The Study
The Resistance Training Dose Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains.
This study looked at lots of other studies and found that people who did more sets of weightlifting tended to get bigger and stronger — but it doesn’t prove that doing more sets caused those changes. It just shows they went together, like how ice cream sales and shark attacks both go up in summer — one doesn’t cause the other.
Analysis score
Maximum 85 for a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Where the score came from
Doing more weightlifting sets makes you stronger and bigger, but after a point, extra sets give less benefit—especially for strength. Doing workouts more often helps strength more than muscle size.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 539 / 100
Quality score
The highest quality evidence. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that pool randomized controlled trials, giving the most reliable summary of experimental evidence.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes—spreading out workouts helps strength more than adding more sets helps size, and too many sets give diminishing returns, especially for strength.
- 2100% probability volume increases strength and size; 100% probability frequency increases strength; <100% probability frequency increases size.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Sports medicine
Year
2025
Authors
Joshua C Pelland, Jacob F. Remmert, Zac P Robinson, Seth R. Hinson, Michael C. Zourdos
Related Content
Claims (10)
Increasing the amount of resistance training per week leads to greater muscle growth, and this relationship does not change whether the training lasts a few weeks or several months.
Doing more workout sets might help your muscles grow just a little bit more—even if the difference isn’t big enough to say for sure it’s not just random chance.
If you spread your workouts over more days each week but keep the total work the same, you'll get stronger—but your muscles won't necessarily grow bigger.
You can still build muscle even if you don't push your sets to within five reps of total failure, which goes against the idea that only the last few tough reps really matter for growth.
If you're already building muscle well with just a little bit of lifting, doing a lot more workouts won't help much more and will just make you more tired and slower to recover — it's not worth the extra effort.
The more you lift each week for a specific muscle, the more it grows—but after a point, doing even more doesn't help much.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.