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The Method N° 08 · Your goal
Heavy and light both build muscle. Strength follows the heavy work you practise.
Every study checked against the paper, . Each section carries its grade. Run the numbers in the app.
Settled
Muscle grows across a wide range of loads, as long as the set ends close to failure. A network meta-analysis of 28 studies found no difference in growth between sets of 8 or fewer, 9 to 15, and more than 15.1 An earlier analysis of 21 studies agrees.2 The catch: in those studies every set went to failure. Light sets only work when they are hard.
Settled
Your one-rep max, the most you can lift once, rises most with heavy loads. Across 178 studies and over 5,000 people, loads above 80% of a max built the most strength, and the best-ranked prescription was heavy, several sets, three times a week.3
Strong
Strength rises most on the lift you actually practise. Across 43 studies, training a lift raised strength on that lift about twice as much as on an untrained test of the same muscle.4 In one trial, people who only practised their max for eight weeks gained as much on it as people doing four hard sets, while growing less muscle.5 Small and untrained, but the direction matches.
Strong
Strong
Put a few hundred untrained people on the same program and muscle gains range from a small loss to almost a third more, with strength spread just as wide.8 The average tells you little about you. Your own sets do.
Still open
Strong
Choose Get strong or Build muscle and the program is picked for that goal. Either way, every set's weight comes from your own estimated max at that slot's reps and effort, so a heavy triple and a set of twelve are set from the same number.
The research
The 13 sources this chapter stands on, with what each one actually found.
Lopez, Radaelli, Taaffe et al., 2021 · Med Sci Sports Exerc
Network meta-analysis · 28 studies · 747 people
Muscle growth did not differ between low loads (more than 15 reps), moderate (9 to 15) and high (8 or fewer), with every set to failure. A 2022 correction changed three effect sizes, not the conclusions.
Read the paper by Lopez, Radaelli, Taaffe et al., 2021 (opens in a new tab)Schoenfeld, Grgic, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 · J Strength Cond Res
Meta-analysis · 21 studies
With sets taken to failure, growth was similar across loads; one-rep max gains favoured heavy loads.
Read the paper by Schoenfeld, Grgic, Ogborn, Krieger, 2017 (opens in a new tab)Currier, Mcleod, Banfield et al., 2023 · Br J Sports Med
Network meta-analysis · 178 studies · 5,097 people
Loads above 80% of a max built the most strength; heavy, multi-set, three times a week ranked first. Every prescription grew muscle about equally.
Read the paper by Currier, Mcleod, Banfield et al., 2023 (opens in a new tab)Saeterbakken, Stien, Paulsen et al., 2025 · Sports Med
Meta-analysis · 43 studies · 1,660 people
Training raised strength on the trained lift by an effect of 0.98, and on an untrained isometric test by 0.42. Neither muscle growth nor muscle activity predicted the difference.
Read the paper by Saeterbakken, Stien, Paulsen et al., 2025 (opens in a new tab)Mattocks, Buckner, Jessee et al., 2017 · Med Sci Sports Exerc
Randomised trial · n = 38 untrained · 8 weeks
Practising only the one-rep max matched the max gains of four sets to failure at 8 to 12 reps, within about a kilo, with less muscle growth.
Read the paper by Mattocks, Buckner, Jessee et al., 2017 (opens in a new tab)Siddique, Rahman, Frazer et al., 2020 · Sports Med
Meta-analysis · 30 trials · 623 people
After training, the drive from brain to muscle was higher and its inhibition lower (effect sizes 0.55 to 0.68). The 2019 version was retracted; this is the republished analysis.
Read the paper by Siddique, Rahman, Frazer et al., 2020 (opens in a new tab)Seynnes, de Boer, Narici, 2007 · J Appl Physiol
Training study · n = 7
Muscle size had measurably increased by day 20 of training. Seven people, and other work finds early increases are partly swelling.
Read the paper by Seynnes, de Boer, Narici, 2007 (opens in a new tab)Ahtiainen, Walker, Peltonen et al., 2016 · Age (Dordr)
Pooled training studies · 287 people aged 19 to 78
Muscle size rose 4.8% on average, ranging from −11% to +30%; strength rose 21.1%, from −8% to +60%. Age and sex did not change the spread.
Read the paper by Ahtiainen, Walker, Peltonen et al., 2016 (opens in a new tab)Maden-Wilkinson, Balshaw, Massey et al., 2020 · J Appl Physiol
Cross-sectional · 16 lifters of 4+ years against 52 untrained
60% more knee-extension torque with 56% more quadriceps volume; size was the main explanation. One moment in time, so it cannot show cause.
Read the paper by Maden-Wilkinson, Balshaw, Massey et al., 2020 (opens in a new tab)Taber, Vigotsky, Nuckols et al., 2019 · Sports Med
Commentary
Argues that muscle growth contributes to strength gains.
Read the paper by Taber, Vigotsky, Nuckols et al., 2019 (opens in a new tab)Loenneke, Buckner, Dankel et al., 2019 · Sports Med
Commentary
Argues that it has not been shown to.
Read the paper by Loenneke, Buckner, Dankel et al., 2019 (opens in a new tab)Grgic, Schoenfeld, Davies et al., 2018 · Sports Med
Meta-analysis · 22 studies
Strength rose with frequency, from an effect of 0.74 at once a week to 1.08 at four or more, but with volume matched the effect of frequency disappeared (p = 0.42).
Read the paper by Grgic, Schoenfeld, Davies et al., 2018 (opens in a new tab)Pelland, Remmert, Robinson et al., 2026 · Sports Med
Meta-regressions · 67 studies · 2,058 people
Size and strength both rose with weekly sets, with diminishing returns that came sooner for strength. Frequency added a little for strength and next to nothing for size.
Read the paper by Pelland, Remmert, Robinson et al., 2026 (opens in a new tab)Research describes groups of people. Your coach will tell you how it applies to you.