New Strength Training Guidelines Say: Stop Overcomplicating It

Keep It Simple: If you want to get strong, lift heavy and lift often. It’s age-old advice, but because it’s unsexy advice, it often gets overlooked in favor of high-intensity circuits and concepts like “muscle confusion.” The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recently released new guidelines that support simplicity in strength training.

The Study: The 2026 ACSM Position Stand is a major evidence review of resistance training research. The authors analyzed 137 systematic reviews covering more than 30,000 participants to determine which training variables actually matter for strength, muscle growth, power, and physical function. The review found little consistent evidence that set structure, exercise complexity, time under tension, blood flow restriction, or equipment type (machines vs. free weights) meaningfully improve outcomes. Instead, total weekly volume, consistency, and progressive overload were the most important variables. 

The Takeaway: If you want, you can ditch the fancy-schmancy rep schemes like pyramid and compound sets. Just lift regularly, progressively challenge your muscles, accumulate enough weekly volume, and don’t worry too much about finding the perfect program.
 
Keep in Mind: This guidance is aimed at the general population, not athletes or exercisers with specific goals. If you’re training for something specific, like a marathon or weightlifting competition, your strength training needs will require some specificity.