Can doing too much volume in a single workout backfire? Remmert et al. (2025) analyzed the relationship between per-session resistance training volume and changes in hypertrophy and strength to determine the point of diminishing returns.
Overview
- What did they test? The researchers analyzed 67 resistance training studies using Bayesian meta-regressions to evaluate how the number of sets in a single workout affects muscle hypertrophy and strength.
- What did they find? More sets per session improved outcomes up to a point. For hypertrophy, the point of undetectable outcome superiority (PUOS) was ~11 fractional sets per session. For strength, it was just ~2 direct sets per session. Beyond those thresholds, returns plateaued.
- What does it mean for you? If you’re doing 15+ sets per muscle in one workout, you may be spinning your wheels. Moderate, consistent volume across multiple sessions may be more effective and efficient than high volume training days.
What’s the Problem?
We’ve known for a while that training volume is a major driver of muscle growth. The more sets you do each week, the more you tend to grow. Studies like Schoenfeld et al. (2017) and Pelland et al. (2024) have made that clear 1 2. But here’s what most of that research doesn’t tell you: how should that weekly volume be split up? Some lifters are still doing high-volume bro-split style workouts, with 15–20 sets for one muscle group in a single session. But newer data suggest that doing too much in one workout might not be ideal. For example, there is a potential upper limit, with one research group finding more than 16 sets per session negatively affects muscle growth 3.
Strength training has its own set of considerations. Early research by Krieger (2010) concluded that 2-3 sets per exercise was associated with 46% greater strength gains than one set in trained and untrained individuals 4. Others have shown that moderate weekly set volume (5-9 sets/week) and high weekly set volume (>10 sets/week) improve strength the best for trained individuals 5. While weekly volume and frequency are both important, more recent research by Pelland et al. (2024) shows that strength gains often plateau beyond ~3 fractional sets per week, and increasing training frequency tends to have a stronger effect than piling on sets in a single session 2. That aligns with work by Androulakis-Korakakis et al. (2019), who found that even a single set performed 2–3 times per week, with high effort and moderate-to-heavy loads, was enough to produce significant 1RM improvements in resistance-trained men 6. This emerging body of evidence points to a consistent theme: for strength, less can be more if the effort is high and the frequency is smart, but you’re still going to need to do more than a couple sets to optimize strength gains.
The current study takes a closer look at the idea of per session volume. Specifically, whether there’s a point where adding more sets in a session stops delivering meaningful gains. If that exists, you’d want to stop short of it so you can use your time more wisely in the gym. This study uses a meta-regression to map out the dose-response relationship of per session volume with strength and hypertrophy.
Purpose
To determine whether a threshold exists for the number of sets performed in a single session that optimizes hypertrophy and strength gains.
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesized that higher per-session set volumes would have diminishing returns, and that an effective training program can be achieved with a relatively low number of sets distributed across 2–3 weekly sessions.
