this day through plan import (Workout > My Plans > “+” > “Import plan”). It's based on the Upper A day of the chest-priority plan and has 7 chest sets. Import costs 10 AI credits, so the welcome credits cover it.

Plan to paste into the app

DAY: Upper A- Barbell Bench Press | WU 2x5 | 4x6-10 RIR 2 | TEMPO 20X0 | REST 180- Seated Cable Row | 3x8-12 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2011 | REST 120- Cable Middle Chest Fly | 3x10-15 RIR 1 | TEMPO 3011 | REST 60- Cable Lat Pulldown | 3x8-12 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2011 | REST 120- Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3x12-20 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2010 | REST 60- Dumbbell Biceps Curl | 3x10-15 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2010 | REST 60

Log it in SmartWorkout

A free workout log for iPhone and Android: sets, RIR, tempo, exercise groups and plans.

Questions

What does training volume mean in lifting?

How do you calculate training volume?

Add up each muscle group's working sets for one week and count half a set where the group only assists. For example, 3 sets of the barbell bench press are 3 sets for the chest and 1.5 each for the triceps and front delts.

How many sets per muscle group per week for hypertrophy?

4-10 for a regular muscle group and 10-20 for one you prioritize, the same for every group, chest included. Add half sets from exercises where the group assists: the chest gets them from triceps exercises such as dips or the close grip bench press.

How many sets per muscle group per workout?

Usually 6-8 working sets per muscle group, at most about 10. A whole workout is the sum of that day's groups: in the 4-day upper/lower plan for intermediates, a workout has 16 to 23 working sets, about an hour including rest.

Is 30 sets a week too much?

In SmartWorkout, 20 or more weekly sets per muscle group is MRV, very high volume: the muscle can still grow there, but extra sets add little. There are few studies above about 25 weekly sets and only single studies above 30, so keep that much for one muscle group and a few weeks at most.

How many sets should you do on a cut?

In a calorie deficit, muscle grows less, while strength improves about as much as without one (Murphy and Koehler 2022). Keep the weights and sets for your priority muscle groups, and cut the others to the lower end of MEV at most. Go down to MV only for a few weeks, because the studies on maintaining muscle with few sets weren't done in a deficit.

Training volume: what it is and what MEV, MAV and MRV mean

Training volume at a glance: how many sets and how to count them