Upping REPs volume- maximising gains and muscle strength or risky business?
- Adele Meade
- Aug 24, 2021
- 3 min read
Something we hear often within the health and fitness industry, is how more is always better. How increasing volume is always more beneficial to both strength and muscle gain. It's a highly debated and researched topic, that suggest that overall higher volumes tend to promote more muscle growth and larger strength gains than lower volumes.
volume = sets x reps x load
Meta-analysis results from a study done by Schoenfeld, Brad J.1,2; Ratamess, Nicholas A.3; Peterson, Mark D.5; Contreras, Bret4; Sonmez, G. T.1; Alvar, Brent A.2 [cited at end of this post], suggested that increased volume has a significant effect on the rate of muscle gain [hypertrophy].
This extra volume may come in the form of ;
Total lift volume per week
Total reps per session
Sets per muscle group within a sessio
In this blog post, I am going to focus on reps per session and look at both the benefits and potential risks of amping up the number of reps you do.
There are many methods to increase overall volume within a session, including giant-sets, super-sets, tri-sets or circuits. These kinds of sets involve completing programmed exercises back to back with no rest period in between.
How to increase volume through these training methods
Knowing how to effectively programme them into sessions is the key part. You want to get the most bang for your buck and not just add extra reps for the sake!
Start by understanding the different options when it comes to programming in these multi-exercise sets; • Opposing muscle groups [agonist-antagonist]. Often an option done to save time, this may include doing a push movement and following it up with a pull motion. • Same muscle group or body part. The goal in this scenario, would be to fully activate all of the muscle fibres and hit the muscle/muscle head in a different way. • Strength exercise straight into an explosive exercise following the same movement pattern [PAP training].
Exercise Selection is vital, as is the order in which you complete the exercises you’ve chosen. Compound exercises should early always be performed first, to avoid being fatigued whilst performing a lift that is likely to be more physically challenging and demanding.
Know why you are adding in the extra volume- does it align with your goals, is it programmed correctly and does the benefit of adding volume outweigh the risk of extra session fatigue?
Anybody can make use of multi-exercise sets. Knowing when to increase volume and by how much is important as it’s likely if you’re a beginner, the additional stimulus is more likely to risk injury and excess fatigue rather than seeing great results from it.
Benefits of additional extra reps volume
Multi-exercise sets are great if you’re short on time.
Increased session / set intensity due to the reduced rest periods and extra muscle stimulus.
An opportunity to add variety to sessions by combining lifts and adding in exercises to stimulate different muscle groups.
Can be a way to target a muscle you may not otherwise get the time to give attention to.
Hypertrophy potential [muscle growth]. Doubling up on stimulus, increases fatigue the muscle is subjected to.
Key points to remember
People respond differently to high volume. Whilst some people will benefit from the higher volume, some people actually respond better to low volume and any substantial increase becomes detrimental to their results.
Rep quality is more important than quantity.
Keep in mind intensity at all times - you can add as many reps you want, but if there is a lack in intensity you won’t be maximising the potential of this method of training.
Rep range should be representative of your goals - for example, strength increases are highly subjective and in order to improve maximal strength output, you’re going to have to lift some heavy s***. Whilst increasing reps may assist, it won’t increase strength exclusively.
Increasing volume too quickly and by too much increases the risk of injury. Whilst you need a level of muscle damage to grow a muscle, too much limits recovery ability and is more than likely going to affect the rest of your sessions that week and therefore weekly volume. Catch 22.
So in conclusion, whilst extra reps and session volume can be beneficial, you should be mindful before using! Keep the intensity and effort high, tailor rep ranges to match your goals and be sure to reassess if the additional volume is coming at a cost to the rest of your training!
Study cited-
Schoenfeld, Brad J.1,2; Ratamess, Nicholas A.3; Peterson, Mark D.5; Contreras, Bret4; Sonmez, G. T.1; Alvar, Brent A.2 Effects of Different Volume-Equated Resistance Training Loading Strategies on Muscular Adaptations in Well-Trained Men, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: October 2014 - Volume 28 - Issue 10 - p 2909-2918 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000480
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