First, What Is Training Volume?
Before you can spread your volume, it helps to know what it is. In strength training, volume is the total amount of work you do. It’s most commonly calculated as: Sets x Reps x Weight. For example, if you bench press 3 sets of 10 reps with 100 kilograms,
your volume for that exercise is 3,000 kg. While that number is useful for tracking, many people simplify it by just counting the number of hard sets they perform for each muscle group per week. This is because the number of challenging sets is a primary driver for muscle growth.
Finding Your Weekly Volume Sweet Spot
So, how much volume do you need? Research consistently points to a beneficial range for muscle growth, or hypertrophy, of about 10-20 hard sets per muscle group per week. Beginners can often see great results on the lower end of this spectrum, sometimes with as few as 9 or 10 sets per week, while more advanced lifters might need to push closer to 20 or even slightly above for some muscles. Anything significantly above this range for most people can lead to what’s called “junk volume”—extra sets that add more fatigue than they do growth, hindering recovery and increasing injury risk. The goal is to do enough work to stimulate growth, but not so much that you can't recover from it.
Why Spreading Volume Beats One Big Day
This is the core of the headline's wisdom. Smashing a muscle with 20 sets in one marathon session (a classic “bro split”) is less effective than hitting it with 10 sets on Monday and 10 sets on Thursday. The reason lies in muscle protein synthesis (MPS), the process of repairing and rebuilding muscle tissue after a workout. MPS is elevated for about 24-48 hours after you train a muscle. By training a muscle group more frequently—at least twice a week—you can trigger this growth process multiple times, leading to better gains over the long run compared to a single, weekly session. Spreading the volume also allows you to perform higher-quality sets in each workout, since you are less fatigued than you would be at the end of a single, high-volume session.
Popular Ways to Split Your Volume
There is no single “best” split; the best one is the one that fits your schedule and allows you to be consistent. Here are a few popular and effective ways to organise your training: Full-Body Split: You train all major muscle groups in each session, typically 3 times per week. This is excellent for beginners and ensures high frequency. For a weekly volume of 12 sets per muscle, you might do 4 sets per muscle group each workout. Upper/Lower Split: You train your upper body one day and your lower body the next, typically hitting each twice a week over 4 training days. This allows for more volume per session than a full-body workout while still maintaining good frequency. Push/Pull/Legs (PPL): This split divides workouts by movement pattern. You have a “push” day (chest, shoulders, triceps), a “pull” day (back, biceps), and a leg day. This is often run twice over a 6-day cycle for optimal frequency.
Listen To Your Body and Adjust
The perfect plan on paper means nothing if you can’t recover from it. Volume is just one piece of the puzzle. Sleep, nutrition, and stress management are just as critical for muscle growth and recovery. Signs of overtraining, or doing too much volume, include persistent fatigue, a decline in performance, nagging injuries, mood disturbances, and poor sleep. If you're constantly sore for more than 72 hours or your lifts are going down instead of up, it might be a sign that you need to reduce your volume or take a deload week. Start on the lower end of the recommended volume range (around 10-12 sets per muscle group per week) and slowly add more only if you feel recovered and are progressing well.
