52 sets of legs for more muscle growth?
Take-aways
Volumes as high as 30 or more weekly sets may result in more growth, depending on your recovery. Consider training with higher volumes if you want more growth and see how you respond..
Specialisation phases, wherein you increase volume to 20-30 or more sets/week/muscle group may increase growth. This can provide a more practical alternative to training all muscle groups with high volumes simultaneously, as this can be difficult to achieve from both a time and potentially recovery perspective.
You may see your best squat gains doing ~15 sets of squats a week.
If you’ve been around social media over the past month, you’ve probably seen the infamous study that showed better muscle growth when doing 52 sets of quads a week vs a “measly” 22 sets/week.
Let’s break it down.
Methods
In this study, 31 males were assigned to one of three groups. The first group (CG) trained with 22 weekly sets of quadriceps training. The second group (4SG) started at 22 sets, but added 4 sets every two weeks, for an average volume of 32 weekly set. Finally, the highest volume group (6SG) added 6 sets every two weeks, for an average volume of 37 weekly sets. The training intervention lasted 12 weeks. For the last two weeks of the intervention, the highest volume group did a whopping 52 sets for their quads.
Importantly, the participants split up their weekly training into two sessions. In each session, participants performed the barbell squat, leg press and leg extension exercise. The sets were split evenly across exercises starting with the squat. All sets were to RPE 8/2 reps in the tank, save for the last set for each exercise, which was performed to concentric failure. Participants rested for 2 minutes between sets and aimed for between 6-8 or 10-12 reps on each set. Participants also performed some low-volume hamstring training and were free to train their upper-body on separate days.
Participants were reasonably well-trained, being able to squat 3 plates to powerlifting depth. Muscle size was assessed via muscle thickness and cross-sectional area of the vastus lateralis (quadriceps), whereas strength was assessed via 1 rep max in the squat.
In order to minimize the impact of confounding variables, a few things were done. The authors implemented a 2-week wash-out period, during which all groups trained with the same, low volumes. Following this, all groups followed an acclimation phase, gradually increasing volumes for two weeks, reaching 22 sets by the end. Finally, the authors also measured nutrition at various points throughout the study, ensuring there were no major differences between groups.
That was a lot of methodological detail. Let’s break down the results: which group grew the most and saw the best squat gains?
Results
As far as squat strength went, higher volumes (32 average sets/11 sets of squats and 37 average sets/13 sets of squats) generally led to better gains than lower volumes (22 average sets/8 sets of squats). If you look only at % improvements, the highest volume group resulted in the greatest gains. However, when you account for variance (standard deviations), the effect sizes lean in favour of the moderate-volume group (32 sets). Indeed, variance in gains was highest in the highest volume group.
As far as cross-sectional area went, though effects were statistically non-significant, there did appear to be a dose-response relationship between volume and growth, all the way to 37 weekly sets. Again, variance in improvements was highest with the highest volume group.
Finally, though also non-significant, muscle thickness increases also seemed to follow a dose-response relationship, such that higher volumes led to more muscle growth. Again (a pattern, you might notice) variance was highest in the highest volume group.
Why?
When interpreting the results of this study, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, rest times were relatively low (2 mins or more). As we covered in last week’s newsletter, lower rest times generally reduce the potency of each individual set. Second, variance was generally greatest in the higher volume groups suggesting a greater degree of individual responses. So, don’t go thinking you should be doing 52 sets a week - individualize volume. And, on that note, the highest volume group was not doing 52 sets a week for 12 weeks. They increased volume throughout 12 weeks, starting at 22, and ending at 52 weekly sets, for an average of 37 weekly sets of quadriceps. Third, sets were generally kept shy of failure, reducing the fatigue cost of each set. Finally, they did not train their whole body this intensely.. they only trained their quadriceps with these high volumes. Whether you can benefit from volumes as high as 30+ sets for multiple (or all) muscle groups at once remains to be seen.
It’s worth nothing that this is not an isolated finding. In fact, out of 8 studies (including this one) comparing volumes of 10-20 to 20+ sets, 4 have found a benefit to 20+ sets (1, 2, 3, 4) with four studies showing no difference between lower/higher volumes (5, 6,7,8).
If you’d like to chat about this study, feel free to comment below.
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