What training volume means
Training volume is a standard way to quantify how much work a session or a week of lifting actually involved, beyond just "what weight did you lift". For a single set it is sets × reps × weight; add that figure up across every exercise in a session, and again across every session in a week, and you get a single number that captures load and effort together rather than either one alone.
It is a proxy, not a perfect measure of training stress — it does not account for how close each set was taken to failure, exercise selection, or rest between sets — but it is the most widely used figure for tracking whether total workload is trending up, flat, or down over time.
Worked example
Bench press for 3 sets of 8 reps at 60 kg gives 3 × 8 × 60 = 1,440 kg of volume. Add squats for 4 sets of 5 reps at 100 kg: 4 × 5 × 100 = 2,000 kg. Together that is 7 total sets, 44 total reps (24 from bench, 20 from squat), and 1,440 + 2,000 = 3,440 kg of total volume for the session — an average weight of 3,440 ÷ 44 ≈ 78.18 kg per rep across both exercises.
How to use the running total
Add a row for every exercise performed in the session (or the week, if tracking weekly volume), fill in the sets, reps and weight used, and the totals and per-exercise breakdown update immediately as figures change. Removing an exercise removes its contribution from every total; at least one row always stays so there is always something to edit.
A single heavy lift says little about total training stress on its own — 1 set of 5 reps at 100 kg and 5 sets of 5 reps at 100 kg use the same weight but represent very different amounts of work. Volume captures that difference by multiplying weight by how many total reps were performed, which correlates more closely with muscle growth and fatigue than the weight figure alone.
Yes, that is the most common use — tracking whether weekly volume per muscle group or per session is trending up (progressive overload), holding steady (maintenance), or dropping (deload or detraining), rather than comparing any single session in isolation. A single session's volume is far more affected by exercise selection and rep ranges than a weekly or monthly trend is.