Low-Volume Strength Training: The Secret to Building Muscle Efficiently
Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine
4 hours ago
There are lots of valuable commodities on planet Earth, including gold, fossil fuels, and rare minerals used in modern technology. However, the most precious resources for most people are their time and energy.

The truth is that time and energy are often in short supply, with constant demands on both. From the moment you get up to the minute you go to bed, your time and energy are drained away, often by tasks or people you have to deal with but would prefer to avoid.

Common time and energy drains include:

Work
Commuting
Household chores
Unproductive relationships
Stress and worrying
For many people, adding exercise to what is already a packed schedule is not just unappealing; it’s impossible.

The Challenge of Finding Time for Exercise
Man Doing Training At Home

Sure, some people will always tell you that if you prioritize exercise, even the busiest person can find time to hit the gym, but that’s not always the case. Life often gets in the way of our best intentions.

Part of the problem is that most people think that they have to dedicate many hours to exercise to get any benefit. Many fitness professionals make matters worse by writing programs that are too long, too complicated, and too unsustainable for anyone but full-time athletes and bodybuilders.

Look at the average strength training workout; typically, it will include multiple exercises of multiple sets per muscle group. This necessitates several lengthy workouts per week, often as many as five or six. Nonetheless, such a time-consuming approach to training is impractical and unnecessary for most.

The Efficiency of Low-Volume Training Workouts
The good news is that you don’t have to spend hours working out to transform your body, build muscle, lose fat, and get fit. In fact, you can build muscle in minutes instead of hours.

That said, you will need to forget much of what you’ve been told about exercise and embrace some lesser-known but science-backed training strategies.

In this article, we delve into low-volume strength training, revealing how you can shorten your workouts while maximizing results.

The Science of Low-Volume Strength Training
Ask a bodybuilder how many sets you need per week to build a muscle group, and they’ll probably tell you it’s about 20. Some may do more or less than this, but 20 is a fair average.

This answer makes a lot of sense based on numerous studies that suggest a high training volume is needed to maximize muscle growth (1). Judging by the physiques of recreational and competitive bodybuilders, it’s clear that high-volume training works, but it’s also incredibly draining, both in terms of time and energy.

Man Doing Deadlift Training

But what if you aren’t interested in maximizing muscle growth? Instead, you want to be stronger and more muscular than average, working out for your health as much as your appearance?

In other words, you want to look like you lift but have no aspirations to get so buff that your biceps are the size of soccer balls.

So, how much training does that require? The answer is very little.

Studies reveal that while 20 sets per week might be ideal for optimizing muscle hypertrophy, one set three times per week is enough to trigger respectable gains in size and strength (2). Assuming you hit the gym thrice weekly, this equates to one working set per muscle group per workout.

Yes, that’s all it takes to pull the trigger on hypertrophy and build strength. And while such a low-volume approach probably won’t win you a place on the Mr. Olympia podium, it’s enough that you can still achieve impressive results.

Needless to say, such a low-volume approach to resistance training flies in the face of what most fitness professionals prescribe. Instead, they keep churning out workouts that are too long for the average exerciser to follow. And if your time and energy are already in short supply, it won’t be long until you start skipping workouts or quit altogether.

So, while high-volume programs may be optimal for hypertrophy, they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on if you can’t stick to them.

In all honesty, low-volume training is almost as effective as high-volume training but saves you a whole lot of time and energy. This means it’s more accessible, and you’re more likely to train consistently compared to an impractically long workout plan. As such, it may produce BETTER results as you’ll be less inclined to miss workouts.

Let’s expand on those benefits in the following section.


The Pros of Low-Volume Strength Training
Not ready to make the shift from high-volume to low-volume strength training? Consider these benefits and then decide!

1. Shorter Workouts
Even if you do 2-3 exercises per muscle group, limiting yourself to one work set of each means your workouts will be much shorter than for conventional strength and bodybuilding training. Shorter workouts are appealing when time and energy are in short supply.

2. Reduced Training Frequency
Most strength training programs are built around split routines, where you train different muscles on different days. This allows you to spread the volume throughout the week, making better use of your time and energy. For example:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Chest & Back Legs Shoulders & Arms Chest & Back Legs Shoulders & Arms Rest
However, when you slash your training volume to a bare minimum, you can combine more muscle groups per session or even train your entire body in one go. This means you won’t need to go to the gym as often and can reduce your training frequency to thrice or twice a week.

3. Improved Recovery
High-volume training can be draining. Four, five, or six times a week, you’ll need to gather your energy and drag yourself through yet another lengthy workout, probably knowing that you’ll have to do it all again tomorrow. It’s no wonder that energizing pre-workout supplements are so popular!

However, with low-volume training, not only are your workouts less tiring, but they’re also shorter and less frequent, leaving you more time for rest and recovery.

4. Easier to Remain Focused
The longer your workouts, the harder it is to stay focused. That’s why so many lifters end up looking at their phones between sets – they’re just trying to pass the time. Shorter workouts make it much easier to stay focused, and boredom doesn’t get a chance to set in. Being more focused invariably makes your training more productive, as each exercise and set is performed more mindfully.

5. Less Wear and Tear
While strength training is one of the safest forms of physical activity, it’s not entirely risk-free. Many of those risks are the result of overuse injuries. Doing the same movement over and over can cause localized inflammation and even damage your joints.

Conversely, low-volume strength training significantly reduces how many repetitive movements you must perform per workout. This is good news for anyone with painful joints, e.g., shoulder tendonitis or sore hips or knees.

6. Quality, not Quantity
Runners use the term “junk miles” to describe workouts that provide no real benefit while using valuable time and energy. Similarly, high-volume workouts often contain a lot of junk sets. After all, once you’ve done enough work to trigger hypertrophy, additional exercises and sets merely rob you of energy and delay recovery.

Low-volume training puts the emphasis on workout quality rather than quantity. Doing more sets might enhance your results; however, there is a point of diminishing returns. 1-2 sets will trigger the majority of your gains, and doing more will only provide a small additional benefit. For many people, those extra gains are not worth the cost.

7. It’s Easier to See Improvements in Performance
When confronted with an overload of information, it’s often said that you cannot see the woods for the trees. That expression can also be used when trying to determine if your workout is productive. When you perform several exercises for multiple sets, any performance improvements can be hard to see. There is a lot of “background noise” that could disguise your progress.

But, when you strip your workout back to a few basic exercises performed for 1-2 sets each, progress is much more apparent. In fact, you’ll probably see progress from one week to the next. Combined with shorter and less frequent workouts, this can be very motivating.

The Cons of Low-Volume Strength Training
While low-volume strength training can be practical and effective, there are a couple of drawbacks to consider, too:

1. Reduced Caloric Expenditure
Shorter, less frequent workouts mean you’ll burn fewer calories per week. This could be a drawback if you are exercising for weight loss. However, the reduction in calories probably only amounts to 750-1000 calories fewer per week, which can be addressed simply by eating a little less or walking more.

Subsequently, while low-volume strength training will reduce your caloric expenditure, it needn’t stop you from losing or controlling your weight.

2. Limited Muscle Endurance Development
Muscular endurance is your ability to generate low amounts of force for long periods. Examples of muscular endurance in action include walking, running, and most sports.

Low-volume, intense strength training workouts have the potential to improve your endurance but won’t be as effective as high-volume training. Hitting the same muscle with several sets and exercises is challenging. It teaches your body how to better deal with oxygen debt and raised lactate levels.

Therefore, if you need to develop your muscular endurance, e.g., for soccer, MMA, or basketball, low-volume strength training may not be the best tool.

3. Not Optimal for Maximizing Hypertrophy
While a few bodybuilders have thrived using low-volume, high-intensity training (Casey Viator, Mike Mentzer, and Dorian Yates specifically), most have built their incredible physiques using more traditional strength training methods. These examples, plus numerous studies, suggest that high-volume training is best for optimizing hypertrophy.

However, unless you plan on entering a bodybuilding show, you probably don’t need to worry about achieving maximal hypertrophy, and simply adding some muscle mass while losing fat will give you the head-turning physique you’ve always wanted.

In summary, while training more will undoubtedly produce better results, the extra time and energy cost will probably outweigh any potential benefits for most people.

Back Squat

4. Less Cardiovascular Benefit
Shorter, less frequent workouts could reduce the cardiovascular benefit of your workouts. After all, your heart and breathing rate won’t be elevated as long or as often. However, it’s worth remembering that most people don’t strength train for its cardiovascular benefits, and that’s why cardio is as important as strength training for all-around health and fitness.

The good news is that shorter, less frequent workouts will leave you plenty of time to do your cardio.

5. Increased Need for Higher Intensity
High-volume workouts generate a lot of overload through accumulated fatigue. The more exercises and sets you do, the more tired you become. This triggers muscle growth.

With low-volume training, overload comes from exercise intensity. In other words, while you’ll be doing fewer sets, those sets will have to be harder, and you’ll need to push closer to failure.

This can be both painful and mentally challenging, and the ability to train to failure can take time to develop. You may also need to work with a spotter for some exercises, e.g., bench presses and squats.

With the pros and cons of low-volume strength training covered, it’s time to move on to the best exercises for this time-efficient workout method.