Make Training Volume Work for You

The proper way to find YOUR optimal volume:

Start low.

If progress slows or stalls, ramp up, A LITTLE BIT, as needed.

Pay attention to your recovery, effort during training, and general outlook on training.

If you keep ramping up volume, you'll eventually find your point of diminishing returns. This will likely occur at a different point for everybody.

If you're making progress in a range that's traditionally considered low or moderate, DON'T change anything! It's working.

The goal is not to see how much volume you can survive to qualify yourself as hardcore, or so you can say you train hard and compare yourself to the pros.

The goal is progress.

For me, 5-10 sets per muscle per week seems to be the sweet spot. Some muscles do better in the higher end while others do better closer to 5 sets.

Odds are, you probably don't need as much volume as the current literature indicates as being needed for optimal gains.

These studies are conducted with young individuals who are new(ish) to training and conducted over a short period of time. I'm not saying high volume doesn't work and that the studies are useless. I'm just saying that there are more important factors to consider when trying to maximize progress besides volume. Just because something works short term (anything different from what you currently do will work in the short term), doesn't mean it's the best approach long term. Understand that you may be one who responds well to high volume, but you may be someone that handles high volume training very poorly.

Following a sustainable plan that allows you to remain consistent and beating the log book (over time) will play an important role determining your progress.

If you can't fit high volume training into your life, then you'll never gain optimally from it, even if you're one of those people that DOES respond well to higher volume training.

Don't train dogmatically. Experiment and find what works for you.

Again, start with low volume and slowly ramp up over time (as needed) until you start experiencing negative returns on your training investment.