More is Not Better: New Study

The assumption in the field of resistance training and exercise in general (and frankly, most of American life) is that MORE = BETTER. 

If you are really serious, highly disciplined, and desire great results, you need to do MORE.  At least, this tends to be the assumption.  Sometimes this IS the case.  But not always.

Authors of a brand-new study published this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology sought to understand how increasing the number of sets we perform in our workout impacts our results.  Stated otherwise, they sought to understand how increasing volume (number of sets) impacts muscle growth, strength, and endurance.  The interesting element of the study design is that the study accounted for a participant’s current training volume. 

Quick study details:

• Subjects were men aged 18-37 years old with previous strength training experience.

• Subjects strength trained twice per week for 8 weeks.

• The study involved leg exercises only.

Subjects were assigned to one of three groups:

Group 1 – Increased their training volume by 30% (they performed 30% more sets than they had been previously performing).

Group 2 – Increased their training volume by 60% (they performed 60% more sets than they had been previously performing).

Group 3 (Control Group) – They didn’t increase their training volume (they continued to stick to the same number of sets).

The researchers hypothesized that the group doing 30% more volume would produce better results than the group that didn’t increase volume.  They also hypothesized that the group doing 60% more volume would produce the best results (in terms of increased muscle mass, strength, and endurance).  The researchers assumed that more volume would produce better results. 

The results?

The researchers’ hypothesis was wrong.

The group who did NOT increase their strength training volume (number of sets) produced greater gains in muscle strength and similar improvements in muscle size (in a fraction of the time) compared to both groups who increased their volume. 

Take home message:

More strength training volume does not produce better results.  In fact, in terms of muscle strength, less volume produced better results when compared to increased set volumes.