Junk Volume: Why You Must Avoid It For Max Muscle
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February 22, 2026
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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.
Guys I have a question I do for each muscle group 8-12 sets. Is that ok? My thinf is ppl Arms so maybe like 20 sets weekly or 17 is rnag junke volume
prisoners in the US have the best natural physiques in the world and it debunks this "science"
What about compound movements like Quadrupedal crawls or dips, bench, etc. there is a lot of overlap of muscle groups in some exercises. So how would I incorporate isolation exercises like tricep extensions in a push day that I do compound exercises like dips and bench presses and quadrupedal crawling movements in a single workout or should I keep compound exercises in one workout and isolation exercises in another workout? Also what about plyometrics and jumping? Should I incorporate them into a leg day where I am doing lunges and squats? What about “burnouts” . I took martial arts and my instructor told me to do ultra high reps 50 to 60 of bench to help with punching power and explosivity.
If I do let’s say 6 sets of back 6 sets of triceps and 6 sets biceps in a workout. is that still fine and no junk since they are different muscles?
Hmmm, I am skeptical. Ever heard the term “German Volume”?
One caveat I would make is that it depends on your goal. What do you define as gains? If I’m workout for like a Iron man, hyrox or other endurance workouts then maybe the extreme volume might make sense for muscle endurance gains rather than literal “strength” gains
Myo Reps = Junk Volume.
Didn't need them in the past and we don't need them now.
I see a lot of talk about the number of sets, but not much about time between the sets and that is a huge factor.
Anybody want to weigh in on this?
I do 3-5 sets depending on the muscles and my rest time between sets is around 30 seconds.
Without changing the weight on the bar my numbers are along the lines of, 12, 6, 3, 3, and then maybe the same movement as a partial for another 10 or more reps. Every set to either failure or as close as I can go.
This way I am going as close to failure as possible with each muscle, 3 to 5 times in eight to ten minutes.
I'm seeing results but it's challenging to train this way because of the energy drain.
I'm 47 and currently in my best shape of my life.
This is great thank you. Realizing I'm not working my muscles frequently enough, but I'm working them too much in one workout when I do
Hard to say if I'm doing too much. Because i work 12 hour days all back to back, I only get 2 days to workout and because of this, I try to get a full weeks worth of volume in just two days. For reference, my back day usually consists of 70k+ lbs moved over…
Overhead rows 4 sets
Close grip rows 3 sets
Wide grip pulldowns 4 sets
Face pulls 4 sets
Reverse flys 2 sets
Scull crushers 2 sets
Tricep extensions 3 sets
All sets taken to failure anywhere between 8-20 reps because I do wide range of weight and tempo. My total volume is between 60-80k lbs moved.
All that being said, it takes about 5 days to feel completely recovered. My triceps take the longest usually. I do get better numbers almost every week and I'm on my 4th year.
Is there a way to tell you're doing junk volume within a workout. Is there a rule like if you can't do 75% of what you could do on your first few working sets it's junk volume?????
(obviously you can do it over time by seeing how reducing/increasing # of sets affects progress)
7:50 does it apply to single arm dumbell lateral raises too?
Cause I do 50-60 reps of 5 kg dumbbells and it really burns my shoulder
Even if you aren't gaining muscle you're still lifting and exercising, it's still good for you. Gaining muscle is just one benefit of resistance training
Watch the video twice and I'm still confuse about the difference between the "Easy Sets" & "Ultra-High Rep Sets". They both seem to be about utilizing too light of a weight. Any insight?
It would be great, if you could say something on this how 40+ yrs people should arrange their trainings. I would be thankful for some helpful tips on finding the sweet spot between building muscles and avoiding the injury.
If I need 20 sets weekly, 6 a workout… I just need 4 chest days a week!
6:22 nerd jeff is so cute
This is the issue withi youtube fitness influencers. Too many videos and contradictory or confusing information. I recall another video by this same person that states 10-20 sets per muscle group per workout. This video says thats too many. Which is it?
these numbers differ based on individual fitness and lifestyle, let's be real some of us wake up in the morning drive one hour, work 8 hours, drive another hour, do home chores, go to gym and then sleep. literally no time for anything else except sleep 6 hours, of course it's gonna be that much different when I get proper rest and have time only to recover and workout.
Isnt bro split two days for back and chest and one for legs, would doing 8 working sets each day be a good workout?
So only do 2 exercises per muscle group per day? 3 sets of bench 3 sets of fly and that’s it? Powerlifters do very hard sets but for only 1-3 reps we wouldn’t have 400+ power cleaners if they were only doing 20 sets of quads in a week 12 of those sets would go straight to power clean on day 1 and they don’t do that once a week.
I Still wonder, I heard from somewhere that high reps are best for hypertrophy of the legs. Is it true or can I do just something 8
But in the study they trained each muscle twice a week. But If I train each muscle once a week then shouldn’t I be able to do more sets before reaching junk volume, because I have more recovery time?
Genuine question- How would I learn to criticize "junk" (or easy) reps VS connective tissue strengthening?
God this guys voice is so annoying. Learn to speak properly please
How would you explain some one like my dad that milked cows 2 times a day 7 days a week for 20 minutes at a time and his grip was crazy strong and he had massive forearms ?
Who is bro on two sets on the graph 😭
New studies show junk volume doesn't really exist. You just get increasingly diminishing returns, rather, until you hit the non-recoverable point where joints or tissues can't keep up.
but on his website he states the following:
Now, if you’re serious about maximizing your natural potential, and perhaps even competing as a bodybuilder, you should at least experiment with high training volumes once. Most people do respond well to it, assuming to they still train hard enough. That means 15 to 25 sets per muscle per week. To make sure recovery doesn’t become an issue, you may want to increase volume that high for just 1-2 muscles at a time, while keeping others in the usual range.
You looks like Cbum in cover picture.. awesome physique
I couldn’t imagine doing ten sets for hamstrings or quads in one session
Is the rep range true for push ups as well? I have worked up to doing 3 sets of 25 push ups.
Mike mentzer trained over 400 people 1 set is all you need to failure anything more is over training and takes you even longer to recover. Mabye if your on steroids but this is not for naturals 😮
I only train 1 set per muscle every 11-14 days and gain more muscle like the most of u high volume guys. U waste ure time and energy when u do more then 1 set! U have to get absolute failure in push, hold and release and then the grow is gonna come!
So my question is, if I were to choose too light of a weight and I end up doing 15-20 reps, but I'm still hitting close to failure is it a bad thing? Hitting close to failure is the most important thing right?
And why did Arnold do 30 sone sets for only chest?
Finally, someone flexing on the savings…
my cousin is doing alot of junk sets. I can’t even bother to convince him because he has that tren twins mentality
I wish it was explained who they tested these on, it could be completely different from someone in their 1st year and someone in their 4th
Does the 6 sets per workout still apply if ur doing sets to failure of about 5 reps per set?
at 4.43, the hammer curl dosent even work to biceps though, so how could it be counted as weekly bicep volume?
Is it junk volume if you do a high rep drop set? For example, 3X10 on EZ Bar Bicep Curls, close to failure, followed by 40-50 rep drop set to failure afterward?
Hell yea, that high five you gave yourself had nice connection 🔥
Is rear delt maybe an exception where it might make sense to go above 30 reps? I take a 10lb dumbbell and just rep it 40 reps or so to feel a good pump.
My concern with increasing the weight is that there’s too many big muscles that contribute to similar movements that very easily could take over and then I’m not feeling the rear delt as much
What about something like the Bilbo method?