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How Many Exercises Do You Need To Maximize Muscle Growth?

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

When it comes to how many exercises you should do per muscle group, generally there are 2 extremes. There are those who say all you need are the basics in a workout program; squats, bench, and deadlifts to build an impressive physique. Then, there are those who hit each muscle with every single exercise in the book during their exercise planning process. What approach is best to maximize growth? How many exercises should you do per muscle group, really? Research suggests that incorporating a variety of exercises can lead to better overall hypertrophy. Lets learn why and, in the process, discover just how many exercises to do per muscle group. The first reason is due to whats known as regional hypertrophy. For example, certain biceps exercises will favour growth in the short head whereas other biceps exercises will favour growth in the long head. Although its currently not crystal clear as to what specific exercises will favour specific regions of a muscle, this phenomenon does support the idea of using multiple exercises in a workout program. The second reason you should include a variety of exercises during your exercise planning process is that each of your muscles have different biomechanical actions. A good example is the hamstrings, which have two main functions; to flex the knee and extend the hip. So if you were to leave all your hamstrings to deadlifts, youd be missing out on one of the major functions of that muscle. Adding in a knee flexion movement ensures that all parts of the muscle can be grown to the greatest extent. Another benefit of varying your exercises is that it helps minimize wear and tear. If you do all of your volume for a muscle group with just one or two exercises, youre stressing the same joints and same stabilizer muscles to the same stress all the time, which can eventually cause irritation and overuse injuries. When deciding on how many exercises to do per muscle group, some people will take what Ive mentioned and over-apply it into their training routines by hammering each muscle group with 6 or 7 exercises every workout. Dont. If you do that, once your muscles get used to what youre currently doing, youll have no leftover exercises to introduce it to in order to potentially stimulate more growth. So, just how many exercises should you do per muscle group? An effective option is to pick about 2-4 exercises for each of your muscle groups that work very well for you and cover a good variety of movement patterns. Then, simply distribute these throughout the week as needed and feel free to repeat some of those exercises on multiple days if needed. But limit the number of exercises you use per muscle in each workout to 3 or 4 at most. Heres an example of how you could distribute 4 exercises per week for chest into 2 workouts per week: 4 Exercises: - Flat bench press - Cable flyes - Incline dumbbell press - Banded push-ups Push Day 1: - Flat bench press - Cable flyes Push Day 2: - Incline dumbbell press - Banded push-ups Then simply throw in however many sets you need for each exercise in order to meet your weekly volume targets. Push Day 1: - Flat bench press: 3 sets - Cable flyes: 3 sets Push Day 2: - Incline dumbbell press: 3 sets - Banded push-ups: 3 sets Total Weekly Chest Sets: 12 Sets Heres a step-by-step plan for how you could apply everything we covered on how many exercises you should do per muscle group: Step 1: For each muscle group, pick about 2-4 exercises to perform per week. Use a good variety of exercises that not only work very well for you, but also cover different angles and muscle functions. Step 2: After you pick your exercises, distribute them throughout the week. Avoid performing more than 3-4 exercises per muscle in one workout. Instead, split them up into multiple workouts. Step 3: Allocate a number of sets for each exercise in order to hit your weekly volume targets for that muscle. If youre serious about designing your own program, then Id highly suggest that you take the time to go through this step by step process, because its the little details like this that make all the difference if you want to maximize your efforts and results. And for those who are looking for a step-by-step program that takes care of all the guesswork for you and optimizes your weekly training and nutrition program based on science, so that you can truly transform your body as efficiently as possible, then take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below
Date: 2022-01-03

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Comments and reviews: 10

dproulx222
Congratulations on your new gym and thank you so much for all of your quality videos. I've watched all of them and l'm implementing a lot of what I learned in my own personal workouts. I'm slowly progressing. I'm 50 years old and 64kgs and suspect have a height similar to yours (around 173cm. I'd love to know where I can get a tank top like the one's you wear in your videos.
Important question: What brand of tank top do you wear? I'm a fellow Canadian in South Korea, but I've scoured all the major sports retailers in North America and can't seem to find a decent fitting tank top like yours.
Where can I get that tank top that you wear in your videos (the blue or gray?
Can someone help me?
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David
Im confused, isnt two exercises per muscle group for a workout session too little for hypertrophy? The studies discussed in this video seem to indicate otherwise, but wouldnt this minimalistic approach only apply if you incorporate at least one compound lift per muscle group? I cant really see how hypertrophy will be achieved by performing two non-compound exercises for a muscle group per workout session since the majority of lifters will do 3-6 exercises per muscle group for a workout.
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FxFoxy
Cannot believe that 12 sets a week are enough to maximize hypertrophy. :O If true (which it is according to research) its gamechanging, you could just do some sort of push pull plan (with very hard sets) with an alternative push b and pull b variation that would only take 30-45 mins per training. Combined with cardio and prob some kind of athletic excercises should result in a very effetive routine, which is very doable and takes only few time. Opinions?
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valhavpep
I dont get it. It feels like you're contradicting yourself or I am just misunderstanding you. Take chest for example. Does this mean I should have 3 different type of exercises for lower chest area, three for middle part and three for the upper part? That will mean that I have to do 9 different exercises for chest. But isnt that too much?
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Zak
My favourite words to hear: .and another study shows. Thank you for scholarly quality content; always well researched, informatively illustrated, and expertly produced high quality video. No false promises, no hype, no product advertising. You are a true father of the discipline! Blessings to you!
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FleeingAsian
Hey, can you make a video about headaches in the back of the head when working out? I get these painful headaches my first couple reps when I lift weights it happens every time and has gotten worse I'd appreciate if you can make a vid ab it and how to cure it: )
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Nanayaw
jeremy never misses every video is a 10/10 and backed by science, a great explanation for people of all intelligence and a summary; I dont know if you can see this but I just want to thank you for helping me on my journey with these informative videos
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Mukhtar
When you say muscle group, are you referring to an entire area or a specific muscle in that area (ie chest or mid/upper/lower chest?
So 2-4 exercises for chest
Or 2-4 exercises for mid chest, upper chest, and then lower chest?
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Miguel
So I think my only limitation right now is the equipment I have at home. So for my scenario I may only be able to do 1-2 different workouts per day, so I can keep working out different parts of the muscle. Hmmmm thanks for the info.
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Kreez
What if I wanted to train particular parts of those muscle groups twice a week for example I do chest twice a week but 4 exercises in each one but I hit the upper chest with 2 excercises one for each chest workout
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