#019 Minimum Effective Volume

Welcome back to the 19th edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. I really appreciate you being here. We are the based fitness community that focuses on mastering the basics instead of getting lost in the details.

Today’s newsletter is important to understand the philosophy we are taking here at Boats & Logs. We will discuss what it means to apply a minimum effective volume approach to your workouts. In other words, what is the least amount of volume we can apply without sacrificing meaningful muscle gain?

So let’s get started.

Nearly on a daily basis, I receive DMs from people asking me why our Full Body Program doesn’t have more exercises (volume) for muscle Y or Z. We’ve had a lot of growth recently, and this question shows me that a lot of you aren’t fully aware or don’t fully understand the approach to building muscle we are taking here at Boats & Logs.

Returning to the question above, the answer is always the same: The program's goal is to maximize hypertrophy while keeping volume as low as possible. As a consequence, there is still some room left to trigger even more muscle growth. But triggering it would require disproportionally more time. The choice is yours.

To understand that, let’s have a quick recap of the picture below. Studies suggest that around 10 - 20 sets per week are a good range for your muscle to grow. Doing 10 sets per week, instead of 5 sets, roughly doubles your time in the gym but will provide a significantly bigger muscle stimulus. Doubling the 10 sets again and training each muscle for 20 sets per week will roughly double your time in the gym but only slightly improve your muscle growth.

Most of you are probably well served by doing 10 sets per muscle per week. For reference, that can be done in 3 workouts per week. If you are not absolutely in love with the sport and want to do everything to maximize muscle growth, I believe it doesn’t make much sense to go beyond that number.

Therefore, it’s important to know your goals in the gym. Are you doing bodybuilding and aiming to push your body to the absolute limits and grow as much muscle as possible, or is your goal simply to build muscle to look good and live a healthy life?

Our philosophy at Boats & Logs follows the second option. Of course, we want to build as much muscle as possible, but we also know that we are not professional athletes who structure their whole day to maximize muscle gain. I know that many of you have children or other time-intensive activities and can’t or don’t want to submit to the bodybuilding lifestyle (neither do I). And that’s exactly why we are talking about the minimum effective volume.

If you are starting to worry about the effectiveness of the Boats & Logs approach, I can assure you that you don’t need to worry. I’m confident that we are already tapping into 80-90% of our natural limit to build muscle with our approach. Going beyond that requires a lot of additional effort and a life dedicated to the sport. This is a decision everybody has to take on their own.

But let’s get back to the subject: The Minimum Effective Volume.

To be 100% correct, the title is a bit wrong. By definition, the minimum effective volume would be the volume that is necessary to make any gains (even if it’s really little). Done right, that would probably be 1-3 sets per week, which can be enough to build some muscle, although it is far from optimal.

Instead, we are talking about the point where adding additional sets provides little additional muscle growth compared to the time investment. To give it a new name, let’s call it the Minimum Practical Volume (MPV). As mentioned earlier, this MPV is roughly 10 sets per week.

Please don’t take these 10 sets as a fixed number, as it will vary from person to person. Most of you should be in the range of 6-15 sets. If you are newer to the gym, your MPV is probably closer to 6 sets and will increase as you mature in the gym.

Some of you may want to put extra focus on developing a specific muscle (e.g., lateral delts) and add more sets. If you feel like you can recover from this additional volume, adding a few sets can make sense to tap into even greater growth potential, but that’s not needed. 10 high-quality sets per week should be enough.

Speaking of quality sets, it’s important to understand that not only the quantity of sets is of high importance, but also (or even more) the quality of the sets. I wrote more about it a few weeks ago, but basically, there are three things you need to consider:

1. Train at a high intensity/to failure: For a low-volume split to work, you need to train at a high intensity. The easiest way to achieve that is by applying progressive overload, where you push yourself to failure every set to do more reps or move more weight than you did the last time.

2. Keep a good form: While keeping in mind that you need to push hard to reach failure, you should never compromise your form. When in doubt, choose the lighter weight to train in the full range of motion and have a slow and controlled eccentric part of the movement.

3. Take adequate rest times: You don’t want to rush through your workout. We are not doing many sets. Therefore, we need to make every set count. Make sure to be properly rested by taking breaks of around 3 minutes between sets.

That’s a wrap for today. Thank you for reading today’s newsletter. I hope it helps you to understand that it doesn’t take much to grow muscle, but you need to master the basics: Train hard, be strict with your diet, and sleep well.

If this newsletter was helpful to you, please consider sharing it with a friend (https://boats-logs.beehiiv.com/subscribe) to spread the word and support the Boats & Logs community and the work I put into it.

Stay strong,
Boats & Logs

Disclaimer

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol, please consult a medical professional. These are the opinions from an AI voice.