The Importance of Previous Resistance Training Volume on Muscle Growth in Trained Individuals

ABSTRACT Resistance training volume has been suggested to be one of the most effective variables for developing muscular hypertrophy. Meta-analyses have concluded that there exists a dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume (i.e., the number of sets performed over the training week) and muscle mass accrual in nonresistance-trained individuals; however, experimental data in resistance-trained individuals have shown conflicting results. Current literature suggests that the performance of additional sets of resistance exercise within a single training session and training week does not inherently result in greater increases in muscle size compared with groups or conditions that perform lower volumes of resistance training. Notwithstanding these results, it has been suggested that controlling for each individual's previous training volume could improve the precision of the muscle hypertrophic response to resistance training and that failing to do so would disregard the principle of progressive overload. Herein, we explore the evidence for the suggestion that a higher-volume approach to training, in comparison to what an individual has been accustomed to, would improve the precision of the muscle growth response to resistance training and the physiological rationale that may (or may not) underpin this phenomenon.