Research

Hormonal

Higher resistance training volume (3 sets vs 1 set) yields greater muscle hypertrophy and strength gains, but this benefit is contingent upon the individual's capacity for ribosome biogenesis (total RNA accumulation).

If you are new to resistance training, doing 3 sets per exercise will likely yield better muscle and strength gains than doing just 1 set. However, your body's ability to produce ribosomes (total RNA) determines how much benefit you get from those extra sets. If you are short on time, 1 set is still effective, but 3 sets is superior for maximizing growth.

GoodConditionalHIGH confidence
These results demonstrate that there is a dose-dependent relationship between training volume and outcomes. On the individual level, benefits of higher training volume were associated with increased ribosomal biogenesis.
Daniel Hammarström et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2019

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with within-subject design, objective molecular and morphological outcomes, but small sample size (n=34).

Source

Benefits of higher resistance‐training volume are related to ribosome biogenesis

Daniel Hammarström et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2019

DOI 10.1113/jp278455

rct · n=34Cited 101×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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