More Sets Make You Stronger and Bigger — But Only Up to a Point
The Resistance Training Dose-Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Doing more resistance training sets each week makes your muscles bigger and stronger, but after a certain amount, you get less extra benefit. Doing workouts more often helps you get stronger, but doesn’t necessarily make your muscles bigger if you’re already doing enough total sets.
Surprising Findings
Training frequency doesn’t reliably increase muscle size when total volume is held constant.
For decades, fitness culture preached that training each muscle 2–3x/week was optimal for growth—this study says if you do the same total sets, spreading them out doesn’t help size.
Practical Takeaways
If your goal is muscle growth, focus on hitting 10–20 direct sets per muscle group per week—don’t stress about splitting them across 2 or 5 days.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Doing more resistance training sets each week makes your muscles bigger and stronger, but after a certain amount, you get less extra benefit. Doing workouts more often helps you get stronger, but doesn’t necessarily make your muscles bigger if you’re already doing enough total sets.
Surprising Findings
Training frequency doesn’t reliably increase muscle size when total volume is held constant.
For decades, fitness culture preached that training each muscle 2–3x/week was optimal for growth—this study says if you do the same total sets, spreading them out doesn’t help size.
Practical Takeaways
If your goal is muscle growth, focus on hitting 10–20 direct sets per muscle group per week—don’t stress about splitting them across 2 or 5 days.
Publication
Authors
Joshua Pelland, Jacob Remmert, Zac Robinson, Seth Hinson, Michael Zourdos
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