The Claim

In trained females, a 12-week resistance training program with progressive weekly set increases does not result in significantly greater gains in total lateral thigh muscle thickness compared to a constant high-volume training protocol, despite improvements in strength and vastus lateralis cross-sectional area.

Source: Does increasing the resistance-training volume lead to greater gains? The effects of weekly set progressions on muscular adaptations in females

What the research says

Supports is higher

Support is ahead, but a single strong opposing study can change this.

Supports
47score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

Comparative
1 study reviewed
In plain English

Among women with prior training experience, a 12-week resistance program that gradually increases weekly sets produces the same increase in lateral thigh muscle thickness as a program that maintains a constant high volume of sets, even though both programs improve strength and muscle size in the vastus lateralis.

See the scientific wording

In trained females, a 12-week resistance training program with progressive weekly set increases does not result in significantly greater gains in total lateral thigh muscle thickness compared to a constant high-volume training protocol, despite improvements in strength and vastus lateralis cross-sectional area.

Why this might work

When muscles are repeatedly challenged with high-volume training, they reach a point where adding more sets does not make them thicker because the cells have already maximized their growth capacity. Strength still improves because the nervous system gets better at using the existing muscle fibers, and one specific muscle may grow a bit more because it is targeted more directly, but the whole thigh does not get thicker.

Verified mechanismbased on 1 study

What the research says

1 study

  1. Study: Does increasing the resistance-training volume lead to greater gains? The effects of weekly set progressions on muscular adaptations in females

    For women who already lift weights, slowly adding more sets each week makes them stronger and thickens one specific thigh muscle, but doesn’t make their whole thigh bigger than doing the same number of sets every week.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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