The Importance of Previous Resistance Training Volume on Muscle Growth in Trained Individuals

Increasing the amount of resistance training each week results in more muscle growth, but the additional gain per extra session becomes smaller at higher volumes.

The total amount of effective resistance exercise performed for each muscle group in a week is the most important factor in determining how much muscle size increases.

Studies show mixed results on whether doing more resistance training sets leads to more muscle growth in people who already train regularly. Some findings suggest that increasing the number of sets doesn't necessarily lead to greater muscle gains.

For people new to weight training, doing more resistance exercises per week is linked to greater muscle growth. For those already trained, increasing the volume of training does not consistently lead to more muscle growth than lower volumes, suggesting that training history affects how muscles respond to increased workload.

For people who already train with weights, doing more weekly sets does not reliably lead to more muscle growth than doing fewer sets.

When predicting how much muscle a person will gain from training, accounting for how much they have trained in the past leads to more accurate predictions.