30 Seconds Summary
The Devil is in the Dose: Measuring Volume for Muscle Growth

  • Training volume, critical for optimizing muscle growth, has no perfect measurement method, but can be tracked through various imperfect metrics.
  • Common methods include Volume Load (Load x Reps x Sets), which is simple but flawed due to ignoring intensity variations and set difficulty.
  • Hard Sets count sets done close to failure across moderate rep ranges, offering a practical volume measurement, yet struggle with lower rep ranges and varying definitions of 'hard'.
  • Effective Reps try to account for set difficulty by counting reps near failure, applicable across all intensities, but still fail to consistently predict muscle growth.
  • Recommendation includes counting 'hypertrophy sets' (5+ reps) and 'strength sets' (<5 reps), coupled with monitoring average RPE to better align training volume with muscle growth and strength goals.
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