Let’s start with what we’ve established to a reasonable degree of certainty. Muscular hypertrophy is a biochemical reaction by the body to an application of mechanical tension to muscle fibers that cause the fibers to distort and deform. The size principle indicates that the body will recruit muscle fibers to produce the force needed to complete the action. As more fibers are required, more fibers are recruited. High threshold motor units control many fibers; perhaps thousands of them, and once they are activated and perform enough work to distort and deform, the impetus for the biochemical reaction is accomplished.
There is a dose response relationship to how much work is performed with how much hypertrophy is achieved, to a point. What that point is varies from individual to individual, with level of advancement being one of the factors that dictate how much work is required to get continued results. The further along on the continuum one is toward their natural limit of muscular growth, the more work is generally required to continue to drive progress. At some point, there just won’t be any more progress.
There appears to be a maximum amount of work done in any one session to stimulate the hypertrophic response, where more work just leads to more fatigue and potential muscle damage. There also appears to be, at least for most people, a maximum amount of work that can be done in a given time period, say a week, where the maximum stimulus is achieved and more work just impedes recovery from the workouts without any additional hypertrophy.
In practice, this means the trainee seeking to grow their muscles needs to select exercises that use the targeted muscles, perform those exercises with sufficient intensiveness of effort, and repeat that exercise for several bouts until thoroughly stimulated. How much exactly is where stuff gets fuzzy.
For hypertrophy specifically, there is a wide range of repetitions that will get the job done. Anywhere from 5 or 6 repetitions to as many as 30 in any one set, provided the sets are taken to the same proximity to temporary muscular failure, will provide the same hypertrophy outcomes. Repeating the set after some rest, again to the same proximity to failure, ensures as many muscle fibers as possible are recruited, distorted and deformed which will cause the body to increase protein synthesis and add new proteins to the fibers, making them larger.
There is also a wide range of total work, defined as total number of sets, that will get the job done. How much depends on various factors. The aforementioned degree of advancement, i.e. how long you’ve been doing this, and your ability to recover from the work, i.e. complete the hypertrophic response and be ready to hit the muscles again. Studies have shown that as few as 10 weekly sets will be enough for anyone beyond the absolute beginner. Beginners can get results with even less. Some studies have shown better results with more volume, but it isn’t a 1 for 1 cause and effect. One more set, doesn’t equate to 1 more hypertrophy. It’s more like a % increase in results that starts to diminish. So 10 sets may provide a given level of response, with 15 sets providing 25% more results, 18 providing 15% more, 20 providing 10% more, etc. The most contentious study in my view is one that showed no plateau in increased results up to 45 sets per week.
With this information in hand, you can start to see a program forming. Select exercises that target the muscles well (pick exercises that move the muscles the way they’ve evolved to move), do at least a few sets with a weight that allows you to get anywhere from say 6 reps to 20 reps, taking each set fairly close to momentary failure. Allow some recovery, say 48-72 hours, and then repeat. Set up your workouts to get at least 10 weekly sets per muscle group and you’ve got a good starting point.
As we consider this information, we may conclude that in order to get the most growth as quickly as possible, we should do as much work as possible. Why do 10 sets if 20 will provide more results? Why stop at 20? Perhaps 30 or 45 will be even better. This brings up the idea of maximum recoverable volume, which Dr. Mike Isreatel has coined as one of his “volume landmarks.” He suggests one should add sets every week until we find this magical number. We’ll know when we find it when performance begins to deterioriate. When that happens, i.e. we can’t do more reps or lift more weight than we did before, we will “deload” the body by dramatically reducing volume and load for a week or so, to allow fatigue we’ve built up to dissipate, then start at a lower volume again and build back up.
Here’s a thought experiment for you: If you have to take a week of lighter weight with less sets to recover from the work you’ve done in the prior week, was that prior week actually recoverable? By definition, you didn’t recover from that week of training if you need an entire week to be able to just start training again with low volumes. Arguably, you exceeded your capacity to recover. Quite a bit if you ask me, since you need so much time of reduced work before you can even start again with the low end of the range of weekly sets.
If you did 10 weekly sets, with each set conducted with a high degree of effort, and the next time you perform the same exercise you are able to repeat your performance with the same weights used, but the sets feel easier, or you’re able to add a little weight and repeat the same reps you got last time with the same effort, you have progressed. Your body added to your muscle fibers, making them larger and allowing them to produce more force. Why would you then add more sets? Why not continue to train with 10 sets, adding weight and reps when you can and enjoy the results?
Once you reach a point where you stop making progress, say two weeks where you can’t seem to add any more weight or reps, you can evaluate. How do you feel? Are you banged up, with achy joints and sore muscles? Or do you feel fine, with nothing bothering you, sleeping well and enjoying walking around slightly more muscular than you used to be? If it’s the latter, maybe add a set or two each week to provide more stimulus to see if that lets you progress again. Go from 10 to 12 weekly sets. If you start progressing again, continue to milk that until you plateau again. You may find the point where you don’t plateau. Where you continue to make steady progress, perhaps not every workout, but every other workout, or as you get more and more advanced, maybe every three or four workouts. If instead, you feel beat to shit with fatigue and loss of motivation to train, consider your recovery. Are you sleeping enough, eating enough protein, keeping stress levels as low as your lifestyle will allow? There may never be a need to actually take an entire week of low volume with light weight to reduce fatigue.
I’ve pushed myself to the point of walking around every day with various injuries that I have to work around in the gym, assuming this is just a part of training. It doesn’t have to be. When I’ve pushed so hard I feel like total dog shit, I’ve taken a couple days of easy training and suddenly feel raring to go again.
What I’m trying to do now is never get to that point. Do enough work to eek out any progress I can at this stage of my lifting life, without crushing myself. I’ve settled at 14 weekly sets right now, and hope to stay there and focus on technique, intensiveness and making progress with the load and/or reps whenever I feel like I can. This can vary from workout to workout. Some days, I feel good doing a particular lift and I take advantage of those. Since I’m doing each set to a similar proximity to failure, I’ll know based on the last time I trained that lift if I’ve made progress or not. If I get 12 reps when I was only planning 10, I made progress. I may add some weight to the next set and see if I get that 10 rep target I was shooting for with more load than I expected.
I don’t believe in the maximum recoverable volume concept. I don’t think there’s any need to continue to do more work until I reach a decline in performance. I find that very unsatisfying. I’d much rather complete my workout feeling good that I lifted a little more, or did a couple more reps than I thought I would, and look forward to my next workout. I have no desire to push my volume up to the point where I am intimidated to start the week knowing it’s going to be a ball buster. Could I be leaving some percentage of hypertrophy untapped? Doubtful I could know such a thing. Nor can you. And it wouldn’t matter if you did. Because you’re going to keep training. You’re going to get the most growth your body is capable of giving you if you keep lifting weights until the grave claims you.
Get your exercise selection down. Get your schedule down. Consistently work hard to get the most out of each rep and each set. It’s harder than you think to do that consistently. Improve your diet. Take your diet as seriously as you do your lifting. Improve your diet some more. Are you getting enough protein? Enough fats? Enough fiber? Are you eating lots of fruits and vegetables? Come on now, every day? Vitamins and minerals in check? Are you avoiding booze? Put that six pack of beer back on the shelf. Don’t even walk down the beer and wine aisle. Are you fat? Get rid of that. You can’t force feed your way to more muscular growth, but your body will happily store away all that extra energy in your fat cells. There are many more important things you should be doing than trying to add sets until you break. I assure you that doing the most volume you possibly can will give you an objective lesson in just how many tendons there are in the human body. Get enough sleep. Take a nap. Relax. Track your workouts. You will get as jacked as your DNA will allow you to.
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