Endurance athletes aiming to reduce muscle mass development and maximize strength should use heavier loads with lower volume rather than light loads with higher volumes.

“So, you want to train in a more minimalist fashion because higher-volume programs will tend to put on muscle mass. You want to try, as an endurance-based athlete, to reduce muscle-mass development and maximize strength development. And that would be using heavier loads. So, that's what you don't want to do, your light-load training with higher volumes. You'd want to focus more on your, let's say, three to five-rep training for a few sets.”