JawD

Hey folks,

Ok, so Ive just sat and read two totally contradicting articles and my heads starting to throb.

As I was getting back into things, I was typically doing 3 sets of 8-10 reps on main body parts excluding warm ups of course. So, if I was using a 50kg weight for this, that would be a total volume of 1500. I'd do this once per week to allow for recovery, come back the next week looking to increase that volume by either adding reps or weight (usually if I could do 10 Id have upped the weight). So, lets say I was now doing 3 x 10 x 55kg thats a total volume of 1650.

So, after 10 weeks Ive now changed by routine. Im now looking at less reps but more weight. So, rather than the above, my working sets (still 3) are 4-6 reps but with more weight. So now I might do 3 x 6 x 65 which is a total volume of 1170.

• So, there is issue no 1. Notably less volume, but because I'm still working damn hard shall we say in each set, should I expect the same kind progress?

The next issue is that Ive reduced the number of routines per body part. Before I was doing for my chest, Bench, Dips, Fly & Pullover (over 3/2/2/2 sets for a total of around 90 reps) and am now doing Bench, Incline DBs & Dips (for a total of 3/3/2 sets and around 48 reps)

• So here is issue no 2. Again arguably less volume. But again Ive not reduced the effort etc but cant get this thing out of my head that Im perhaps not working enough due to the reduction in sets/reps. Though, I certainly dont leave feeling like Ive underworked.

Finally, my understanding is that one body part, per week, with maximum intensity to achieve overload is what is required to achieve stimulation & growth (along with food and rest). Reading things suggesting twice per week per body part (and so less rest) is putting doubts in my head.

The routine I'm looking at currently is the MAXOT routine for those who know it.

Hope this makes sense. Think I just need someone to give my brain a jolt to stop the doubt thats crept in

Cheers.

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Wee G

Ok,

Decent question. The short version is to alternate periods of higher volume / lower load training with periods of lower volume / higher load training.

As you rightly state muscles adapt to overload, but they adapt specifically to overload - what kind of overload you apply determines the adaptation that occurs. Training high volume / low load will cause different adaptations to those brought about by training low volume / high load.

As muscles are made up of many different structures there are several different “kinds” of hypertrophy. For the sake of simplicity I will break these down into just 2 categories: growth of contractile elements and growth of non-contractile elements.


The key when training for hypertrophy is to understand the relationships between growth of both the contractile and non-contractile elements. Take an engine as an analogy; it will serve us well to think of the non-contractile elements as being the fuel tank in an engine with the contractile elements being the pistons themselves. If there is insufficient fuel capacity then our “engine” will fail. If the fuel injection system is faulty then it doesn’t matter how much fuel we have available, performance will be compromised. If the pistons themselves are small and weak then the neither the amount of fuel available nor the fuel injection capacity is relevant - the engine will not produce much power.

In a muscle cell the “fuel tank” is the sacroplasm, the “pistons” are the sacromeres. Growth of the fuel tank is referred to as sacroplasmic hypertrophy, growth of the pistons is sacromeric hypertrophy.

Training with high volume, low rest periods and moderate loads will create more sacroplasmic hypertrophy. Training heavy load, low volume will create sacromeric hypertrophy but ONLY if there are consistent increases in load. So the obvious solution is to build work capacity and non-contractile hypertrophy with lighter training for several weeks, then drop volume and add load SLOWLY so that at each training session you are using slightly heavier weights, ensuring sacromeric hypertrophy. When you burn out from this (which you will - no one gets stronger forever) take a week off and start over with lighter loads / higher volume, albeit somewhat heavier loads than your first cycle (seeing as you are now a bit stronger).

If you want a REALLY in depth explanantion of all this buy my book...lol. Sorry, had to plug after that long response - it's my in-built capitalist tendencies showing through!

Cheers,

G

JawD

If the room just got a little lighter, thats just because a little light bulb just lit above my head

Thanks for the reply, do appreciate it. Not only that, but I understood it, so thanks for the analogy!

So thinking about what you just said. As Ive just came off a routine that was based on 3 sets of 8-10 reps, this could have primarily been sacroplasmic. I assume there is no line that you cross and only a scale of more of one and less of the other. So, with the new routine Ive just started, providing I ensure I increase the load each time, Id be achieving more sacromeric.

With that in mind, Ive prob made the right move and after say 10 weeks of this (with a week off at the end), Id then go back to what I was doing (3 x 3 x 8-10) only with a slightly increased load and so on.

Well, thanks again for that and Ill take a look at the link in the morn.

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hackskii

Bump for later

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Scott


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bulking

bumping again for hackskii - quite interested in what you might say as I dont think its as clear cut as this is sarcoplasmic and this is myofibrillar.

hackskii

Well, a good rule of thumb would be, if you are getting stronger and or bigger, then things are going in the right direction, at this point there is no need to fix what is not broken.
Once things stall you will need to deload or change to diffrent types of exercises to hit the muscle from diffrent angles or change from DB to BB or visa versa.

I can tell you that I have had a friend that did high volume and low weight, dude got pretty big pretty fast.
But, once he stopped he lost it all and fast.
When I was younger I always went heavy, trained with some good intensity but was not really keen on low reps, sure I did them but not real low like a strength trainer does.
I had a layoff for almost a year after about 10 years of solid lifting, I lost very little and kept my build.

To be honest I am not that educated on the diffrent things going on in the muscle.
I do know there are diffrent fast twich muscle and diffrent slow twitch muscles.
Depending on the muscle group for instance some are faster than others and some are slower than others.
I do think that this rep range would be appropriate if you ask me.
I really cant even spell those words yet alone remember which ones go with which...lol

But from what I have read, the quads have less fast twitch than the hamstrings, so guys that do 20 rep squats can build some pretty massive quads.
And, doing more weight and lower reps on the hamstrings seems to work well for mine.

But I know guys like high volume, low intensity, and that works for them, others like myself like lower volume and higher intensity as I really dont like to spend alot of time in the gym.

I do feel that 70% of your 1 rep max hits 90% of the diffrent fibers.
I also feel that you stimulate not anhiliate.
I think most peoples problems happen to do with recovery (or lack there of) rather than routine.
If you destroy the muscle it will take longer to recover.

I remember what Paul Booth said (love this story).
You dig a hole and we will call this your workout.
Filling the hole would be your recovery.
If the hole is deeper then it will take longer to fill the hole.
Recovery is not just about muscle but also the central nervous system, the heavy weight with low reps take more CNS strain.

there are so many factors here like, volume, intensity, frequency, rest.
Some guys take longer to recover (us older dudes).

I can tell you one thing tho.
When I hit one muscle group a day for 5 days I saw almost no growth.
Now I train 3 days a week, for 30 minutes each session, and have got better gains with less time.
I overtrained almost my whole life, once I backed off and rested more I made better gains with less time in the gym.

What ever you decide just remember what you did and what you are doing and keep comparing what works for you.
My deal is stimulate, then get the hell out of the gym and recover.
If you are still sore from something, take a day off.
I do chest and bicep.
When it comes to back and hamstring day and my biceps are sore, I take the day off.
I do try to get a day off after every resistance training workout, I also try to drop legs in between the upper body workouts to give the upper body more rest between upper body workouts.
I dont put chest, shoulders and triceps together, that caused me to overtrain.
I dont put back and biceps together in case of over stimulation of the biceps.
I dont put quads and hams together because that is a big load.
This is just the way I do it.

Sorry I dont have all the killer technical answers here, I did enjoy the read on it though Wee.

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Scott


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Captain Hero

bump for later, did have a read of your post though Hacks, very insightful

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big

Ok, you are thinking WAY too much here.

Paralysis by over-analysis

The reason why your 3x6 set is less volume than your 3x10 set is because it is higher intensity (intensity means percentage of your 1RM). If you are increasing intensity, of course you will need to reduce volume.

Now stop over-thinking things and just focus on being able to put more weight on the bar each session, regardless of whether you are doing 3x10, 1x20, 5x5, 8x3 or whatever.

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hackskii

Oh, what a fantastic post, I love it.........
Damn big, you are so simple yet complex........:love:

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Scott


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JawD

Thanks for the replies, all taken in and absorbed

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