Doing a lot more leg workouts—over 50 sets a week—doesn’t make your thigh muscles grow bigger than doing 20–40 sets a week, even if you train for 12 weeks.

Scientific Claim

A weekly resistance training volume of 52 sets targeting the quadriceps over 12 weeks does not cause greater hypertrophy of the vastus lateralis or lateral thigh muscles than volumes of 22 or 42 sets in resistance-trained males.

Original Statement

“Cross-sectional area and sum of lateral thigh muscle thickness showed no between-group differences (P = 0.067 and P = 0.076, respectively).”

From study:Effects of Different Weekly Set Progressions on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Males: Is There a Dose–Response Effect?

Evidence Quality Assessment

Claim Status

appropriately stated

Study Design Support

Design supports claim

Appropriate Language Strength

definitive

Can make definitive causal claims

Assessment Explanation

The RCT design and direct measurement of hypertrophy outcomes support definitive language. The null result is statistically robust (P > 0.05) and confidence intervals include no meaningful difference.

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Effects of Different Weekly Set Progressions on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Males: Is There a Dose–Response Effect?

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2024 Mar 1

Even when guys did a lot more leg workouts per week, their thigh muscles didn’t grow any bigger than when they did fewer workouts — so doing more doesn’t always mean better muscle growth.

Contradicting (0)

No contradicting evidence found

Source Study

Effects of Different Weekly Set Progressions on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Males: Is There a Dose–Response Effect?

Score: 52

DOI: 10.1249/mss.0000000000003317

Similar Assertions

Even if you do a lot of leg workouts, your thigh muscles grow about the same amount whether you do 20 or 50 sets a week—just doing any consistent training makes them bigger.

89%

Even doing a huge number of leg sets—over 50 a week—didn’t make anyone’s muscles shrink, which means there might be a very high limit to how much training your muscles can handle without losing size.

88%

You don’t need to train every day—just twice a week for two months can make your upper and middle thighs bigger, as long as you do enough total work.

85%

No matter how many sets trained men do — 5 or 20 — their muscles grow about the same size after 6 months.

80%

Even though the guys doing the most workouts looked like they might have grown a little more, the difference wasn’t big enough to say for sure that more sets = more muscle.

80%