MEV, MAV and MRV Explained: Weekly Volume Table by Muscle

MEV, MAV and MRV are three weekly volume landmarks for each muscle: the fewest sets that make it grow, the range where you progress best and the most you can recover from. Together with MV (maintenance volume), they help you decide how many sets to do per week and when to add or cut sets.

One honest caveat first: these ideas come from Mike Israetel and Renaissance Periodization (RP). They are a coaching framework built from research and experience with lifters, not values measured in peer-reviewed studies. They are useful, but the specific numbers are estimates.

What each term means

Term	Name	What it is
MV	Maintenance volume	Weekly sets that keep the muscle you already have
MEV	Minimum effective volume	The point where the muscle starts to grow
MAV	Maximum adaptive volume	The range where you make the best progress
MRV	Maximum recoverable volume	The most sets you can still recover from week to week

In this framework, volume means hard sets per muscle per week: working sets taken close to failure. A set at RIR 5 doesn't count the same as one at RIR 1.

The logic is simple. Below MV you lose muscle. Between MV and MEV you keep it but barely grow. Between MEV and MAV is the productive zone. Between MAV and MRV you can still progress, but fatigue piles up fast. Above MRV you no longer recover and performance drops.

What research says about volume

No study has measured an MEV or MRV for the chest or quads. What researchers have studied is how weekly sets relate to muscle growth, and that gives the framework some context.

• More sets, more muscle. Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger's 2017 meta-analysis of 15 studies found a dose-response relationship: each extra weekly set was linked to a 0.37% larger gain in muscle size. Comparing fewer than 5, 5 to 9, and 10 or more sets per muscle showed a trend favouring more volume, though it fell short of statistical significance.
• But with diminishing returns. The largest analysis so far, by Pelland and colleagues (2025), pooled 67 studies and 2,058 participants. It confirmed that growth rises with volume, but each extra set adds less than the one before. For strength, that ceiling effect was much stronger.
• Indirect sets count, just less. In the same paper, the model that best predicted results counted indirect sets as half a set: rows do something for your biceps, but not as much as curls.

That fits the logic behind MEV and MRV: below a certain volume the stimulus is small, and past a certain point extra sets give less and less while fatigue keeps climbing. What the studies don't tell you is the exact number for each threshold in each person. For the practical side of how many sets to do, see how many sets per muscle per week.

Maintaining takes far less than growing

MV is the part of the framework that lines up best with the data. Keeping muscle takes much less work than building it:

• In Bickel and colleagues' 2011 trial, after 16 weeks of training, younger participants who cut their volume to one third, or even one ninth, kept their gains in muscle size for 32 weeks. In adults over 60, those doses weren't enough.
• A review by Spiering and colleagues (2021) concluded that in younger people, strength and muscle size can be maintained for up to 32 weeks with one session a week and one set per exercise, as long as intensity (relative load) stays the same. Older people may need up to two sessions and 2–3 sets per exercise.

The takeaway: during a busy week or a stretch with little time, dropping to maintenance volume won't cost you your gains, provided your sets stay hard.

Weekly volume table by muscle

These are the ranges MUTARA uses as a starting point, in hard sets per week. They build on RP's framework, but they are the app's own values, not a table published by RP.

Muscle	MV	MEV	MAV	MRV
Chest	8	10	20	22
Back	10	12	22	25
Shoulders	8	10	18	20
Biceps	6	8	16	20
Triceps	6	8	16	20
Quads	8	10	20	22
Hamstrings	6	8	16	20
Glutes	—	6	16	20
Calves	8	10	20	25
Adductors	4	6	14	18
Abductors	4	6	14	18
Traps	4	6	12	20
Forearms	2	4	8	14
Lower back	—	4	10	14
Abs	—	—	16	20

A dash means the app sets no minimum of direct sets for that muscle, because it already gets plenty of indirect work: glutes and lower back from squats, deadlifts and rows; abs from almost every heavy lift.

Use it as a map, not a law. Your MEV and MRV depend on training experience, sleep, food, stress, how close to failure you train and how much indirect work each muscle gets. Beginners usually grow on fewer sets; lifters with years of training may tolerate more.

How to use MEV, MAV and MRV

A common way coaches apply it, not a proven rule:

1. Start near MEV. At the beginning of a training block, do the lowest volume that still drives progress.
2. Add sets gradually. Add one or two sets per muscle each week while you keep performing and recovering well.
3. Watch for signs you're nearing MRV: weight or reps drop from session to session at the same RIR, soreness lasts longer than usual, or you show up flat and weak.
4. Deload and restart. When those signs appear, a week with much less volume lets you recover; then the next block starts near MEV again.

To progress within that volume, double progression tells you when to add weight, and it's worth deciding how many sets you take to failure, since sets closer to failure cost more fatigue each.

How MUTARA uses it

In the Volume tab, MUTARA counts the sets you log for each muscle and places them on a bar with these ranges: below the minimum, in the optimal zone (MEV to MAV), near the recovery limit (MAV to MRV) or above it. Sets where the muscle works as a secondary mover count as half a set, the same approach that worked best in Pelland's analysis.

No need to keep a tally by hand or remember what you did on Tuesday: you can see at a glance which muscles are falling short and which are getting more than enough.