I appreciate the good words.
But if what you say is true, then it just backs up what i said about this topic - as i do have tried whatever there is to try, and i havent ever noticed much difference in one thing working better than other.
For me it depends on whatever movement I’m doing. The main movements I’ve been doing for nearly a decade, all progress differently.
As of late I rotate through:
Power Cleans (few years for this one)
Rows
Deads
Squat
Bench press/Push Press
Strict Press (also few years for this one)
The pushing movements will stall on me almost every single time some sort of new stimulus is needed, in the form of me staying stuck at whatever number in terms of 1-3RM. Power cleans are the easiest for me: Put more weight on it, or add a few reps in. I don’t RM test cleans because I’m a scared cat, but if I’m now able to bang out 10 cleans, it’s due time for n increase.
My bench is mostly grid-locked nowadays. Mostly due to injury, but in the event I’m able to hit heavier poundages, frequency is what I respond well to. I’ll purposefully drop a day for maybe a month, then rotate to either
1 extra day, or 2, but the second day isn’t ME work.
Pulling movements are completely the opposite. Back off for a bit. Usually if I rest deads for a week I’ll focus on a variation, come back, and can put more weight on concerning my working sets. I’ll say it’s a double whammy for me because If I also add weight to variations I can now also add weight to deads.
Squatting is my most challenging movement. I do it so often, and with heavy numbers (well heavy for my height and leverages), that it almost seems like the only way to progress nowadays is to go back to square one in terms of reps and sets total per session.
225: 1-3 working sets
225: 3-5 working sets
275: 1-3 working sets
275: 3-5 working sets
Low 300s: 1-3 working sets
Low 300s: 3-5 working sets
I can do all the accessory work I want, with whatever load I want in whatever rep and set scheme I want. They end up being beneficial to my deads more than my squat it seems. Accessory work does benefit my squat in terms of work capacity, but not so much the ME days. DE days? Heck yeah.
I’ve been doing PPL for some years now as well. On the occasion I switch training styles I do come back feeling stronger in my weak areas so I do consider that helpful as well.
Wouldn’t say I’m confusing anything though. If anything my body sometimes confuses me lol
Idk if it’s because I’m short, female, or some odd combination of the two, but more times than not I notice the usual 6 weeks recommendation isn’t 6 for me. Throughout the years, it seems like 2 months is the optimal time for me to introduce new/different stimulus.
Oh! Also should mention, sometimes my monthly cycles heavily dictate what to do and what not to do. If it’s during menstruation there’s no reason for me to be doing ME work. Follicular phase is prime time and if I time it right sometimes I can add significant weight
to both DE and ME days AND keep that momentum going for some months AND progress past that. But by then I’ll often find myself either stagnating or regressing due to other outside factors (life stuff, mental stuff, school stuff, family stuff, etc.)
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Agree with the timeframe you suggested. 6 weeks is probably optimal response time, but I think 2-3 months is likely the cutoff for neurological adaptation. Not to say progress can’t be achieved past this timeframe, just that it will be slower due to encroaching homeostasis IMO.
Have you seen results when taking a step away from PPL? I did this method (for hypertrophy with a little strength) for years and did well, but eventually had to progress to a more adult training style.
Disclaimer: I don’t claim to be well versed with Wendler’s 5-3-1, but do have a fundamental understanding of its principles.
“If you want to succeed at anything it requires hard work.” When you aren’t getting the results you want we know it just requires working harder.
These work ethic principles lead to overtraining. “Muscle Confusion” is an old Weider principle. The problem was that the principal came with little if any guidelines. The athlete still over trained making no significant stimulation changes.
Back in the old “How much can you bench” days, the lifter would bench press 3 times a week, doing many sets with forced reps from their workout partners, trying 1 rep maxes, and making very slow progress, if any at all. But they all knew if you want to be successful it requires you to work harder.
Here is the genius of Wendler. He developed a structured program that in corporates a type of muscle confusion. New the athlete could harder, but also smarter. It has specific guidelines, that Weider’s “Muscle Confusion” lacked.
But now to bodybuilding and Wendler. IMO, a three month cycle of 5-3-1 would be a good addition to add to your yearly training plan. Then plan 4 to 6 week routines, each that focuses on different strategies (e.g., high volume, high intensity, Darden’s 30-10-30, or even combinations of strategies.) Always keep a deloading week periodically in your yearly program. I don’t mean a week off, but something like a 50% max week, where it just looks like you are going through the motions. No real exertion that week.
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There is merit to varying effort, like strategic deconditioning, cruising, or whatever term someone prefers and avoiding doing the same exercise and over because of possible overuse problems. But there were top bodybuilders and powerlifters on the same program for years.
Dorian Yates went through a grand total of three program changes.
I think Yates could have trained 100% bro split and still achieved incredible results honestly, but that is a bit beside the point. I don’t know too much about the details of his training methods - did his training method ever incorporate deloads or was he just full send every time?
He did an A-B split for like three years, and then did bro splits until he retired.
He said he held back on effort when prepping by leaving some reps in the tank and not using intensity methods.
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I remember seeing a clip of Cutler saying he was “just going for pump” and I was always curious of this… It’s such a BS bro-ey method that it didn’t make sense for him to use this approach. My suspicion is/was that he (like Yates) stopped using intensity methods during the final weeks of contest prep and just used pump work to maintain his muscles without risking injury.
Just me and my conspiracy theories though
For this conversation we need acknowledge that AAS’s cover an abundance of overtraining concerns.
As I have understand for decades that AAS’s attach to the cell binding sites that also accommodate cortisol. Overtraining releases larger quantities of contisol that just circulate looking for a cell to bind onto, but all are occupied with AAS’s.
This is one of the reasons the lifter can preform an abundance of work volume and still not overtrain providing they don’t under eat. Part of where the Parrillo statement, “You cannot overtrain; You can only under eat” is valid.
Nearly everything is better for adding muscle when on AAS’s. Muscle Confusion is not nearly as critical.
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Oh heck yeah. I first started PPL doing 100 reps with 4 movements. Didn’t matter the rep and set scheme, nor the weight, but a total of 400 reps total needed to be done after each training session.
Movements of choice were squat, deadlift or it’s variation, push ups/OHP, and anything core related.
Now I do PPL focused on heavy movements, but I jump back and forth between those two PPL styles.
For me I like PPL because I can divvy it up in a number of different ways.
I wouldn’t say it’s any less adult than any other form of training though.
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Cutler trained with a lot of sets but stopped for what seemed like 1 to 3 reps short of failure while Dorian did 1 to 3 sets per exercise til failure or past failure on some exercises (drop sets, forced reps, negatives).
I remember a video I saw Dorian in contest prep just machines and cables stoping before failure.
I used to watch a lot of training (and eating) footage back in the 90’s and early aughts, before You Tube “day of eating”/“what I eat in a day” and training videos.
My friend I worked at a Musclemag International store and so much of this stuff was there featuring Titus, Aaron Baker, Levrone, Shawn Ray, Nasser, Cutler, Ronnie, Paul Dilet (grew muscle while sleep training), Melvin Anthony, Flex Wheeler, Lee Priest, etc.
I remember watching videos, reading all the mags, and thinking, “These guys are so cool! Imagine if looked like that?” all the while knowing I couldn’t. Now I can’t even watch a training video for more than 30 seconds! One time my friend said “remember we were watching that video with Titus in his apartment eating steaks? WTF was that?! Haha!”
I remember a video in which Charles Glass was training Flex during a prep and he appeared to be dying between sets.
Sorry for derail. I’m just a guy who vividly remembers how these guys worked out. 
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No need for apologies - this is a subject i know very little about so I’m glad someone has that knowledge. And know i know that someone is you 
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When I started lifting in 08, my favorite video was of Lou Ferrigno from his 90s comeback, Training in the gym. It starts with a news report style intro and then Lou saying, “You wanna see pain? Follow me”. I watched it every day, usually multiple times a day. I don’t know if it’s still on YouTube, but I absolutely loved that video. I was in awe. I would watch as much Ferrigno content as I possibly could, especially if it was him Training or eating. I think in my head, I saw myself as him. I even messaged his YouTube channel asking what he thought of my exact diet and training plan. I really wanted my physique to look like Lou’s worse than anything in the world. I was heartbroken when I found out he took steroids haha!
Even though he never replied to my YouTube message 13 years ago, my brothers and I actually got to meet him last summer.
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Thank you.
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Cool! Ever see my pic with Shawn Ray?
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No but I’d love to see it!
Pic of Shawn Ray is in front of Beacon Theater in Manhattan after the Night of Champions (now the NY Pro) in 1998. As you can see I was sort of underdeveloped there.
The one with Julianna Malacarne, Arash Rahbar, and our former poster Stu is at my wedding in 2015.
The one with Rodney St. Cloud was in 2016 at my former gym.
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Very cool photos! Your gains over the years are super impressive as well! Very inspirational!
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Thank you!
The photos I used in my avatar are old, but I use them in case someone asks oneself, “Who’s this guy to talk about this stuff?” Now I’m just an “in shape”, lankier, hairy, middle-aged guy who likes jogging, circuit training, and calisthenics.
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