24/06/2025
📈 MORE VOLUME = MORE GAINS?
After reviewing hundreds of studies, wrote a brilliant treatise on training volume and hypertrophy for . For more articles like this one, subscribe to (I'm a subscriber!). Huge kudos to Greg, and I agree with (almost 😉) everything he says! Quick post about a great article that for many will be TLDR (but it's worth the time IMO).
✅ Higher training volumes increase hypertrophy – even beyond 20 sets/week per muscle group. There's no clear “max” where benefits stop. I think that ultrasound data has added some noise into the curve, and that with better methods, you'd see growth stop much earlier than seen in https://doi.org/10.51224/SRXIV.460
✅ Strength plateaus ≠ hypertrophy plateaus. Some claimed that since strength gains level off around 5 sets per week, hypertrophy must also. But this idea is flawed – they rely on different data and mechanisms. GREAT take and spot on!
✅ Swelling ≠ Muscle Growth. The myth that “more growth at high volumes is just muscle edema” doesn’t hold. Over time, the swelling disappears while the muscle continues to grow. I grew tired of this argument, and Greg deservedly buries it!
✅ Individual responses vary. Some grow more with high volume, others don’t. But on average, more volume = more gains (at least to a point)
✅ My note on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy - if it happens, it's transient, if it's transient, it's also small, and so it is NOT a big contributor to 'growth.' I love the theory of the pre-priming for growth, but there's very little data to support how this would take place at a cellular level - see PMID 32660165
🧠 Final takeaway: Want to grow more? You probably need to do more. 10 sets/week is fine. 20–30? Even better for some.
Citation (and kudos): Nuckols G. More Training, More Gaining (2024)
