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Is There an Upper Threshold for Volume?

Is There an Upper Threshold for Volume?
When building a training program, the amount of volume that each muscle group is exposed to is an important factor for progress, however, a recent study published in the Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise may have confirmed the point of diminishing returns that comes with too much volume[1]. So where do you fall?
Is There an Ideal Amount Threshold for Volume?
That’s a tricky question. While we’re beginning to understand more about which factors contribute most to muscular hypertrophy and strength, we don’t yet have exact numbers. What we do know is that it doesn’t take much to maintain muscle mass – in fact, it looks like in younger populations it’s possible to maintain adaptations with as little as one-ninth of the volume it took to produce the gains, while some improvements in myofibrillar hypertrophy and strength continued to be seen with as little as one-third training volume[2].

This is pretty interesting news considering that most of us worry about losing our gains during periods of low training volume. This is also great news for competing individuals that are looking to maintain muscle mass during the end-stages of prep where calories are restricted and the subsequent effects on attention span, fatigue, sleep, and mood are felt the most.

For beginners, a good place to start is with as little volume as is necessary to see positive outcomes. Recovery is always key, so making sure that overreaching during the beginning stages of training is crucial. Afterward, it becomes easy to increase volume phase to phase for a linear progression before shifting into more undulating periodization styles (which we will cover in another article).
In terms of selecting the appropriate volume for your training phase, think first about what your main stimulus is; if the goal of the phase is load/intensity, then you can successfully get away with lower training volume, somewhere around 5 – 9 sets/muscle group/week can be effective[3]. Since the main stimulus is the load and strength training is much more neurologically demanding than hypertrophy, your primary focus would be high-quality sets while managing fatigue and volume.
Thinking about this when creating programs can allow you to undulate your volume phase to phase just based purely on what outcomes you are looking for which is a great way to create high and low volume sessions and continuously see progress.
New Research for the Upper Threshold of Volume
In the study by Barbalho and colleagues, the participants were randomly assigned into one of four training groups: G5 (5 sets/week), G10 (10 sets/week), G15 (15 sets/week), and G20 (20 sets/week). Each of these groups represented the indicated number of sets that each trained muscle group would be exposed to weekly, other than that the training programs remained similar between all groups.
At the end of the 24-week training period, the researchers measured changes in 10RM and muscle thickness (using an ultrasound) of each participant. The most interesting part of this whole study was that the researchers found virtually no difference between the groups performing 5 or 10 sets/week per muscle group in terms of 10RM improvements or muscle thickness which can be interpreted as the low to mid-range volume threshold that is required in order to see positive outcomes. According to the researchers, all the participants had been resistance training for at least 3 years uninterrupted, but my counter would be that we don’t know what kind of training they were doing.
That being said, this study does have some great strengths. First, the participants were monitored while training by professionals that had no involvement in the study, their only purpose was to make sure that the effort level stayed high especially in the low volume groups which is most likely why they saw impressive results.
That can be interpreted as high-quality sets, so for example, if you’re looking at doing 15 sets of quads per week, you could argue that only 5 of those sets need to be performed at a high effort close to failure and the outcome would be positive. Second, the total training program was performed for 24 weeks which is enough time to negate the effects of a new program.

In terms of volume breakdown by trained muscles, here’s what the paper tells us:

Triceps and Pecs saw a slightly bigger increase in muscle thickness in the lowest volume group (5 sets/week)
Biceps, Quads, and Glutes saw the biggest increase in muscle thickness when performing 10 sets/week

For 10RM increases:

The training program consisted of Bench Press, 45-degree leg press, Lat pull down, and Stiff-Leg deadlift
All exercises saw significant improvements with 10 sets/week of exposure, except for the Stiff-Leg deadlifts which saw similar gains at 5 sets/week as well.

Final Word
We’re always trying to look for an edge in training. What will give us the biggest bang for our buck and how can we look like those we model after. Even with new studies coming out, it’s still so individual that all we can really hope to get at guidelines at best. For a long time, German-Volume training was considered a great program for hypertrophy, and even that is being disputed with a 2018 paper from Hackett et al concluding that while more studies need to be done, 4 – 6 sets per exercise seems to be what works[4].
As for our main study, while the exciting part is to see how little volume we can get away with and still make solid gains (given that effort is high), another key takeaway is how poorly the high volume groups did which performed 15 and 20 sets/week. At best, they gained a fraction of the growth and strength gains, but the real-life concern here is after 24-weeks of very high volume with little to show for it, where do you go?
The smart money is on a deload that can hopefully detrain that stimulus, but you have your recovery work cut out for you. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they suffered from over-training syndrome which is a term that people like to throw around. The high muscle damage might have inhibited their ability to recover optimally, but they definitely weren’t medically overtrained. In fact, it’s actually way harder to achieve than you would think[5]. There was no nutritional arm in this paper, but I’d bet the results could have been even better if there was.
Sticking to volume thresholds that allow you to progress consistently is key. You don’t need to do more for the sake of doing more since recovery is where gains are made. Use strength phases to take advantage of low volume when you need it, and progress upwards in hypertrophy phases.
As I mentioned above, we’ll go over how to progress volume phase to phase and even week to week in an upcoming article.

References:
[1] Barbalho, M., Coswig, V. S., Steele, J., Fisher, J. P., Paoli, A., & Gentil, P. (2019). Evidence for an upper threshold for resistance training volume in trained women. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 51(3), 515-522.
[2] Bickel, C. Scott, James M. Cross, and Marcas M. Bamman. “Exercise dosing to retain resistance training adaptations in young and older adults.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 43, no. 7 (2011): 1177-1187.
[3] Ralston, Grant W., Lon Kilgore, Frank B. Wyatt, and Julien S. Baker. “The effect of weekly set volume on strength gain: a meta-analysis.” Sports Medicine 47, no. 12 (2017): 2585-2601.
[4] Hackett, Daniel A., Theban Amirthalingam, Lachlan Mitchell, Yorgi Mavros, Guy C. Wilson, and Mark Halaki. “Effects of a 12-week modified german volume training program on muscle strength and hypertrophy—a pilot study.” Sports 6, no. 1 (2018): 7.
[5] Grandou, Clementine, Lee Wallace, Franco M. Impellizzeri, Nicholas G. Allen, and Aaron J. Coutts. “Overtraining in resistance exercise: an exploratory systematic review and methodological appraisal of the literature.” Sports Medicine 50, no. 4 (2020): 815-828.

Eight Best Dumbbell Exercises for Your Triceps

Eight Best Dumbbell Exercises for Your Triceps
The triceps muscles get a bad rap. They’re sometimes dismissed as showy beach muscles, along for the ride while the biceps do all of the work.
In reality, the triceps are the engines of everyday movement, playing a key role in the extension of the elbow joint and the straightening of the arm, working with the lats to bring the arm toward the body. Try swinging a bat, racket, or golf club without the triceps. It can’t be done. Swimmers would be useless without the triceps pulling them through the water. Basketball players could not get off a jump shot.
The three-headed triceps brachii muscle makes up roughly two-thirds of the mass of your upper arm and plays such a key role in movement that at least one study has been done breaking down what each of the three parts of the triceps does during elbow extension.
The triceps deserve equal time in the gym even if they were valued solely for aesthetic reasons. With this dumbbell workout, we’ll work through four sets of these eight moves in a circuit fashion to produce triceps that will look awesome and handle the burdens of everyday life.  We will alternate between pushing and pulling movements, so we can produce maximum results with minimal time and equipment, resting only briefly between sets.
Skull Crushers

What it does: One of the most familiar triceps moves, it’s also one of the most effective. Not only does it work the triceps directly it also builds coordination between the upper back and tris.
How to do it: Lie supine on a bench and lower the dumbbells until your elbows are bent 90 degrees. Then pull back to starting position.
How many? 4 sets of 10 reps.
Renegade Rows
What it does: It’s a simple yet challenging move that hits the triceps and also the biceps, back, and shoulders.
How to do it: Start in the top position of a pushup with your hands on dumbbells shoulder-width apart. Row one dumbbell toward the side of your body while balancing on the opposite hand and feet. Pause for one second at the top and return the weight slowly to the start position. Repeat on the other side.
How many? 4 sets of 10 reps to each side.
One-Arm Overhead Extension
What it does: Similar to Skull Crushers, it further isolates the triceps.
How to do it: Hold a dumbbell and raise your arm behind your head with the elbow bent. Extend the elbow to point the arm straight overhead. Repeat for 10 reps with one hand and switch hands.
How many? 4 sets of 10 reps to each side.
Diamond Pushups
What it does: By performing pushups from this position, you take a traditional chest/bicep move and make it a triceps exercise.
How to do it: Assume pushup position grabbing dumbbells placed at a 45-degree angle. Push up using the triceps.
How many? 4 sets of 10 reps.
Tate Press
What it does: It targets the triceps from a non-traditional in a bench press-like maneuver.
How to do it: Lie supine on a bench with dumbbells in each hand. Arms should be extended over your chest and palms facing the floor. Point the elbows out and bend them to lower the weights nearly to the chest, forming L shapes. Extend the elbows to starting position.
How many? 4 sets of 10.
Waiter’s Walk
What it does: Waiting tables might not land you a movie role. But it could give you better triceps, as well as overall core stability.
How to do it: Grab a dumbbell in one hand and hold it overhead. Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down and fire your glutes as you walk. Keep your wrists straight, as if you were waiting tables and holding a tray. Walk 10 yards out and 10 yards back. Switch hands and repeat. Like the farmer’s carry, you’ll soon increase distance and weight.
How many? 4 sets.
Dumbbell Upright Row
What it does: It’s a simple, familiar yet effective compound movement that challenges the triceps while also strengthening and stabilizing the shoulders and upper back.
How to do it: Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding dumbbells palms down in front of your body. While keeping the shoulder blades back and chest up, raise dumbbells vertically, lifting elbows to the ceiling. Return to starting position.
How many? 4 sets of 10.
Standing Kickbacks
What it does: It targets the triceps while promoting core stability.
How to do it: Stand holding dumbbells. Glide your hips back, lowering your torso until it’s almost parallel to the floor. Turn your palms to face in front of you and, while keeping the upper arms against your sides, extend your elbows until your arms are parallel to your torso.
How many? 4 sets of 10 to each side.

Pete Williams is a NASM-CPT and the author or co-author of several fitness books, including Core Performance and Every Day is Game Day. His work has appeared in publications such as Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, and USA Today.

Natural Bodybuilder Adrian Pietrariu Reveals Secret Oblique Exercise

Image via Instagram @adrianironman
INBA PNBA athlete Adrian Pietrariu shares his secret oblique exercise. 
Everyone wants washboard abs, but anyone who’s been training in the gym for years knows that getting abs is no easy task. It takes a disciplined diet and the correct movements. Some key muscle groups of your abdominals are your obliques. These muscles on the side help give you the awe-dropping V-taper. International Natural Bodybuilding Association (INBA)/Professional Natural Bodybuilding Association (PNBA) athlete Adrian Pietrariu shared his secret exercise for obliques on Instagram (IG). 
In 2018 Adrian Pietrariu was the INBA PNBA’s Athlete of the Year. In addition, he was inducted into the INBA PNBA Hall of Fame in 2020. On IG, Adrian said:
“This Exercise is one of my Secrets to getting those Obliques to show like the Shark Gills 
I do 4 to 6 sets of 30 reps each side.”
Below is a video of Adrian Pietrariue performing this movement. 
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uXWEAAVSH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The exercise Adrian Pietrariue is doing is known as oblique extensions. Oblique extensions target your obliques. You can add weight to them as well. 
Key To Abs
Of course, everyone wants chiseled abs, but it’s imperative for a competitive bodybuilder. The right exercises can help tone your abs. As the adage goes, abs are made in the kitchen.
A lot of people think that by doing more exercise, they’ll get abs. However, it’s cutting body fat via a caloric deficit that truly give you washboard abs. Although, the correct movements will make your abs stronger and help them be more noticeable once you get down to lower body fat levels. But you must have low body fat levels if you want your abs to show. We recommend between 10-12% body fat for visible abs. 
Other Ab and Oblique Exercise 
Of course, nutrition is essential to get low body fat levels, but critical exercises are also crucial. Aside from oblique extensions, there are a variety of other exercises you can do to target your core. To name a few, we create a list of a few abs exercise you can try next time you workout. 
Ab Movements

Natural Bodybuilding
As the name suggests, natural bodybuilding is a sport that prohibits drugs. Bans against drugs are especially true in the INBA PNBA league. That’s because this natural bodybuilder league vets every athlete through the utmost drug testing standards – the World Anti-Doping Agency. 
Competitors that fail a WADA-compliant drug test at any point during the year – the INBA PNBA does both in-season and off-season testing – will be stripped of their title and banned from competing. And instead of earning a spot on the Hall of Fame as Adrian Pietratiue has. They’ll be ridiculed on the Hall of Shame. 
Below is a Generation Iron exclusive interview with Pietrariu on his perspective on whether he thinks a bodybuilder is natural if they used to take steroids but don’t now. 
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If you’re looking to develop your obliques and get one step close to a Greek-God V-taper, give Adrian Pietraiu’s secret ab exercise – oblique extensions – a try next time you’re in the gym. 
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