Hey guys,
I gear my training more toward powerlifting (using 531 boring but big) right meow, but looking into building some muscle. I was wondering if anyone is like me and does not believe in the whole “muscle confusion” stuff and just sticks to one or two movements per workout.
For example I was thinking of training one lift per workout and doing 9-12 sets with that exercise. So I would do Squat for 9-12 sets and be done. Next day, Overhead Press 9-12 sets and so on and so forth. Anyone every try it? Its the same volume as doing three lifts for three sets each…
I have had success with CTs layers program which only uses one big compound lift per day. I have gained in both size and strength. Do I think you could be a competitive powerlifter or bodybuilder training this way exclusively? Probably not in most cases, but if you are just a regular guy like me wanting to get bigger and stronger it should work.
I do a lot of short workouts that are just pull-ups for 20 minutes straight, and have occasionally done workouts that were nothing but pushups or nothing but kettlebell swings, but I have never tried this for powerlifting. Dan John wrote an article for this site some time ago about the One Lift A Day program, which you might consider in your planning:
That’s mostly how I’ve trained over the past year and a half or so.
From using the layer system, I liked how a single lift per session worked for me. It let me focus on what I needed to do to make that lift improve – form? volume? intensity? density? do I need to deload any of those? – and gave me a good base to track workout to workout over time. None of this “well, I’m doing these 5 lifts, but I don’t really like this one so I’ll just half-ass it”.
It also forced me to narrow down the selection to just a couple variations of the basic lifts that have the most impact. CT had his preferred variations in his templates, and they provided a good starting point for me.
My current training still basically follows the same model. I’d much rather spend 30-40 minutes with a single lift and just go to the gym more frequently, than just about any other approach I’ve tried. Sometimes it gets a bit boring, but there’s enough variables to tweak when that happens.
For a very current example: monday was 14 sets of a deadlift variation; yesterday was 17 sets of an overhead press variation; today will be sets of axle deadlifts focusing on working the grip and just the grip, etc.
[quote]jhtitleist wrote:
I gear my training more toward powerlifting (using 531 boring but big) right meow, but looking into building some muscle.[/quote]
I’m going to assume you are focusing on getting stronger for powerlifting even though you mentioned two things here.
[quote]jhtitleist wrote:
For example I was thinking of training one lift per workout and doing 9-12 sets with that exercise. So I would do Squat for 9-12 sets and be done. Next day, Overhead Press 9-12 sets and so on and so forth. Anyone every try it? Its the same volume as doing three lifts for three sets each…[/quote]
I only do 2 exercises a day. Either squat or deadlift plus either bench or press. Your frequency seems really low though. I mean that’s a lot of sets (assuming they’re all work sets), but I don’t really think it’s helpful to skew things that far toward volume rather than just adding frequency. Instead of just one lift, do one lower and one upper.
I think this could work, but to echo csulli, you’d really have to keep a close eye on your frequency and training volume per week to ensure you’re putting in enough work to grow. One possible way to look at setting up volume for this could be “Prilepin’s Table for Hypertrophy” ( http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=4677737 ). You could also pair some of that with the guidance from here powerliftingwatch.com/files/prelipins.pdf, which provides a nice guide to managing weekly intensity and volume, albeit aimed primarily at strength gains.
I think you would want to set-it up so you’re hitting each exercise at least twice a week, maybe one low rep day, one high rep day, as if you get enough volume in a single workout to stimulate significant hypertrophy, you probably won’t be able to recover well enough to take full advantage of the stimulus.
Another concern could be overuse injuries/muscle imbalances, unless you intend to include some corrective/rehab/prehab work aside from the 1-2 exercises. A good solution I have seen for this is to grab a small band/dumbbell during rest periods and put in some quick work. This could be setup like:
Squat/ Rest periods (Terminal Knee Extensions)
Bench/ Rest periods (Band Face Pulls)
Military Press/ Rest periods (Trap 3 Raise)
Deadlift/ Rest periods (X Walk)