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Sets per muscle group calculator: MEV, MAV and MRV
Pick a muscle and enter the sets you do for it in a week. This MEV, MAV and MRV calculator shows where that volume sits against the three volume landmarks, and how to spread it across your sessions.
See this for every muscle, every week
Mesolab plans each week's sets per muscle against these landmarks and shows every muscle's weekly volume in its Week Preview, with indirect sets counted the same way as here. Free to download; your first completed workout is free.
What MEV, MAV and MRV mean
| Landmark | Meaning |
|---|---|
| MEV | Minimum effective volume: the least weekly work expected to keep a muscle growing. |
| MAV | Maximum adaptive volume: the upper end of the range where most of the growth is expected. |
| MRV | Maximum recoverable volume: past it, each extra set is expected to buy less while costing more recovery. |
MRV marks diminishing returns, not a wall. The largest dose-response analysis to date found no clear plateau in muscle growth up to roughly 42 weekly sets (indirect sets counted as half), so more volume past MRV is not useless; it is a worse trade, and it is the first thing to cut when recovery slips.
MEV, MAV and MRV chart: weekly sets per muscle group
Hard sets per week, summed across every exercise that trains the muscle. These are the reference values Mesolab plans with.
| Muscle | MEV | MAV | MRV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | 8 | 16 | 22 |
| Front delts | 6 | 12 | 16 |
| Side delts | 8 | 16 | 22 |
| Rear delts | 6 | 16 | 26 |
| Biceps | 8 | 14 | 20 |
| Triceps | 6 | 14 | 18 |
| Forearms | 4 | 10 | 16 |
| Back | 10 | 18 | 25 |
| Traps | 0 | 12 | 20 |
| Quads | 8 | 16 | 20 |
| Hamstrings | 6 | 12 | 20 |
| Glutes | 0 | 12 | 20 |
| Calves | 6 | 12 | 16 |
| Abs | 0 | 16 | 20 |
An MEV of 0 means the reference sets no minimum for direct work. Glutes get counted work from every squat, lunge and hip hinge; for traps and abs there is no good evidence for a minimum either way, so Mesolab does not invent one. Direct sets for them still count toward MAV and MRV like any other set.
Sets per week for each muscle group
The references for each muscle, and which exercises Mesolab counts toward it as half a set.
Chest: 8 to 16 sets a week
MEV 8, MAV 16, MRV 22. Bench presses, incline presses, chest dips and flyes count in full; close-grip bench press and triceps dips add half a set each.
Back: 10 to 18 sets a week
MEV 10, MAV 18, MRV 25, the highest MEV of the 14. Rows, pull-ups, chin-ups and pulldowns count in full; rear delt flyes, face pulls, deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts add half. Ten sets is usually two exercises of five, not one of ten.
Front delts: 6 to 12 sets a week
MEV 6, MAV 12, MRV 16. Every bench press, incline press, chest dip and flye adds half a set, so 12 sets of chest work already counts as 6 for front delts. Most programs need little direct front delt work.
Side delts: 8 to 16 sets a week
MEV 8, MAV 16, MRV 22. Overhead presses add half a set; nothing else does, so most of the volume has to come from lateral raises.
Rear delts: 6 to 16 sets a week
MEV 6, MAV 16, MRV 26. Barbell, dumbbell, cable and chest-supported rows add half a set each, on top of reverse flyes and face pulls.
Biceps: 8 to 14 sets a week
MEV 8, MAV 14, MRV 20. Every row, pull-up, chin-up and pulldown adds half a set, so a back-heavy week can cover much of biceps' MEV before the first curl.
Triceps: 6 to 14 sets a week
MEV 6, MAV 14, MRV 18. Every bench press variation, chest dip, machine chest press and overhead press adds half a set. The worked example below shows how quickly that adds up.
Forearms: 4 to 10 sets a week
MEV 4, MAV 10, MRV 16. Barbell, EZ-bar, dumbbell and hammer curls add half a set each.
Quads: 8 to 16 sets a week
MEV 8, MAV 16, MRV 20. Squats, leg presses, lunges and leg extensions count in full; deadlifts and step-ups add half.
Hamstrings: 6 to 12 sets a week
MEV 6, MAV 12, MRV 20. Romanian deadlifts and leg curls count in full; back squats, leg presses, split squats, hip thrusts and sumo deadlifts add half.
Glutes: up to 12 sets a week
MEV 0, MAV 12, MRV 20. Squats, lunges, leg presses, deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts each add half a set, so a normal leg week already gives glutes real volume before any hip thrusts.
Calves: 6 to 12 sets a week
MEV 6, MAV 12, MRV 16. No other exercise counts toward calves, so every set has to be a calf raise.
Traps: up to 12 sets a week
MEV 0, MAV 12, MRV 20. Face pulls, farmer's carries and Y-T-W raises add half a set.
Abs: up to 16 sets a week
MEV 0, MAV 16, MRV 20. Mesolab counts only direct ab work toward abs.
How the calculator works
A set counts in full for the muscle it is aimed at and as half a set for each muscle that helps. Weekly volume is direct sets plus half the indirect sets:
Weekly sets = direct sets + 0.5 × indirect sets
Example: 9 sets of chest pressing and 6 sets of overhead triceps extensions give triceps 6 direct sets and 9 indirect: 6 + 4.5 = 10.5 sets a week, between the triceps MEV of 6 and MAV of 14.
The half-set weighting comes from a 2025 meta-regression of 67 studies (Pelland and colleagues, Sports Medicine), which tested counting indirect sets as 1, 0.5 and 0; half a set fitted the data best. Mesolab counts indirect sets the same way.
The per-session figure divides direct sets across your sessions and caps one exercise at 5 sets in a session. Past about five sets, a second movement for the muscle is usually a better use of the session than a sixth set of the first. That is why Back's MEV of 10 is two exercises of five, not one of ten.
References, not measurements of you. MEV, MAV and MRV come from the volume-landmark model popularized by Dr. Mike Israetel and Renaissance Periodization (RP). The values on this page are Mesolab's own population references, not RP's published tables; no study publishes exact per-muscle values, and your own numbers can sit well above or below them. Your log tells you more than the table: reps falling at the same weight, soreness that lasts into the next session, or RIR targets you can no longer hit mean the volume is outpacing your recovery.
How weekly sets build across a mesocycle
A training block does not sit at one volume. Mesolab plans week one to reach each muscle's MEV where the split has enough exercises for it, and a muscle you choose as a focus starts above its MEV. Each exercise then gains about one set a week, at most two over the block and never past five in a session, before a deload week takes one set off each exercise and 10% off the weight. The mesocycle guide walks through a full block, and the mesocycle generator builds one for your days and goal.
Common questions
How many sets per muscle group per week to build muscle?
For most muscles, somewhere between MEV and MAV: roughly 8 to 16 hard sets a week for chest, side delts and quads, 10 to 18 for back, and fewer for small muscles that get a lot of indirect work. Newer lifters grow well near the low end; more experienced lifters often need the upper half.
What are good MEV, MAV and MRV values for chest?
Mesolab uses 8 sets a week as chest's MEV, 16 as its MAV and 22 as its MRV. Pressing for chest also gives front delts and triceps half a set each. The per-muscle list gives the values for the other 13.
Do warm-up sets count?
No. Count hard working sets: sets taken within about 0 to 3 reps of failure. Sets with five or more reps left in reserve count for much less. The RIR calculator and RIR guide cover judging that.
Is it better to train a muscle once or twice a week?
Weekly sets matter more than frequency. Frequency matters once a session's sets for one muscle get high: splitting 16 sets into two sessions of 8 keeps each set closer to full quality than one session of 16.
What happens if I go over MRV?
Nothing sudden. Expect each extra set to add less while fatigue builds faster. Short spells above MRV can work in the last hard week of a block, followed by a deload; staying there week after week usually shows up as stalled performance.