Australian Strength Coach

How many sets should you perform per muscle group per week?

If anyone gives you an answer to that question that doesn’t start with “it depends,” they’re wrong.

Because there are so many factors that determine how much volume you should be doing.

It depends on:

• How strong you are
• What phase of training you’re in
• What your training goal is
• What exercises you’re performing
• How heavy you’re training
• How close to failure you’re taking your sets
• How well you recover
• And most importantly, whether you’re actually progressing

Research can give us useful ranges, but those numbers are guidelines, not rules.

10 sets isn’t just 10 sets.

10 sets of heavy squats is not the same as 10 sets of leg extensions.

10 sets performed by a beginner is not the same as 10 sets performed by an advanced lifter moving enormous absolute loads.

And the volume that is appropriate early in a training cycle with lighter loads may be completely inappropriate later in that cycle when the loads become much heavier.

So don’t start with:

“How many sets should I be doing?”

Start with:

“How much volume do I need, for the adaptation I’m trying to create, at this point in my training?”

That answer will always depend.

The posterior chain consists of some of the muscles most people care about developing, particularly the glutes, but also the hamstrings and erector spinae, along with the musculature responsible for supporting and extending the spine.

These are three of my favourite exercises for developing it, but more importantly, it’s the combination that makes this session so complete.

First exercise - Major hip extension exercise to train the posterior chain as a whole with a peak muscular contraction in the glutes and hamstrings at the full stretch. My choice here is the Romanian deadlift.

Second exercise - Glute focused exercise that challenges the glutes hardest in the shortened position. Here, I’ve chosen the hip thrust.

• One knee flexion exercise to directly train all four heads of the hamstrings, including the short head of the biceps femoris that doesn’t cross the hip. My choice is the hamstring curl.

The specific exercises can change.

Good mornings, 45° or 90° back extensions and other hip extension variations can all work.

Nordic curls and other knee flexion variations can replace the hamstring curl.

And there are plenty of ways to directly train the glutes.

The important part is understanding what each exercise contributes and making sure the combination covers everything without adding unnecessary redundancy.

For this session, RDLs + hip thrusts + hamstring curls is my preference.

Three exercises. Six hard sets.

Simple, efficient and complete posterior chain development.

If my goal is to lift the most weight possible in a bench press, I want to distribute the load across all of my pushing muscles which are pecs, delts and triceps, while using my entire body to create the strongest possible position.

If my goal is to build my pecs, I’m no longer trying to lift the most weight. I’m trying to place the most tension possible on the pecs.

This is where something that might be considered “bad technique” for a powerlifter can actually be useful for a bodybuilder.

Powerlifters are commonly taught to tuck their elbows. This helps distribute the load and prevents unnecessarily exposing the pecs to extreme stretch under maximal loads.

Bodybuilders will often intentionally flare their elbows more. This places the pecs under greater tension in a more lengthened position, exactly what we’re looking for when hypertrophy is the goal.

But there’s an important distinction:

The technique needs to match the load.

The lengthened position of a muscle is also a mechanically vulnerable position when loads become extremely heavy.

This is why I don’t recommend combining an aggressively flared elbow bodybuilding technique with low reps and maximal loads.

That’s when s**t can go wrong.

If I’m benching for maximum strength, I’ll use my powerlifting technique and organise my entire body to move the most weight possible, and I will be tucking my elbows slightly.

If I’m benching specifically to build my pecs, I’m happy to flare my elbows more and deliberately increase the stretch and tension on the pecs, but I’ll use an appropriate load.

For this style of bench press, I recommend no less than 6 reps.

There isn’t one universally “correct” bench press technique.

There’s the correct technique for the objective.

HOW TO FIX BUTT WINK

When BECPOTALEJ demonstrated her low bar squat, someone in the audience noticed that she was losing her brace at the bottom, resulting in butt wink.

So we assessed why it was happening and worked through it step by step.

Bec was already wearing elevated heel squat shoes. My preference for low bar squats is to use flat shoes unless mobility restricts your ability to achieve the required depth. In that case, elevating the heel can help.

The next thing we tried was pushing the knees out further.

Pushing the knees out is an action known as hip abduction. Hip abduction can allow greater available hip flexion, which can help you achieve depth without running out of room at the hip.

This can be done by slightly widening the stance if necessary, or simply keeping the same stance and pushing the knees out further.

We tried it.

Very little changed.

So we moved on to her bracing strategy.

A common mistake when trying to maintain a “neutral spine” in the squat is excessively extending the spine. This flares the ribs and places the pelvis into an anteriorly tilted position.

Instead, I wanted Bec to stack her ribs over her pelvis.

Ribs down.
Contract the re**us abdominis.
Bring the pelvis back towards neutral.

The cue I used was to “piss up a wall.”

Once we combined this with her knee position and maintained that brace throughout the movement, the difference was immediate.

No butt wink.

This isn’t an argument that butt wink is inherently dangerous. Plenty of people squat with some degree of it without experiencing problems.

My issue with it is performance.

I want the torso to remain as rigid as possible throughout the squat. The hips and knees should create the movement while the spine transfers force.

If the spine is moving under load, I consider that a leakage of energy.

When I have the option, I want to eliminate that movement, maintain the rigid brace from start to finish and create the strongest possible transfer of force into the ground.

Kyle Tiger Kirvay hits 275kg / 606lbs on his 3rd bench press attempt.

Something people don’t know is that he slightly tore his pec 2 weeks ago.

His original plan at the start of this prep was to go for 295-300kg for a new bench press world record, but we have spent the last 2 weeks rehabbing his pec, and I have been petrified of an even bigger injury so I held him back.

You can see him texting his disappointment as I’m watching the stream which was delayed, so my initial thought when I saw his text was that he injured himself.

Seconds later realising the text was an expression of his disappointment for not going heavier.

For me, I am so freaking happy with this because I know what a major injury can do for someone’s career, and my priority for this meet was for Kyle to walk away uninjured.

I see this as a major win.

Deadlifts up next 👊

Kyle Tiger Kirvay just squatted 440kg / 970lbs on his 3rd attempt!

Huge PB.

Off to a flying start. Let’s go 👊

Same exercise. Two body types. Very different outcomes.

One lifter has long femurs. You’ll see more forward torso lean and less knee bend.
The other has short femurs. More upright torso, more knee travel, more quad involvement.

From a strength perspective, both squats are solid. Both can move big weight.

From a muscle development perspective, they are not equal.

Short femurs make it easier to load the quads through a large range of motion.
Long femurs bias the hips and posterior chain much earlier, which often limits quad stimulus.

This is why some remembering grow their legs easily from squats and others don’t, despite training just as hard.

The fix is not forcing someone else’s squat style.
The fix is understanding how your structure changes loading and then adjusting stance, heel height, bar position, and exercise selection accordingly.

Use this video to assess your own squat, then decide if your setup actually matches your goal, and send this to someone who needs to see it.