05/27/2026
Improve what you’re currently doing, before just doing “more”!
How can you get the MOST out of each rep… each set… each session?
Start there!
It might look like improving your set-up/execution (this way you can maximize the tension where you want it!)
It may be improving your ability to “TRAIN HARD”. Controlling the load, staying poised when the set gets harder and harder, and pushing yourself to/clos(er) to concentric failure.
It may involve swapping out an exercise for something that’s a “better fit” - BUT, most people should spend more time learning how to get the most of out X exercise and progressing w it, before searching for the next shiny object (Y exercise swap)
For those focused on maximizing muscle growth, aimlessly moving weight from point A to point B isn’t going to be “good enough” after a certain point.
Skill, mind-muscle connection, intent/control need to improve over time.
Before doing MORE working sets for a particular exercise, or a particular session, you need to evaluate how your distributing your total volume across the entire week/microcycle.
You can also consider how you’re organizing this current training block, and your next one …
If you want to bring up a “weak point”, and all the former considerations are in a good spot, you can absolutely implement a specialization phase, where you DO, DO MORE total work across the week/ training cycle for that muscle … but, you likely bring DOWN volume/total work on a different muscle group (eg strong points).
When looking at the literature, it’s pretty clear that you CANT talk about volume, without considering:
Exercise selection / variation
Intensity of effort / prox to failure
Training density
Intra session frequency & weekly distribution of volume
If you need help getting the most out of your efforts in & out of the gym, my team and I are here to help 💪