Junk Volume - Avoid it if you want to maximise muscle and strength

Generally were told to work harder, do more…

But what if that mindset was actually hindering your fitness progress and after so many sets or a certain amount of volume, you weren’t achieving very much.

This is where “Junk Volume” comes in. Your still lifting, still doing more, but are you actually getting more out of it? Or has the work been done and instead you're just tiring yourself out?

We have covered volume in a previous issue, but today I want to focus on per session volume specifically how much volume is optimal for each muscle group.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

• 😴 What Is Junk Volume

• 💪 What Volume Counts

• 🧬 The Evidence

• ✍️ Key Takeaways and Practical Recommendations

TRAIN SMARTER, NOT HARDER
What is Junk Volume?

Firstly, I’m not disputing effort. We want to train hard. We want enough volume and to train to or within close proximity of failure, to stimulate strength and hypertrophy gains.

Junk volume refers to the volume your doing which takes up your time and energy without adding much benefit and is usually caused by:

1. “Easy” Repetitions that aren’t challenging enough to stimulate growth but still contribute to fatigue.

2. More reps than you need for growth that just result in extra fatigue and delayed recovery.

Let’s say its a lower day, or leg day, or your training your legs in whichever split you want (as it doesn’t really matter, all that matters is sufficient volume with adequate recovery) having “splits” just allow our human brains to compartmentalise our routine. I’m rambling… back to the example.

How many working sets would you do for lets say “quads” in any given training session? 5, 6, 10, 20?

Well, scientific evidence states there is a volume ceiling limit within each session. Meaning, we can only do so much volume until it has no positive effect and actually begins to interfere with our progress due to just adding fatigue and increasing recovery time.

BEFORE WE CONTINUE
What Volume Counts?

As stated above, for hypertrophy, hard working sets, to or close to failure (0-3RIR). PS. Warm up sets don’t count…

However, how do we count direct vs indirect set volume? Does 1 set of bench press equal 1 set of tricep work? Would 1 set of bench press be counted the same as 1 set of tricep extensions for tricep set volume?

The data is somewhat conflicting, one study found that participants recover quicker from isolation movements as opposed to multi joint movements, showing isolation movements might be less stressful. In another study by (Soares et al., 2015), they found the opposite, where isolation movements took longer to recover from, which would suggest that a set of compound movements such as the bench press shouldn't be counted as 1 set for the triceps.

Another study, this time measuring CSA growth of the triceps, by (Brandão et al., 2020) compared using the bench press (MJ - Multi Joint) or skullcrushers (SJ - Single Joint) or a combination of both, in 43 young men over a 10 week protocol. The results showed the lateral head of the triceps had significantly greater growth in the MJ and MJ+SJ than SJ alone. On the other hand the long head experienced significantly greater growth in the SJ and SJ+MJ groups than MJ alone. Meaning counting sets for muscle groups within multi joint compound movements can be specific.

As the data I can find and research for you is somewhat conflicting and limited, we have two options, we can count it as 1:1 or count each set of bench as a half set for triceps…

We do have one recommendation out of a review paper which looked at calculating set limb volume when using multi joint compound movements, published by several authorities in the hypertrophy science space, Dr. Brad Schoenfeld and Dr. Eric Helms, (Schoenfeld et al., 2019). From the review 👇

Personally, I think this comes down to experience. As the authors state a 1:1 ration can’t be assumed but may be good place to start. If you find your triceps are not responding to current pressing set volume, try adding in extra isolation work slowly until results start.

So now we have a good idea of what volume counts…

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
The Evidence…

A Meta-analysis with meta-regression by James Krieger compiled the results of 9 separate studies. He ran two separate analysis looking at the impact of different sets per muscle group, per session with either under (<2) Minutes rest between sets (Figure B) or over (>2) minutes rest per set (Figure C).

As you can see from Figure A (under 2 minutes rest), hypertrophy gains followed a dose response relationship upto 16 sets per muscle per session. However with diminishing returns, meaning you get less out of every subsequent set.

The results of his meta-regression show that hypertrophy gains when using longer rest periods plateau after 6 sets.

He does also state that this is the average, as there is data showing some subjects deviated substantially from the average of 6-8 sets, managing much higher per session set volume.

The reason for the increased set volume limit with the under 2 minute rest time data is due to the reduced weight used in each set. With less than 2 minutes rest the subjects wouldn’t have been able to use as much weight relative to their own 1RM. This also means they had to perform almost double the work for the same hypertrophic outcomes.

A randomised controlled trial published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning by (Brigatto et al., 2019) compared training every muscle group for 16 sets once per week vs 16 sets twice per week (8 sets per session) in trained men for 8 weeks. The results showed hypertrophy outcomes to be similar between the two groups, however a small effect size favoured the twice per week (8 sets per session) group. Improvements in training load volume were greater in the twice per week group, leaning to the fact that if the study had been carried out for longer than 8 weeks there could be a larger margin favouring the twice per week group.

This studies findings suggest 6-8 sets per muscle per session to be optimal and that performing all 16 in one session to be suboptimal for hypertrophy.

We also need enough volume…

A study by (Schoenfeld, Contreras, et al., 2019) compared training 1,3 or 5 sets per session per muscle in 34 resistance trained men, split into the three groups, for 8 weeks (Training for all routines consisted of three weekly sessions performed on nonconsecutive days). The 5 sets per session per muscle group saw increasingly greater gains following a dose response relationship. So we know we don’t want less than 5 sets per session for hypertrophy gains as it’s sub optimal.

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JUST FOR YOU
Key Takeaways and Practical Applications

• Junk volume refers to the volume your doing which takes up your time and energy without adding much benefit.

• Junk volume also includes “easy sets”. Sets not taken to or close to failure in the 6-30 repetition range

• With rest periods of >2 minutes, 6-8 sets per muscle per training session (on average) seems to be optimal for most people

• With rest periods of <2 minutes, hypertrophy gains can continue in a dose response fashion upto 16 sets per muscle per training session.

• Most people should aim for 6-8 sets per muscle per training session.

Remember these volume per muscle per session limits are averages from subjects within studies. Some of you reading this may have much higher per session volume limits, you may not reach “junk volume” territory until 12 sets per muscle per session.

We know 10-20 sets per muscle per week is optimal for hypertrophy, again following a dose response relationship and there have been studies showing weekly ceiling limits upto 30+ sets per week! (Note: Studies performed showing hypertrophy responses over 30+ sets per week per muscle, were not performed training 5-6 sessions per week, and did not perform this weekly set range for every muscle.)

In line with the above evidence, this lends itself to the outcome that splitting your volume per muscle over two or even three sessions may be optimal. If we are aiming for 20 sets per week, yet 6-8 per session is the threshold before the subsequent sets become “junk volume” we want to perform the remaining sets on a different day.

This will lead to:

• Higher quality working sets (more weight)

• More frequent muscle protein synthesis (MPS) stimulus

• Reduced recovery time and fatigue levels from each session

For Example: If you want to perform 12 weekly total sets for your chest. Instead of performing all 12 sets in the same session, 6 sets per session (according to the evidence) would be more optimal.

Again some of you may have per session per muscle volume limits upto 12 sets, meaning 24 total weekly sets could still be split into 2×12 set sessions.

My advice to you would be to use the above set volume per muscle per session as a guideline. Everyone will have an individual response volumes they can tolerate.