Much appreciated coach, definitely something ill try out.
Alright… one more reboot.
I’ve been demotivated with my training recently both because of mental fatigue (having to wake up super early and being essentially a single dad while my wife had health issues) and when that happens I get all-over the place.
I think that I fixed the goal thing and will give my training more direction and, hopefully, more stability.
Let that be a lesson for you: if someone as passionate about training as I am ca lose motivation and direction in the absence of a clear goal, it can happen to anyone and illustrates the importance of a goal.
I plan to use an approach similar to my “Periodized Bodybuilding Plan” (that is being sold on my www.thibarmy.com website) which is essentially a progressive volume approach. That’s what I used the last time I was training for aesthetics and it worked great.
Essentially, its good old basic hypertrophy work mostly in the 6-10 range with a gradual increase in volume over time.
In my case the volume will ramp up from 100 total sets/week up to 150 total sets/week over an 8 weeks period.
This is on the high end of what I would recommend. But keep in mind that:
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My stress level is very low (under normal circumstances). I do most of my work from home and when we have the daycare (which we do starting this week) I only have real daddy duties from 6am to 8:30am and for bedtime.
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My job is not physical.
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I have built a lot of tolerance for volume over the years, especially during my weightlifting years where I’d train up to 4 hours per day.
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I’d also typically recommend a progression over 12 weeks, but knowing myself, 8 weeks is the max I can devote to a goal before losing excitement and drive.
For most people, I’d recommend going from 80 to 120 sets over a 10-12 weeks period.
For those with poor recovery capacities, a high stress level and/or a physical job, 60-100 is probably where you should be at.
The progression will be as follow:
And YES that is a lot of weekly workouts (I typically recommend 4 sessions per week) but I’m training just as much as a mental relief and because I love it as for progress and I’m willing to accept a slightly slower rate of progress.
The split I will be using is:
DAY 1 - Shoulder & Triceps
DAY 2 - Legs & Biceps
DAY 3 - Back
DAY 4 - Chest & Triceps
DAY 5 - Traps, Biceps and Abs
And I simply rotate the days.
The daily volume is spread over (typically) 5 exercises total (not per muscle).
NOTE: I will not always use the same exercises (I’m training in several places anyway) as long as I use the proper volume progression and the same effort level (e.g. 1 RIR) it will still work. I am not putting as much emphasis on progressing on specific exercises.
Sunday’s workout (Shoulders & Triceps) (correction, originally wrote it as Monday’s workout)
Close-grip bench press 1 x 12 @ 185, 1 x 10 @ 205, 2 x 8 @ 235
Seated shoulder press (I prefer standing but my ceiling is too low) 4 x 8 @ 145
Triceps pressdown 4 x 10 (weight is irrelevant due to differences in cable systems)
Overhead rope triceps extension 4 x 10
DB lateral raise 1 x 12 @ 20, 3 x 10 @ 30
Monday’s workout (lower body and biceps)
Safety bar squat 4 x 8 @ 335 … kept this light, my adductors are still bothering me
RDL 4 x 8 @ 325
Reverse hyper 3 x 10
Rope hammer curl 3 x 10
Cable curl 3 x 10
Preacher curl 3 x 10
Tuesday’s workout (back)
This was done at my friend’s gym
Bent over row 4 x 8-10
Hammer strength single arm lat pulldown machine 4 x 8-10
Seated row machine 4 x 8-10
Rear delts machine 4 x 10-12
Trap bar shrugs 4 x 8-10
NOTE: This week I will be doing 4 or even 5 workouts in a row because I’m leaving Thursday morning for a seminar. So I might do my 5th workout either very early Thursday or Friday. Then I’ll be off Saturday, Sunday (seminar), and Monday (traveling).
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Wednesday’s workout (chest & triceps)
I had to go back to very early workouts (been training at 9 and 12 for the past week, enjoying the little bit of extra sleep) but since I’m leaving for my seminar tomorrow and we don’t have daycare today, we have an outing at a local farm with the kids.
My energy and focus were okay though. I feel that with the type of training I’m now doing (volume-based) being on my absolute “A game” doesn’t matter as much as when training for strength and power.
A. Bench press 215 x 8, 235 x 8, 245 x 7, 255 x 6
B. Incline bench press (this was surprisingly hard because I pretty much never do incline presses so the movement felt really off, my pecs and triceps were also pretty shot already from the bench) 4 sets of 8 with 195 (yes, it is laughable)
C. Close-grip bench press 185 x 8, 205 x 8, 205 x 7, 205 x 7
D. Dips (30lbs weight vest): 4 sets of max reps
E. Cable triceps pressdown 4 x 8-10
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My schedule lately has been variable, so I’m not able to keep a consistent training time. I used to be first thing in the morning every day, but now I might be early one day, evening the next, and mid-morning the third. It’s certainly not the end of the world, but I find the first part of the workout is a grind: it takes my body a little longer to know it’s supposed to get to work. Have you found anything that minimizes this to any extent, or is it really just an is what it is scenario?
Thursday’s workout (Traps, biceps)
This is the easy workout of the week. Good timing as I’m set to leave for my seminar early so I had to, once again, train at 4:30am.
A. Wendler row 4 x 8-10
B. Trap bar shrugs 4 x 8-10
C. Cable curl 4 x 8-10
D. Preacher curl 4 x 8-10
E. Rope hammer curl 4 x 8-10
As you can see, nothing really exciting. Just getting my 20 daily sets in.
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Sadly, not really. The thing I like to do when this happens is to start with a low stress exercise or two. But exercises that won’t negatively affect the rest of the workout. Could be abs, neck, forearms, or calves (if I trained calves).
Another solution is to start the workout with one exercise for you “favorite muscle”… even if it doesn’t “go” with your workout of the day. We all have that ONE muscle that makes us feel better when it’s pumped. Start with that.
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That makes a ton of sense. I have often gravitated towards the Meadows’ style that always starts with an exercise you “care” about less (like leg curls or whatever). Almost a default way of trying to accomplish what you’re saying here, but I really like the idea of getting some work in that won’t interfere at all so the main session can still be a little more lift-specific.
Thanks!
Safe travels.
Regarding the “straight sets”, do you think “intensity techniques”(rest pause/micro set etc) is necessaray for maximum hypertrophy results in the long run?
Or could you, just stick to plain straight sets and get the same results(if you keep on progrseesing for ex;with more volume)?
Late update as I’m on the road for a seminar. Had the chance to train at the 5 rings gym, which is one of the most awesome gym I visited.
Not going to be training for 3 days as I’m presenting Saturday and Sunday then flying out on Monday.
Friday’s workout
A. Lever shoulder press (essentially like a hammer strength shoulder press using lever arms attached to the power rack)
4 sets of 6 to 8 reps
B. Close-grip bench press
1 x 8 @ 205, 3 x 6 @ 225
C. JM press
4 x 8-10
D. Triceps pressdown
4 x 10
E. DB lateral raises
4 x 10
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No, they are not.
Tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of men have built impressive physiques without the use of intensification techniques. I fact, I believe that a lot of people actually tend to use too many of those techniques.
Most intensification techniques are simply ways to add volume.
Special methods actually do not provide more growth stimulation than regular sets if the volume of effective reps is equated.
A lot of people think that techniques like supersets are more effective than regular sets because they count a superset as one set, while in reality, it is two sets. A superset has twice the volume of effective reps as a normal set, so yeah, it is more effective. But volume for volume it is not superior.
Sure, if you compare one drop set to one normal set, the drop set might stimulate more growth because it provides more total effective repetitions. But doing a drop set (really, two sets with very short rest) will not provide any more muscle growth than doing two normal sets with sufficient rest.
The main benefit of special methods is that they can make the workout more efficient by reducing the time it takes to complete the requisite number of effective reps.
This can be useful for more advanced lifters who require more volume to stimulate optimal growth.
People often associate special methods with more growth because they “hurt more” and create a bigger pump. In reality, it is even possible that these factors, by contributing to central fatigue, reduce the recruitment of the high threshold motor units. Even though it feels more effective, it could be counterproductive for growth, especially if the method used pushes the duration of the set to extreme levels (central fatigue is more correlated with the duration of the effort than its intensity).
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Good afternoon Coach Thibaudeau,
I read with interest your recent article: The 5 Worst Weight Loss Mistakes Lifters Make. I would like to know your thoughts are on a couple of alterations to phase 1 training:
- Do you feel that super-setting push movement with pull or upper-lower sets or even a circuit would be detrimental (i.e. lead to greater utilization of glycogen)? Mind you, I would still make sure that 4 minutes of rest occur before returning to the initial exercise.
- Same for “sneaking in” say, an exercise for calves, forearms or abs during the 3-4 minute rest period for the basic movement
Thank you,
Elliott Horowitz, MS, RDN, CSCS, CPT, CES, CHC
This should be posted as its on thread in my coaching forum, not in my personal log. Thank you
Sorry, Thanks!
Thank you, Sorry for that!
Haven’t logged in my latest two workouts as I was coming back from my seminar and had a lot of catching up to do with work and family.
So here it is…
Tuesday’s workout (chest/triceps)
A. Incline bench press 185 x 10, 195 x 10, 205 x 10, 205 x 10 (I really suck at the incline bench… even when I do it first it is barely stronger than my shoulder press!)
B. Bench press 235 x 10, 3 sets of 255 x 8
C. Close-grip bench press 4 x 10 @ 215
D. JM press 4 x 8-10 @ 155
E. Triceps pressdown 4 x 10
Wednesday’s workout (rear delts and some delts)
I was supposed to train back but I jammed my neck while sleeping and decided to hold off until I do serious rowing. Plus, there were a few tweaks I wanted to try for my rear delts after watching a Mike Van Wyck video.
A. Band pull-apart 4 sets of 10-15
B. Wyck seated rear delts laterals (kinda looks like a seated lateral raise but leaning forward until your abdomen touches the legs) 4 x 10-12
C. Archer row 4 x 10-12/arm
D. Single-arm rear delt raises 4 x 10-12/arm
E. DB lateral raises in scapular plane 4 x 10-12 + bottom partials
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Thursday’s training
A. Wendler row 4 x 8-10
B. Trap bar shrugs 4 x 8-10
C. EZ bar curl 4 x 8-10
D. Rope hammer curl 4 x 8-10
E. Preacher curl 4 x 8-10
Yeah, not super exciting! 
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Are you using the double progression model here or increasing the weight from set to set (whenever possible)?
It’s honestly by feel.
During this block my main progression is through volume (I showed the week-by-week volume progression earlier).
So I simply want my sets to “feel effective”. By that I mean feeling the tension on the target muscle and reaching a certain proximity to failure (although if I stop feeling the muscle properly in a set, what I call “tension failure” I stop the set).
Here’s the thing you need to understand (and I made a short reel on that topic on my instagram account): hypertrophy is really super simple because pretty much anything works provided that:
- Your sets put the muscle under a high level of tension (for enough reps)
- You have a form of progression making the training stress higher over time, can be a form of progressive load increase, increase in volume, increase in rep difficulty, etc.
I’ll post a few slides from my seminar which covers this topic.
I don’t make my training so anal, which often leads to paralysis by analysis.
HONESTLY very few lifters TRUELY can differentiate 1 RIR and 2 RIR (even 3 RIR in some cases). Furthermore, 1 RIR feels different on many exercises. I believe that it’s good to have an RPE guideline to have a rough idea how hard to push, but I think that it’s a kind of mental masturbation to shoot for an exact RIR number. And I think that by actually focusing on that you make your training worse by focusing on the wrong thing.
For example, when I’m training for hypertrophy using a volume approach, it’s all about feel the tension on the target muscle. If I stop feeling the tension in the muscle I want to stimulate, I’ll stop the set even if I could keep doing reps (likely by compensating with other muscles or subtle movement modifications).
It is my belief that very few people who focus on such minutea as exact RIR and respecting very precise variables are those who progress the least. At the most successful lifters, in the history of training really, developed that innate sensation on when a set has been effective, when to stop, etc.``And relying on things like RIR prevents you from developing that.
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