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- Periodization / Variation in Repetition Ranges for Muscle Size: Your Complete Evidence Based Guide
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Hey James, since I’m only able to have time to train each muscle 1 x week. Would doing 8 working sets to positive failure per muscle per session be fine to do?
Yes
Hey James, another question: Do you think the SRA Principle (Stimulus, Recovery, Adaptation) can be fully applied to volume increase in direction to the recovery limits? The SRA principle states we should train at the highest peak of the quality we want to emphasize (hypertrophy/strength), but a volume increase would result in more fatigue accumulation. The fatigue environment through more volume results in greater adaptations thorugh the mesocycle, but I find that this is not totally in line with the SRA principle for all kinds of training, not only hypertrophy. I think we should look at training with progressive overload… Read more »
I think that slow progression in volume allows you to progressively overload while keeping the negative impacts of fatigue to a minimum, and allowing the body to adapt in terms of fatigue resistance over time (which allows more volume over long periods). If you start off increasing volume too fast, then you end up creating more fatigue quickly and limit your ability to use volume as a progressive overload tool.
But do you think that the classical SRA curve for hypertropy is a correct represantation for muscle building processes? I mean, the SRA model would imply that we train again while adaptation for hypertropy is happening when we accumulate fatigue for the muscle itself (microtears and MPB) through progressive overload.
The SRA principle would basically say, that there is only one amount of volume (when muscle tissue fatigue is alleviated, we can train again).
Hey James, great article! Is my understanding regarding volume cycling correct, that the upper limit of volume only makes sense at the end of the training cycle? Thus, if we would begin with a volume which is at 20+ sets, it would be too much, and in regards to the inverted U-hypothesis from session to session too much volume, and result in less adaptive magnitude, compared to the case, if we train with less volume? As we would need more progression to stimulated adaptations, more volume is needed and the maximum adaptive capcaity changes in direction to maximum recoverable volume.… Read more »
Yes your understanding is correct.
The purpose of volume cycling is to allow you to use volume as a progressive overload tool so that you can progressively increase it when current volume ends up stagnating. The problem with starting with volume too high is you can reach stagnation quickly and it may be difficult to use further increases in volume to help stimulate progress. In other words, you end up desensitizing yourself to high volume too early.
Really not sure about the MEV/MRV regarding intensity and strength training as that’s a completely different beast.
Thanks for your answer, I am happy to communicate with you about this! Do you think there is real evidence, that the cyclical approach is superior to static volume, which only increases based on autoregulation. I read all of Renaissance periodization books, but I am more on the side of Dr.Eric helms regarding this topic.
Hey James,
How long without an increase in reps ir weight would you consider it a plateau. I’m wondering that to know when it would be appropriate to perhaps add volume.
Personally I consider 2-3 sessions of not being able to increase as a plateau
Awesome, thanks! Would you add sets when stalling on a specific exercise or when stalling on all exercises for that muscle group? For example, would I add sets to bench press if I stalled in it but am still making progress in incline bench press?
I would add sets to a specific exercise that has stalled.
Do you mean with a session, the next time you hit that muscle again or repeating the same exact workout (e.g. Legs A week 3 -> Legs A week 4 -> Legs A week 5)?
next time hitting muscle again
Hey James,
I’ve been looking into other forms of training such as MYOreps and cluster sets to switch up stimulus. Would you recommend these for stimulus changes, and if so, what are some good volume numbers (sets) for each method? To be clear I don’t believe this methods to be superior for hypertrophy, they would just be good for stimulus changes. Also, do I even need to do these alternative methods for stimulus change or will volume changes work just as well?
Volume changes should work just as well. That said, if you’re going to use high intensity/short-rest stuff like MYOreps, I would stick with isolation movements…the short rests on compound movements will likely cause a lot of central fatigue which can limit motor unit recruitment. There’s no hard rule for knowing how many sets a cluster might work out to be. For drop sets, for example, one set to failure followed by 3-4 drops is likely equivalent to 3 traditional sets. It will probably be similar for myoreps as well (1 set + 3-4 myorep clusters is probably similar to 3… Read more »
Thanks! And what are your thoughts on periodization for hypertrophy? How much do you need to switch up about your training plan, and how often?
Programmed periodization for hypertrophy is overrated. Just switch up according to personal preference
Hey James,
I’ve been looking into other forms of training such as MYOreps drop sets and cluster sets to switch up stimulus. I see these alternatives being quite nice due to the TUT increase. Would you recommend these for stimulus changes, and if so, what are some good volume numbers (sets) for each method?
While I think the science is sound, I think there is a huge oversight when it comes to intensity. Training one exercise per muscle group, going to failure (and even with failure there are different intensity levels), and calling it a day has nothing to do with high intensity training where a) the muscle is trained for one set but on two different exercises in a super set, and using intensity techniques such as drop sets, rest pause sets, partials, etc. Again, I think the science is sound, but there is basically no comparison of high volume training vs HIT… Read more »
This is a common response that has no basis in any scientific evidence. It’s a variation of the “Well, they didn’t go to TRUE failure” argument. The problem with this is argument is there is no physiological rationale behind why that one extra rep or two (assuming they didn’t reach “true” failure, which often isn’t even well defined) would cause significantly more hypertrophy, especially given what we know about how motor unit recruitment works. Assuming one didn’t reach “true” failure (again, whatever that’s supposed to mean…failure to do one full range rep? failure to do a partial rep?), an exta… Read more »
Hi James First off this has been an amazing resource, so thank you for your hard work! I had a question on volume. At the moment, I’m doing 10 sets p/w for chest/back/lateral delts, and 12 sets p/w for biceps/triceps. I’m aiming to work my way up to 15-18 sets p/w for chest/back/lateral delts and 18-24 sets p/w for biceps/triceps. I started my program in mid-June and have been doing the same lifts for nearly two months, with only marginal increase in sets when I’ve hit a plateau. I haven’t increased my sets much because I’m still progressing on my… Read more »
I would keep your volume the same as long as you’re progressing. Save the increase in volume for when you finally plateau
For starters, to echo everyone else’s comments, this truly is a wonderful and very informative article. Thank you for putting this together, James.
Secondly, my question: as I understand it, the article is primarily focused on driving hypertrophy. Assuming a lifter is eating at maintenance calories, what should volumes be if the goal is not to increase muscle but simply to maintain your physique/body composition?
Haven’t seen any research studies and/or articles specifically focused on this subject (i.e. maintenance).
Thanks,
Gilad
It takes very little volume to maintain muscle. You could do 50% of your normal volume and maintain.
Thank you for sharing all this information. I’m missing something from your conclusion regarding the Short vs Long Rest Intervals, concluding that you need to do about double the amount of sets with short rest, vs long rest, for the same gains. When I compare the two charts at 6 Sets Per Session, the trended change in Effective Size is about 0.35 for both short and long (trained). So wouldn’t this mean that at this number of target sets per session it comes down to individual preference for rest intervial, because both would yield approximately the same results for trained… Read more »
You can’t directly compare the effect sizes between the two charts because the criteria for the included studies are different for each.