The Study
Ribosome biogenesis and resistance training volume in human skeletal muscle
This study is like a summary of other people’s reports — it doesn’t do any experiments itself. So it can’t prove anything new. It just says, 'Some scientists think this might be true.'
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study looked at how different amounts of weight training affect muscle growth and strength. It found that doing three sets of exercises is better than one set for getting stronger, especially after nine weeks. But surprisingly, the body’s internal muscle-building signals didn’t get stronger with more sets.
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 540 / 100
Quality score
Based on clinical experience or non-systematic literature reviews. The lowest level of evidence as they are most susceptible to bias and personal perspective.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — doing more sets than just one helps you get stronger, but doing even more than three sets may not give you extra muscle-building benefits.
- 2Moderate volume (3 sets) led to greater strength gains than low volume (1 set) over 12 weeks.
- 3Strength improved more after 9 weeks.
- 4Ribosome production linked to muscle growth, but didn’t increase with more volume.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of Physiology
Year
2020
Authors
Robert Solsona, A. Sanchez
Related Content
Claims (10)
For people who train casually, lifting lighter weights more times and lifting heavier weights fewer times produce similar muscle growth if the total work done is the same, but the heavier-weight approach might lead to slightly stronger performance.
There is no reliable physical evidence to confirm that low-volume, high-intensity training produces better muscle growth than other training methods, despite what some people claim anecdotally.
Doing more workout volume doesn’t necessarily make your muscles grow more—your body’s internal muscle-building signals stay about the same no matter how much you train.
Doing more than about four sets of a resistance exercise in one session, even when pushing to maximum effort, provides little extra muscle growth compared to doing four sets.
The more you lift weights (up to a point), the more muscle and strength you gain—and new studies say it’s a steady climb, not a peak and drop like we used to think.
How well you bounce back from and get stronger with weight training depends on how experienced you are and things like how well you sleep, what you eat, and how stressed you feel.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.