First, simulating manual labor for hypertrophy is probably a good way to induce the other things manual labor does--causes arthritis and joint injuries. It's true that volume and hypertrophy are theorized to correlate. It has been found that sets of 10-12 and 6 appear to be very good at inducing hypertrophy. It is believed that this is a function of the large amount of protein degredation caused by these types of sets given the intensity level and volume in the set. It just about indisputable that beginners gain just as well on 1 set of 10 as multiple sets. Dozens of studies over dozens of years back this up. What is in open for debate is how much volume does someone who is "advanced" need to maximize hypertrophy. It is a physioligical truth that your body will not gain muscle beyond a maximum rate. Any exercise performed beyond what is required to set that maximum rate of hypertrophy into motion is waste.
With that in mind, and taking as true that 1 set is all that is needed for a beginner, instinctively does it make since to prescribe something like a 2,000% increase in volume for someone simply because they are "advanced?" Are "advanced trainers" so physiologically different from "beginners" that they would require such an increase in volume? Just think about it. How much muscle does an advanced trainer gain in 1 year? 1 pound? 5? None? Is 6-12 hours of weight lifting a week necessary to gain 0-5 pounds of muscle over 52 weeks?
I'm not arguing that 1 set per bodypart 3 x a week is necessarily all that is required for advanced lifters. I am arguing that that is all that is nec. for beginners. But my point is that volume increases must be kept rational and realistic. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you should. Volume beyond all that is nec. for maximum growth rate is a waste of time and energy. My recommendation to anybody is to find their minimum required dose. You do that by monitoring your strength gains and body composition gains over time. If they ain't going up, then a variable is out of wack--intensity, volume, frequency, and/or nutrition. I have found that intensity and frequency are much less flexible than volume. Those two factors have to be in a given range to accomplish what you're after. Volume must be adjusted for these two variables.
