I think that these questions are worrying about minutia and miss the boat on what is truly important.
Listen, people have been getting big and strong training each muscle once a week.
People have been getting big and strong training each muscle twice a week.
People have been getting big and strong training each muscle three times a week.
People have been getting big and strong training each muscle more than 3 times a week.
People have been getting big and strong using whole body training
People have been getting big and strong using an upper/lower split
People have been getting big and strong using a push/pull/leg split
People have been getting big and strong using a bodypart/bro split
You get the idea…
And the common factors in those who get big and strong naturally are:
- They train brutally hard
- They are consistent with their training and effort
- They have an inner drive to be better at every workout
- They have NO DOUBT that they will get bigger and stronger
That last point is often understated and undervalued. There is more and more evidence that mindset and belief affect gene activation which can facilitate achieving what you believe in (my friend Stefan Ianev made a post about that a few months back).
If you constantly have doubts about whether you are doing the right thing with your training, chances are that your results will not be as significant as they could be.
On the other hand, a profound belief that you are gonna get results will give you more gains.
All those questions you are asking tell me that you don’t have that belief with your training and that might be one of the reasons why you are not progressing like you should.
One example that Ianev gave to support his theory (BTW, Stef is more into genes and epigenetics than anybody in the fitness industry) is a study they did with dianabol.
I don’t remember the specifics of the study, but the gist of it was that a group started training without dianabol, that was the first part of the study and it last several weeks (I’m thinking 6). Then they were put on dianabol for the same duration and made A LOT more progress.
That’s to be expected, right? But here is the catch: they were not given dianabol for real. They were given a placebo.
Now, believing that you are “on” something could affect how hard you train and maybe affect your gains a bit. But that belief should not change how your body actually build muscle… but it did.
Stefan’s theory was that the belief that they were on steroids and are gonna make better gains, actually led to better gains likely due to some gene activation.
But regardless of what actually led to those gains, one thing is for sure: the certainty that they would make great gains contributed to making great gains… after all they progressed A LOT more than during the previous phase, and it should have been the opposite.
My advice to you is to stop asking yourself (and me) all those questions. Stop reading the conflicting info that experts put out, at least for a while, and find a way to have that blind and unshakable certitude about the progress you will get from your plan.
Go back to your football days: I’m pretty sure that you made amazing progress in your physique, strength, power, speed and conditioning following the team’s program. And that was probably because as a player you simply executed and trusted the process 100%.
EDIT: The study actually lasted 11 weeks. 7 weeks without steroids and 4 weeks where people believed they were taking steroids. And in those 4 weeks they made 10x more progress than in the first 7 weeks.
And it’s not that they didn’t train hard in the first 7 weeks: the researchers said that only those who progressed the most in the first 7 weeks would be given steroids, so people likely trained very hard to be selected.