The Study
Evidence for an Upper Threshold for Resistance Training Volume in Trained Women
This study shows that women who did different amounts of weight training had different changes in muscle size and strength. We can say these things are linked, but we can't be sure that the number of sets caused the changes because we don’t know how the study was set up.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study looked at how many sets of lifting are best for muscle growth in women who already work out. It found that doing 5 or 10 sets per week per muscle gave better results than doing 15 or 20 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 532 / 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.
- 1Doing too many sets might actually make your gains worse, according to this study — but the study was retracted, so we can't trust these results.
- 2After 24 weeks, women doing 5 or 10 sets gained more muscle and strength than those doing 15 or 20 sets.
- 3The group doing 20 sets improved the least.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
Year
2019
Authors
Matheus Barbalho, V. Coswig, J. Steele, J. Fisher, A. Paoli, P. Gentil
Related Content
Claims (4)
People might respond differently to how much weight training they do, but we can't say for sure because the studies done so far aren't clear enough.
If you're a woman who's already been working out, doing 5 to 10 sets of strength training per muscle group each week seems to be enough to build muscle and get stronger over half a year — doing more doesn't seem to help extra.
If women who already work out do too many sets each week, they might gain less muscle and strength than if they did fewer sets.
If a woman who's already fit does strength training, doing 5 to 10 sets per muscle each week might build more muscle than doing even more sets—like 15 or 20. Sometimes, more isn't better when it comes to muscle growth.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.