Training volume calculator
Volume is the workload behind your progress: sets × reps × weight. Add each exercise below and see your session total.
- Hard sets
- -
- Total reps
- -
- Average load per rep
- -
What problem does this solve?
Volume is one of the main levers of muscle growth, and its trend tells you whether training demand is actually rising. The problem: nobody multiplies sets × reps × weight across a whole session by hand. So most lifters program by feel and can't say whether this month is heavier than last month.
This tool gives you the number in seconds: per exercise and for the session. With it you can compare this week against last week and spot which lifts are moving and which have stalled.
What more do you get in Mekimeki?
- No calculator needed. Volume is totalled automatically, per session and per exercise, as you log.
- Charts over time. Dashboard widgets plot volume trends per exercise, so the week-over-week comparison is already drawn for you.
- Connected to your plan. Rising volume is the confirmation that your progressive overload program is working.
How to read your volume
Compare like with like. A session's volume only means something against the same session last week: the same split, similar exercises. Rising volume at the same effort means your progressive overload is working.
Watch it per exercise, not just per session. A session total can stay flat while your bench volume climbs and your squat volume slides. Per-exercise trends tell you where the progress actually is.
A worked example
| Exercise | Sets × reps × weight | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Squat | 3 × 5 × 100 kg | 1,500 kg |
| Romanian deadlift | 3 × 8 × 80 kg | 1,920 kg |
| Leg press | 3 × 10 × 150 kg | 4,500 kg |
| Session total | - | 7,920 kg |
How many hard sets per muscle per week
Tonnage tells you how much weight you moved. Hard sets tell you how much work you asked that muscle to do, and that is usually the number people actually use when they plan training. A hard set is a working set taken close to failure, roughly one to three reps in reserve. Warm-ups do not count.
Those bands are not arbitrary: they are the groupings used by the dose-response research on training volume. A 2017 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger (Journal of Sports Sciences 35:11) pooled studies at under 5, 5 to 9, and 10 or more weekly sets per muscle, and found muscle growth increased across all three. Treat the ranges as a starting window rather than a score to chase: more sets only help when the sets are good and your recovery can keep up.
| Hard sets per week | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | Holds what you have during a busy period or a hard cut |
| 5 to 9 | Enough to grow for beginners and anyone returning |
| 10 to 20 | Where most trained lifters find their productive range |
| 20 or more | Diminishing, and only if recovery genuinely supports it |
If you add sets and your working weights stop moving, you probably found your ceiling, not a better stimulus. Volume you cannot recover from still counts on paper, but it stops helping.
You can build the warm-up sets that lead into those work sets with the warm-up calculator. Keep them out of the totals above.
What is training volume?
Training volume is the total work you perform: sets × reps × weight, summed across your exercises. A session with 3 sets of 5 at 100 kg is 1,500 kg of volume for that lift.
Why does training volume matter?
Volume is one of the main drivers of muscle growth, and its trend over weeks shows whether your training demand is actually increasing, which is the core of progressive overload. Rising volume at the same effort is progress.
Do warm-up sets count toward volume?
They should not. Warm-ups prepare you for work rather than provide the training stimulus. Mekimeki automatically excludes warm-up sets, so its volume numbers reflect working sets only.
Volume tracked while you train
Totals per session and per exercise, charted over time.
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