Masheen

Planning a week

Volume landmarks

Also called MEV MAV MRV, training volume landmarks, maintenance volume, MV

Volume landmarks are named marks on the scale of weekly sets for one muscle: how few still do something, and how many is too many.

MEVMAVMRV10Wk 112Wk 214Wk 316Wk 418Wk 5
Week 5: 18 sets. Chest sets over five weeks, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, against marks at MEV 10, MAV 16 and MRV 22.

In plain words

Three of them are named often. MEV, minimum effective volume, is the lowest amount of training that actually grows muscle. MAV, maximum adaptive volume, is the range where you make your best gains. MRV, maximum recoverable volume, is your upper limit, past which you cannot recover between sessions. A fourth, MV or maintenance volume, is the least training that keeps the muscle you have: around six working sets a muscle a week. The terms come from the coaching company Renaissance Periodization, which calls its numbers starting points, not gospel, and says personal landmarks vary. They are a coaching model, not measured thresholds. Research gives only the general shape: a 2017 meta-analysis found more weekly sets went with more growth.

An example

Chest, weekly sets across five weeks: 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. Masheen's marks for the chest are MEV 10, MAV 16 and MRV 22. Week one sits on the MEV line. Week four reaches MAV. Week five is in the app's "High" zone, still under MRV. Renaissance Periodization describes MAV as a range between MEV and MRV; the app draws it as a single mark, so the two readings differ.

MEV MEV stands for minimum effective volume: the weekly sets for a muscle below which you only maintain.
MAV MAV stands for maximum adaptive volume: the weekly sets between MEV and MRV.
MRV MRV stands for maximum recoverable volume: the most weekly sets for a muscle you can do and still recover from.
Volume Volume is how much training you do, counted either as the number of hard sets for a muscle in a week or as weight × reps added up across sets.
Deload A deload is a short planned spell of easier training, usually a week, with less weight, fewer sets or both.
Mesocycle A mesocycle is a block of several weeks of training planned as one unit, often four to six weeks ending in a lighter one.

Sources

  1. Renaissance Periodization, Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth Read
  2. Schoenfeld, Ogborn, Krieger 2017. Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass. J Sports Sci 35(11):1073–1082 Read

Updated . How these pages are researched and corrected: editorial policy. Every term in the glossary.