Posted on: Tuesday, November 9, 2004

One-set lifting only for novices

By John Briley
Special to The Washington Post

So you're working out, and you keep looking at your watch at the top of every biceps curl. Sure, you want to finish your routine, but you've got to get to the next thing in your life. And you wonder: What if I just did one set of strength exercises rather than the almost universally prescribed two or three?

Well, we know you hate it when we say this, but ... it depends.

If you're a novice who has just begun a program, a single-set routine will do the trick. The bad news: After about three months — or perhaps as much as a year, depending on whom you ask — you're likely to hit a plateau.

"If that (basic) level of fitness is all you want ... you can maintain (it with single sets), but you aren't going anywhere," said William Kraemer, an exercise physiology professor at the University of Connecticut and an American College of Sports Medicine expert on resistance training.

Kraemer cited numerous studies in peer-reviewed journals over the past three years, including the American College of Sports Medicine journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, that show initial strength gains for previously untrained men and women who do single-set routines, followed by flatlining at around three months. Multiset lifters showed steady gains in strength after that point.

"Multiple sets causes greater breakdown (of muscle fibers) and greater repair," Kraemer explained. It's this process of breakdown and repair of muscle tissue that leads to strength gains and muscle growth. Kraemer co-wrote the organization's 2002 position paper on progressive resistance training, which calls for multiple sets for non-novice lifters.

Matthew Rhea, assistant professor of exercise science at Southern Utah University, in Cedar City, Utah, notes that a meta-analysis of more than 200 studies shows scientific support for gains from single-setting. But the more trained you are, the smaller those gains appear to be, he said.

Wayne L. Westcott, fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Mass., says he has seen gains from a single-set program continue for a year or more. Once you plateau, he said, try this modification: Do your eight to 12 reps to failure, then immediately reduce the weight (from, say, 100 pounds to 80) and squeeze off another four or five reps to failure. By extending the single set with extra reps, you'll produce gains, he said.

Kraemer offered another tactic for gym-goers who dread the standard three-sets-of-eight-to-12-reps: "There is no rule that every exercise has to be the same number of sets." For example, you could do three sets of bench presses, which involve multiple muscles, but only one of biceps curls, which benefit just the biceps. If you are time-pressed at the gym, focus on the larger muscle groups — quads, chest and back — because exercises for those muscles also recruit smaller muscles nearby, such as hamstrings and biceps.

The good news is, you'll know if you flat-line. "No matter how you lift, you can judge progress by how much more weight you can lift over time," Westcott said. A beginner may see a 40 percent gain in the first 12 weeks, 20 percent over the next 12, then a 10 percent gain, then 5 percent. Gains will slow and stop as you near your potential, regardless of set number.

So, the consensus of experts: Single sets are good for beginners and useful for maintaining strength. Two sets are better for boosting strength, and three sets are better still. And of course, Rhea said, "one set is better than nothing" for any lifter.