IS NOT
Q MORE
ALWAYS BETTER
Will adding extra days each week to my programme translate
into better strength gains or not? Bullet from Boksburg
A
If some training is good, more is better, right? Maybe not.
Exercise scientists (Amirthalingam et al. 2016) compared
the results from a group that followed a modified German
Volume Training (GVT) programme consisting of 10 sets of 10
reps, to those of a group following a more traditional programme
of 5 sets of 10 reps. Participants in the study trained 3 times per
week for a total of 6 weeks, after which their strength and body
composition were assessed and compared. Participants in the
study consisted of 19 drug-free males with at least a year of
weight training experience of at least 3 training sessions per week
under the belt. Researchers tested their muscle size (via muscle
thickness), body composition and strength. Tests were conducted
at the beginning and at the end of the study. Exercises consisted
of the bench press, lat pulldown and the leg press.
Pre- and post-testing
measurements included the
following:
■ Body composition was
assessed via Dual X-ray
Energy Absorptionmetry
(DXA).
■ Hypertrophy was
assessed by taking
muscle thickness with
ultrasonography.
■ Strength was assessed
by a 1RM test for the three
exercises.
What the researchers
found was the following:
■ Muscle thickness changes
were not different between
the groups.
■ The 5-set group had
greater increases in
strength than the 10-set
group.
■ Changes in body
composition favoured the
5-set group.
■ In moderately-trained
lifters, moderate volume may
be better than high volume.
Evidence from this particular study shows that in the short
term, a moderate amount of volume (5-set programme) actually
yields better strength than a high amount of volume (10-set
GVT programme).
The experiment further showed that volume should not be
increased too quickly for lifters with a relatively low training
age. It is also better to spread the volume for an exercise or
muscle group over a frequency of two to three sessions a week,
which will allow you to recover quicker between trips to the
gym. Although the participants of this study had some training
experience, they were not well-trained which shows that it takes
time to adapt to an increase in volume. M.E