The Study
Exploring the Upper Limits of Resistance Training Volume for Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength in Trained Athletes
This study is like a fair race between two groups of athletes: one did more workouts, and one did fewer. After watching them for months, they found that the group doing more didn’t get bigger or stronger than the group doing less. So, it tells us that doing way more workouts doesn’t help — but it doesn’t prove workouts cause growth in the first place.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study tested if doing a lot more weightlifting each week makes strong athletes grow bigger muscles or get stronger.
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 554 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1For athletes already training hard, adding 50% more sets didn't help them get bigger or stronger — and might even hurt deadlift gains.
- 2Athletes doing 60 sets/week grew muscles just as much as those doing 40 sets/week.
- 3Deadlift strength got worse with more sets.
- 4People who didn't grow muscles at first still didn't grow them even with more lifting.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of Science in Sport and Exercise
Year
2026
Authors
Aapo Räntilä, J. P. Ahtiainen
Related Content
Claims (6)
For trained male athletes, doing more than 40 to 60 resistance training sets per week does not lead to greater increases in maximal strength and may slightly reduce deadlift strength, while having no measurable effect on back squat or broad jump performance.
Trained male athletes who perform more than 60 sets of resistance training per week gain less strength in the deadlift than those who train at lower volumes.
For trained male athletes, increasing resistance training from 40 to 60 sets per week for seven weeks does not lead to larger muscle size in the thigh and hamstring muscles, as measured by ultrasound.
For trained male athletes who do not gain muscle from lower-volume resistance training, increasing the number of sets per week from 40 to 60 does not lead to further muscle growth.
In trained male athletes, muscle growth increases with moderate weekly resistance training volumes of 32 to 41 sets but stops increasing when training exceeds 60 sets per week.
Increasing the number of resistance training sets per muscle group each week leads to greater muscle growth, but the additional gain slows down after about 10 sets.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.