If you’ve been involved in the fitness
industry in some way for the last couple of years, you’ll have noticed that
there is a never ending discussion going on between two die hard camps
regarding training volume. These two camps are the low volume training group
versus the high volume training group. Training volume has been a hotly debated
topic for pretty much the last couple of 50 years. Back in the day, when
physical culture was just getting started, in the bronze era of bodybuilding,
where Eugen Sandow, George Hackenschmidt and Arthur Saxon were world famous
celebrities, a lower volume approach with a higher training frequency was the
norm. This went on during the Silver era, with figures such as Steve Reeves
promoting full body workouts performed three times per week with moderate
training volumes. It wasn’t till the days when Arnold Schwarzenegger and co.
dominated the fitness industry that high volume training became a thing. Through
the sands of time, recommendations for training volume have changed depending
on who you’d ask. But what does modern research say? What can we learn from the
past and how can we combine that with wisdom from the present?
Before answering this question I want to
make sure we are all on the same page when it comes to the definition of
training volume. Volume refers to the amount of sets performed close to failure
( less than 3 reps of failure) per muscle group per week. Recent scientific
research has taught us that in order to gain muscle mass optimally, one needs
to perform between 9 and 20 sets per muscle group, per week. Obviously, there’s
a massive difference between a routine involving 9 sets per week and almost the
double amount of sets, 20 per week. Allow me to guide you properly when it
comes to choosing the right amount of training volume for your goals.
Training volume isn’t a black and white
thing where one is necessarily better than the other. There are a couple of
important factors that come into play when making a decision what’s right for
you.
In the beginnings: the beginner to
intermediate phase
When you’re just new to the gym, or you’ve
been in the gym for a couple of months or even years not knowing what you’re
doing and missing out on a lot of muscle gains, you’re better off starting with
a lower amount of training volume. When you haven’t gained a lot of your muscular
potential yet, it doesn’t take much to gain muscle at an optimal rate and
you’ll only need the minimum dose of effective volume to start growing.
Therefore I’d advise you to start your training career with performing 9 sets
per muscle group per week. Doing too much volume as a beginner actually hinder
your gains, since your ability to recover properly will be compromised due to
excessive tissue damage and your body not being able to handle all that damage
properly. People automatically think that more is better, but believe me,
that’s not the case. With increased volumes comes increased fatigue, joint and
tendon stress. You should gradually work your way up to building a strong
muscular and neurological foundation where step by step, you build up your work
tolerance and recovery in regard to lifting weights.
Once you’ve made significant gains in both
strength and muscular size, there will come a time where about everyone is
going to hit a plateau. Hitting a plateau means that even though you consume
enough protein and calories, you’re consistent with your training routine and your
lifestyle (sleep, stress, etc.) is on point, you don’t seem to make any more
strength and muscle gains. If you’ve made significant gains already and your
lifts are respectable, this might be the time where your body needs more volume
in order to stimulate new strength gains and muscle growth. It’s best to add in
additional volume gradually to monitor your progress.
For example: when you normally perform 3
sets of chest work per workout, 3 times per week, you’re performing a total of
9 sets per week. By adding one set each workout, we up that volume to 12 sets
per week. From there, see what happens and monitor even further. The stronger
and more advanced you are, the more volume you need to keep making progress.
Eventually you can add another set which will lead to you performing 15 sets
per week.
Talking about 9 to 15 sets per week… This
is the range where most lifters will spend the majority of their training
career. If your goal is to have an amazing physique without living your life in
the gym, 9 to 15 sets per week will be the sweet spot of the volume
recommendations for you. This range allows itself to perfectly fit the lives of
people who are only able to make it 2-4 times to the gym per week , allows you
to adequately recover even during periods of other stressors in life and is a
propriate amount of volume to be sustainable in the long term so you don’t burn
out so that you are able to stick to your training routine and stay strong,
lean and athletic for the rest of your life. Depending on whether you are on a higher
calorie muscle gaining phase or a lower calorie cutting phase, your volume will
fluctuate to the higher or lower end of the 9 to 15 rep range to match your
recovery abilities. Since you only need 1/3rd of the volume you used
to maintain the muscle mass you’ve built, it should be used to strategically to
your advantage in terms of recovery.
So if we will spend the majority of our
time training in the 9 to 15 sets per week range, when and why should we train
with high volume using between 15 and 20 sets per week? What advantage does it
have and how should we use it?
Enter high volume specialization
phases
When you’re about to graduate from the
intermediate to the advanced stage, you’ll most likely benefit from performing
incorporating periods of higher volume in your routine. Implementing higher
volume will squeeze out those last bits of additional muscle mass you’re able
to pack on your frame. However, if we were to perform a very high amount of
volume for each and every muscle in the body at the same time, all the time,
most people would most likely burn out after a while and feel like a total mess
from the excessive wear and tear. Training takes a toll on your body. Recovery
is an extremely important aspect of training and gaining muscle. If recovery
isn’t on point, your lifts will even go
down and you’ll actually end up sabotaging yourself.
To make sure we can maximize our potential
without the negative side effects of burning ourselves out, we should use high
volume specialization phases. These are periods of time – around 3 months –
where you target one or two muscle groups and train them with a higher weekly
training volume compared to other muscle groups. You will have to gradually
work your way up to the top range of the high volume recommendations for the chosen
muscle groups, while simultaneously performing the minimum amount of volume to
maintain or slowly make strength and muscle gains for the other muscle groups
which aren’t being specialized. This is a fantastic method to bring up certain lagging
body parts or just to make certain body parts stand out.
For example, let’s say you want to focus on
maximizing your chest and back size, while maintaining or slowly gaining muscle
and strength in your other muscle groups. In this case we would slowly work our
way up to about 18 to 20 sets per week for our chest and back musculature. At the
same time, we’d only perform 9 to 12 sets for the remaining muscle groups. As
I’ve mentioned before, maintaining muscle is way easier than gaining muscle.
Studies have shown that for us to maintain our muscle mass, we only need to
perform 1/3rd of the volume we used to build our muscle mass. This
means that if you’re coming off a high volume specialization phase for a
certain muscle group, you can turn down the volume significantly and maintain
every bit of muscle you’ve gained, while making room for a high volume
specialization phase for another group.
I’ve found that when starting a high volume
specialization phase, it works best when either specializing on either one or
at the most two muscle groups at a time. Taking this approach will be time
efficient and be favorable for fatigue and recovery reasons.
If you do want to combine two muscle groups
per time, these combinations are my recommendations:
● Back and chest
● Shoulders and calves
● Legs (quads, hamstrings, glutes)
● Arms (triceps and biceps)
Each phase last around 3 months. Once the 3
months are completed you have the option to continue what you’re doing for a
couple of weeks more or you can reduce the volume back to 9 – 12 sets to simply
maintain what you’ve gained during the higher volume phase. If you then want to
focus on specializing a different muscle group, start a new higher volume phase
for a new muscle group (or two muscle groups) of choice.
However, let me stress that high volume
specialization phases are the cherry on the cake. You can’t put the cherry on
the cake is there is no cake yet. Therefore, don’t rush the process. Take your
time to build up a solid foundation. The 9 to 15 set per week range is where
you’ll spend the majority of your time as a natural lifter. This will allow you
to progress optimally and stick to your routine in the long term. After all,
consistency is key. Someone who lifts for 10 years with a lower to moderate
volume approach will have an amazing body. Somebody who trains sporadically
with extremely high volume will have nothing to show for. The most important
factor in resistance training is progressive overload. Progressive overload
means becoming stronger over time and being able to handle higher workloads.
This process takes time and can’t be rushed. The high volume specialization
phases are just a tool in the toolbox to squeeze out muscular size after a
certain experience level, but can only be maintained for a certain amount of
time before taking a toll on the body. Therefore, train wisely, respect your
body and I can reassure you that if you gradually get stronger over time,
spending the majority of your time fluctuating in the 9 to 15 sets per week
range depending on whether you’re on a bulking or cutting phase, your physique
will look amazing. Once you’ve been consistent for a couple of years, you can
make use of higher volume specialization phases and finally put the cherry on
the cake.
Kevin Mahjoubi