Junk Volume: Why You Must Avoid It For Max Muscle

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In this video I'm covering the 3 most common types of junk volume. How many sets should you do per workout to maximize muscle growth? What is the threshold for effective volume per-session? How hard should you train to ensure that your workout volume isn't "junk"?

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References:

James Krieger Meta-analysis:

Training Frequency Study:

Easy Sets Study:

High Rep Sets Study:

Music:
Bankrupt Beats:

Filmed by Big 3 Media:

Edited by Jeff Nippard using Final Cut Pro

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About me: I'm a Canadian natural pro bodybuilder and internationally-qualified powerlifter with a BSc in biochemistry/chemistry and a passion for science. I've been training for 12 years drug-free. I'm 5'5 and fluctuate between 160 lbs (lean) and 180 lbs (bulked).

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Disclaimers: Jeff Nippard is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Jeff Nippard will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.

[nickvalin]

I'd love to know how this principle works with the secondary muscles worked by compound movements. For example, does a hard set of pull-ups count as a hard set for biceps? What about lat pull-down? Seems like a big grey area to me.

[mertk.]

I still cant believe how good jeff is at holding presentations. He basically does minimized bachelore thesis in almost each of his videos.

[SuperbSchmarts]

If I close my eyes, Ben Shapiro is telling me my workout is trash.

[jujimufu]

Great video! The visuals and graphs helped illustrate this topic particularly well for me.

[adrianrump]

As a scientist who regularly deals with scientific papers I must say that Jeff´s ability to interpret such papers and especially putting them into the bigger scope is exceptionally impressive!

[tyrowolfe]

Extremely valuable video. Thank you.

I farm for a living which is very physically demanding. When I work out, I want to be as efficient as possible in my results so I'm not burning myself out for my work.

Videos like this really help

[DrJacobGoodin]

Dr. Krieger is such a boss. I literally was sending some of his research to an excercise phys colleague last week as she prepped for a lecture about optimal sets for resistance training. Thanks for making such high quality knowledge available in video format Jeff.

[steveloge]

The info. The explanation. The organization. The literature review. The video editing.

Jeff's videos are better than what the online fitness community deserves.

[scolez]

Would love to see a breakdown video on warm up sets. Specifically how many sets to do, how heavy each set should be, etc

[charlesmendeley]

Thanks for these ultra valuable videos. Just as a side note: the "easy sets" only becomes a problem if one does not have a working progression scheme. Else, easy sets only happen temporarily until one has increased the weight / reps / sets until the exercise becomes challenging again.

[Gamer.Instinct]

I had a friend that always complained that no matter how much protein and surplus he had & how often he worked out he couldn’t put on more muscle. He was lean and a bit muscular but could never put on noticeable muscle… one day we did a “I’ll train one day with you and you train one day with me.” So it was his turn first to workout with me and workout the way I do. Mind you he’s about 4 inches taller than me and normally stronger.

So I started & showed him the routine for the day and my work out philosophy and mentality. Predominantly, low reps high weight.

So for example, our first workout was bench press. I did 10, 8, 5, 3 reps (sometime most of y’all might already consider too high volume). With 10 being a decent challenge weight, let’s say 50lbs (yes I am completely weak in the chest), then by the 5 rep weight I would be doing 75lbs, something that for me already required a spotter. And for the final set, 3 reps of 80lbs which was literally almost my max, I’m talking like barely being able to actually do it. So you feel me? That sort of workout where you can actually feel your muscles sore and like they’re torn up. Constantly doing reps close to your max. This system really works for me, and I notice very fast and good results from it.

So it was his turn to do the bench, and I told him “make sure that you use a weight where 10 reps ends up being a decent challenge, 8 you increase the weight a little more, 5 is a hard challenge, like you might not finish it. And 3 reps of a weight that you can barely do.” Dude was like “yea yea, ” and proceeded to do the same weights I did with so much ease that he did like 15 reps, then 15 more, then 10, and 10 :| so we moved on and all throughout the workout I kept telling him that it seemed he was going too light and to increase the weight more and he kept on bitching and telling me no.

We finished and he was like “that’s it??? This is so easy man” meanwhile I’m there feeling all the muscles we worked on about to rip and tear :|

A week later it was my turn to workout out with him. Needless to say, we did like 40 more minutes of cardio than what I normally do. Then we “hit the weights.” We started with bicep curls, and he was like “alright dude let’s do 50 curls…” and he preceded to grab the 15lbs when I know for a fact that his one rep max for a curl is at least at 50lbs :| and like he wouldn’t rest either, it’s like his rest from doing curls was dips, like you feel me?
By the end of his workout routine I felt tired ye, and sore but it wasn’t the same soreness. My soreness was over literally like 6 hours later, whereas the soreness from my workouts usually last 2-3 days depending on how close to failure or my one rep max I’m getting to.

I was like, yo no wonder this dude can’t put on weight or get stronger, he just trains light weights for insanely high volume and never gets close to actual challenging weight.

He never understood this, no matter how I tried to explain it or how many YouTube videos like these I showed him.
To this day he still workouts out like 2 hours daily, diets severely (I’m talking, any surplus calories must come from greens & proteins, almost no fats not even healthy ones, and no bad carbs, dude literally takes the bread off his burgers… no he’s not gluten intolerant), prioritises high volume as opposed to high weight, and still bitches about not getting bigger or any stronger 🤷🏻‍♂️

[NattyLifeYT]

Excellent video! I think lots of people have a junk volume problem and we should all be trying to optimise our programming in order to make all our sets as effective as possible. Also I think someone's junk volume could change with time. For example when they are novices perhaps 2 sets per body part is plenty to get them growing muscle, however as you get more advanced or even elite, you will have to add more sets in order to accumulate more tonnage to keep progressing.

[Aarohnn]

I appreciate you leaving the links to the studies in the description, high quality information right here

[magicjerk]

Thank you - this video in particular was more useful than most content I've seen... I love that you back up your claims with meta-analysis of the scientific literature. Thanks to you I'm going to be able to save a significant chunk of time related to "junk volume" with confidence. I've already been trending this way already from personal experience (breaking up big sessions into many sessions over the week), but now that I have some evidence behind the decision, I'll be able to modify my remaining 'big' sessions into multiple 'smaller' sessions with zeal.

[dastanbekkadyrkulov]

Jeff puts so much work into his videos the only thing i can do for him is standing ovations . Thanks bro!

[nimishsharma]

Undoubtedly, the most consistent fitnesses you-tuber. Clearly putting in the work in order to bring out the quality content!! 👏👏

[pieterwesterink]

This is actually what I needed, I want to increase my jiu jitsu and wrestling training to 5 times a week and strength and conditioning training 3 times a week, so this will really help keeping myself from over fatigueing. It is almost suspicuous how coincidental this video is

[markpetruschi]

Great video!! As a beginner, my two main mistakes were lack of sleep and not eating enough. I was disappointed because my weight stagnated. Then I got my first diet plan (I think it was from Nextlevel DIet). I realised that my previous food intake was way below my needs, although I thought I'm good. At the beginning it was hard to eat so many kcal in a day, but I got used to it. I started noticing real gains and it felt amazing. I wish I'd understood the importance of diet earlier.

[cbjueueiwyru]

Thank you for covering the point at 3:46. In the past, when I have decreased volume based on things like this, I felt progress slow. Everyone is different so I appreciate that you acknowledged that it's not 1 size fits all

[patrickvanmeter]

Thank you for posting this. Answered questions I have had for quite some time. BTW, I have followed you since you started and would just like to say, you should be proud of yourself. Your gains are incredible. I'm 82 and still learning after weight training and exercising since I was 15. Always appreciate your knowledge. Thank you.