Guide
What training volume measures, and what it does not
Volume is the number every training app puts at the top of the screen, and the one most often read as a score. It is worth knowing precisely what it counts, because the gap between "work you did" and "progress you made" is where most of the misreading happens.
The definition
volume = weight × reps, summed over every set. Three sets of
five at 100 kg is 1,500 kg. That is it — no adjustment for effort, range
of motion, tempo or how close to failure you were.
Hevy Analyzer computes it from the sets it imported rather than reading a precomputed figure, so the number on the dashboard always matches the sets listed underneath it. Hevy shows its own estimate inside the app; the two can differ slightly.
What it is good for
Tracking yourself, over time, on a stable program. Held against your own history, volume is a decent proxy for how much work you are actually doing — and it moves before your one-rep max does, which makes it an early signal that a block is going well or badly.
Where it breaks
- Bodyweight and assisted work count as zero. Pull-ups, dips and push-ups carry no external load, so a session built on them can read as almost no volume at all. Sets still count; volume does not.
- Cardio and timed sets add nothing. A 40-minute row logs duration and distance, not weight × reps.
- Effort is invisible. Three sets left three reps short and three sets taken to failure weigh exactly the same.
- Exercise selection dominates. Leg press tonnage dwarfs squat tonnage at equal effort. Swapping one for the other can double your volume without changing your training.
- Bodyweight and leverage scale it. A taller, heavier lifter moves more kilograms for the same relative effort. This is why volume is a poor way to compare two people.
- Logged warm-ups inflate it. If you record them, they count.
The practical consequence: when you compare two profiles, the volume column is mostly telling you about body size and exercise selection. Hard sets per muscle group is the metric that survives the comparison.
Reading it well
- Within a block, not across programs. When the exercises change, the series starts meaning something new — treat a program change as a reset line, not a dip.
- Alongside set count. Volume up and sets flat means you added load. Volume up and sets up means you added work. Those are different weeks.
- Against the calendar. Most "my volume collapsed" months are attendance, not programming — check the session count first.