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

When weekly resistance training exceeds 22 sets per muscle group, strength increases further without a meaningful increase in muscle size.

For women who already train with weights, doing more sets per week—up to 38—does not lead to noticeably bigger thigh muscles after 12 weeks compared to doing 22 sets per week.

Among women who already train regularly, increasing leg workout volume by either two or four sets every two weeks leads to the same gains in leg strength and muscle size after 12 weeks, suggesting that going beyond a certain volume does not produce additional benefits.

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.

In trained women with about two years of lifting experience, gradually increasing the number of sets per week over 12 weeks leads to larger gains in leg press strength and muscle thickness of the vastus lateralis compared to maintaining a fixed high volume, but does not produce greater increases in overall thigh muscle thickness.

In women who already train regularly, doing four sets of leg presses per week leads to the same gains in strength and muscle size as doing two sets per week over 12 weeks.