4 Simple Ways to Increase Volume

Since joining team elitefts™, a common question I continue to see on the Q&A section is how to improve lifts by bringing up weak points. We are in a time where knowledge is plentiful, and everyone has his or her own way of going about programming and increasing his or her lifts. However, I think one aspect that is overlooked is just doing more work. This doesn’t mean that you need to go crazy by doing sets upon sets of squats. I’m talking about intelligently improving your lifts by doing extra work with minimal additional time. Some of these tips are pretty common, but many I believe are overlooked or forgotten. Others, however, may be ideas that simply haven’t been brought to your attention.

Front Loading Volume

This is somewhat new to me, but after talking with much greater minds, I think this is a simple way to get in extra volume without getting torn down. I got this idea from Matt Wenning, Louie, and Nate Harvey, and I have liked it thus far. For each of your training sessions, you perform one movement for 100 total reps as part of your warm-up. This is going to be a nice transition from your typical warm-up (foam rolling, activation exercises, mobility, etc.) into your actual training work for the day. If you check out Casey William’s log, he’s currently doing this for his bench press.



To implement this, you need to pick a movement that is directly going to help you for that training session. Here are some good examples: Upper Body Days

• Light DB Bench Pressing
• Light Tricep Pressdowns
• Light Lat Pulldowns
• Band Pull Aparts
• Face Pulls

Lower Body Days

• Light Reverse Hypers
• Light Leg Curls/Band Leg Curls
• Band Good Mornings
• Back Extensions
• Glute Ham Raises
• Light Pull Throughs/Band Pull Throughs

I would not recommend jumping straight into 100 total reps from Day One, as this will probably hit you harder than you imagine. I would start with 50 reps on Week One, 75 reps on Week Two, and then go to 100 reps for Week Three and beyond. It will take some time, but let’s look at a simple equation for reverse hypers:

Reverse hypers: 50 pounds x 100 reps x 2 days per week x 4 weeks = 40,000 pounds of volume per month!

That’s a considerable amount of extra work for just one month. You don’t need to change anything else in your program, and you will only spend about an extra 5-10 minutes per training session. In turn, you will likely feel more warmed up than you ever have before. Your lifts may take a minor hit in the beginning, but as your body becomes accustomed to the work, your lifts will start showing the results.

Back Down Sets

Another option you have is implementing back down sets on your main movements. If you are someone who runs a conjugated system, then you are probably working up to heavy sets and then moving on to a supplemental movement. This is great and nothing is wrong with this method. However, if you are finding that just working up to a heavy set is not enough, then this is a great method for getting in extra volume and work for that specific movement. After all, if you are running a conjugated system correctly, this movement should be based on your weaknesses, meaning you need more work in this area. Let’s take for example that you lose upper back tightness coming out of the hole on squats. You elect to make

Safety Squat Yoke Bar Squats your main movement for the training session, and you’re going to work up to a heavy set of one to three reps. So, you continue to do so as you normally would, and you find that max single or triple for the day. After you have that weight, you drop the weight by roughly 20% and knock out two to three more sets. An example may look like this:

SSB Yoke Bar Squats: 400 pounds x 3 reps

Back down sets:320 x 2-3 sets x 5 reps

Look at that! You managed to get an extra 3,200 to 4,800 pounds of volume in on a movement that you suck at but with quality reps. The key here is to not take these back down sets to failure! Perform good technical reps but still work hard. The great thing about this is that when you come back to this movement (either the following week or a few weeks later), you will hopefully set a new record on this movement and will have a heavier training weight off which to base your 80%, and again more volume.

Drop Sets

This is nothing new when it comes to strength training. Bodybuilders have been employing this technique for decades in order to add more mass to their frames. I personally think powerlifters can get much more out of this method. The key, however, is to be smart about its implementation and be careful as to not abuse it. (As with about any training method).



I would recommend that this not be done with your competition movements or your main movements (if you follow a conjugated system). I have personally found that this works best with accessory movements like tricep pressdowns, lat pulldowns, leg curls, glute ham raises, reverse hypers, chest-supported rows, face pulls, and single leg work. The key is to implement it during times in which you need the extra volume and know that you will be able to recover from such work. I like employing drops sets the week prior to a planned deload. I know that I will have the time to recover the following week and that volume will drastically drop during that time. Essentially, I use it as a way to make up for the volume that I won’t be getting and to push my body to adapt more during that time frame. Another way to implement drop sets is to use them for weak areas. Let’s say that you need to bring up your triceps, but you need to maximize your training sessions. These are an easy way to get in more work with only adding an extra minute or two (at most) to your session. Not to mention that you begin to recruit more motor units when reaching failure: a win-win. Again, I would not do this for every training session or weak area that you have. Pick one and run with it for a week or two. Then, switch to a different body part. If you opt to rotate what you perform drop sets on, here would be a sample way to do so: Weeks 1 and 2: Tricep Pressdowns Weeks 3 and 4: Reverse Hypers Weeks 5 and 6: Face Pulls Weeks 7 and 8: Back Extensions

Front Loading Warm-ups

This is a combination of Front Loading Volume and Back Down Sets. What you will do is stick with a higher number of reps during your warm-ups on your main movement. This gets you added volume with your main movement, but with weights and reps you will not have technical errors on. This is a scheme that John Meadows and Dave Tate use quite frequently on many of their big movements. An example would look like this: Goal: Box Squats for Max Set of five Reps Bar x 5 135 x 5 185 x 5 225 x 5 275 x 5 315 x 5 365 x 5 405 x 5 425 x 5 455 x 5 Again, like the Front Loading Volume, this can cause a hit to your main movements for the first few weeks, but as your body becomes accustomed to it, your lifts will begin to take off. Compare this to typical warmup, and you’ll find that the volume is considerably higher and it won’t take up much more training time.

Closing Thoughts

While high volume trends seem to be coming and going, I think there are intelligent ways to go about it - without destroying your body in the process. When it comes to increasing volume, we generally want this volume to come from performing accessory work. This is when we are trying to actually train the muscle, not the movement. This is because when fatigue sets in on main movements or the competition movements, we start to ingrain bad technique and motor patterns. Thus, using some of the methods I’ve listed above can let you achieve the best of both worlds. You can have your volume and lift heavy too.