Progressive Resistance Training Volume: Effects on Muscle Thickness, Mass, and Strength Adaptations in Resistance-Trained Individuals

“…Along with the finding of significant impact of both progressive and fixed PA on mental health indicators, a critical finding of this study is the superior improvement observed in the outcome variables within the fixed PA group compared with the progressive PA group. This finding is somewhat different from those of the previous literature exploring the impact of progressive and fixed PA on physical health outcomes [ 57 - 59 ]. However, this study found that fixed PA showed better results in terms of mental health indicators.…”

“…Moreover, Brigatto et al [3] compared 16, 24, and 32 weekly sets and detected advantages for dynamic strength gains in barbell back squat and bench press that favored higher volume conditions in a graded dose-response manner. Nevertheless, contrary to our findings, there were previous studies that detected no dose-response effects for training volume and muscle strength gains in trained individuals [6,8,9].…”

“…Our findings also generally align with those of Brigatto et al (6), who reported greater increases in 1RM squat when performing 32 versus 16 weekly sets targeting lower body. On the other hand, our findings conflict with previous studies that did not show greater strength improvements with higher set volumes in trained individuals (3,4,8). When attempting to reconcile discrepancies between these studies and ours, it should be noted that although the participants in Schoenfeld et al (4) and Brigatto et al (6) were classified as resistance-trained (squatting at ~1.3× and ~1.4× body mass), both studies did not require a high level of proficiency on squat exercise (squatting at least 1.5× body mass) to classify the participants as advanced trained individuals (16).…”