I know the tnation croud is big on low volume high intensity. However i used to be a pretty good tennis player and cross country runner. Plus i usually wake up with a heart rate of about 48 beats per minute. I also take 8000 steps a day. Do you all think due to my athletic background that training with higher volume 3-5 sets per exercise, 25-40 sets per workout would be better for me.
What about your joints bro?!
What does your genetic code say about your tendons?
Do you? This is the first time Iāve heard that. Iām not sure how you came to that conclusion ā¦
Iām also not sure what āgenetic codeā has to do with your post. All you talked about was your athletic background.
In any event, thereās nothing wrong with higher volume training, and depending on your goals, that can absolutely be the right way to go. I have run very high volume programs, and Iāve run low volume programs. Everything can work.
I will also add that having an athletic background doesnāt NECESSARILY mean high volume training is the right way to go. Iām still a competitive athlete, and I train relatively low volume. You just need to figure out what works for you
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This is news to me.
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What type of sets are you thinking here? Sub maximal sets, speed work?
I canāt do that type of work if Iām pushing sets hard. Depends on if I have a good amount of easier lifts as well. Stuff like curls.
I donāt think this is too crazy though if you account for the higher volume by adjusting the workouts.
I did about 20 sets today.
Iād suggest maybe finding a reputable template to follow that is around the volume youāre looking for if you want to try it. Difficult to balance the difficulty if Iām left to my own.
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Honestly I need at least 2 weeks to recover after hitting any given muscle; anything less and Iām not achieving peak performance.
This is a huge range.
Steps are a silly metric for fitness.
If you want to up the volume, just do it, and eat some more food. Youāre overthinking this thing. Itās not about what you do now - itās about what you do over the next 10+ years.
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How much volume are you doing now? If itās 10 sets, I wouldnāt start doing 40 next week.
Like everyone else said, thereās a time and place for everything. For most of us, our volume is going to tend to wave up and down over the course of a year.
Are you following a program or doing your own thing? If it were me, Iād try a couple professionally-written 12-week programs on either end of the volume spectrum as written. After awhile, youāll know where you tend to lean. Then you can start tweaking whichever programs you like more toward your style. I still recommend tweaking the proās work vs just doing whatever you want.
@T3hPwnisher does the above perhaps better than anyone, and documents it extraordinarily well, if you need an example.
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I tend to go really hard if left to my own to pick the weights, sets, reps. It starts fine, but in 3-4 weeks my sets end up being grinders. Best for me to follow some sort of program / template, or borrow from it heavily (which is what I am doing now with the cube method).
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Iām the same - best to just leave it in someone elseās hands.
I also really think itās freeing to not have to make choices. I just choose the program and then Iām in execute mode from there. We all have too many decisions to make every day. Iām at my best when Iām thinking the least.
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I normally do straight sets on an exercise. the same weight on every set were the fatiugue gradually kicks in
Youāre very much coming across as someone who shouldnāt do his own programming.
There are plenty of high volume templates out there that are proven to work. Iād suggest picking one and doing it exactly as written. I donāt believe you have the knowledge or experience necessary to program for yourself.
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I didnāt connect the dots earlier, but he bought both of CTās books and made a post questioning CTās suggestion for frequency so yeah, youāre spot on, and he has picked a program so he just needs to follow it and ask less questions.
I do understand though - programming for myself was the first thing I wanted to do and one of the last things I actually learned to do.
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I couldāve saved myself the better part of 5 years had i been smart enough to buy a program when i first started lifting. Took literal years of trial and error to find out what works and why
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Actually at the moment i am doing my own thing. I bought the ebooks in pursuit of new ideas.
Refraining from doing this will save you a LOT of heartache, I promise
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Thatās generally why people buy lifting books. You bought it and then questioned the authorās approach to frequency in a manner that suggests you donāt understand much about this stuff.
Read the books. Follow them to the T. That is how you will learn how to ādo your own thing.ā
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For real - thatās the key. You wonāt learn this stuff by reading; the gainz come from application.
Thatās really not just this game; thereās a reason @flappinit has clinical days and a residency component (sorry if I misnamed - I donāt know your program in detail).
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Yes, we got that part, lol. Weāre ALL telling you itās a bad idea. I feel like youāre not reading the responses in this thread closely. Iāll be bowing out. No reason to give detailed responses to people who donāt read them.
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Just curious, how strong are you doing your own thing. Bench press?
I should add that ādoing my own thingā might describe how I approached bodybuilding. That was my aim within 6 months of beginning to lift weights, but that was 1968 when there was limited information.
Most important is: are you getting stronger?
Your mention of āgenetic codeā was confusing at best. But you said you ran cross country. That alone tells me you are wasting your time trying to add significant muscle mass. But thatās just me. Donāt allow my opinion to stop you from proving me wrong.
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