Just a thought. If on my current routine my reps/weight are improving every workout, could I still be overtraining? Or more practically , if I am doing 4 exercise per muscle group and progressing weekly would there be any benefit to dropping to two exercise per muscle group.
Arthur Jones always said: “If in doubt, do less.”
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So you’re making progress and worried you should stop because ?
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I would say, let it ride until you cease to see progress, then maybe take a week off or just easier workouts and then return to hit it hard again and adjust from there. I don’t like tinkering too much when progress is happening, I think that means you’re in a sweet spot.
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What about increasing food instead of decreasing work?
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There’s a number of ways to approach plateau-busting, and I like that idea, but since he’s making steady progress I don’t even think that’s necessary at this point. My main argument here is that he probably should change nothing is he’s making progress every week. As long as he doesn’t feel run down or anything, it’s sounds all good to me!
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I didnt say I was stopping.
My thoughts exactly. I figure when progress comes to a halt I can start adding rest days and maybe reduce some sets.
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Yeah man, it sounds like you’re in a groove. I’m personally pretty superstitious, and when I’m doing well I try to keep food, sleep, and workouts the same until I start to slip or stall, and even then, I may give it a few workouts, just to see if it’s a recurring problem or just a one-off bad day. You seem to have a good grasp on what works and how to make changes when necessary.
Did you end up running the Colorado Experiment routine a second time with the changes you mentioned?
No. Keeping that on reserve. Now I am following dorians routine, but his pre olympia one. Each. Body part hit twice per week. 2-4 total sets to failure depending on which body part. But I also add a pump sequence of 6x8 15 sec rest to each body part. Similar to fst-7. Making crazy gains.
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That sounds like a cool program, and I love Pump stuff thrown in too, definitely adds some fun to the training session!
In the past I’ve made progress with failure training. And volume training. Both would come to a halt and I would constantly switch. Seems combining the two is the answer for me. Also hitting a body part twice per week instead of once.
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I remembered a story in vince girondas book about reg park. He said Reg looked thick after a year of his heavy 5x5 training. Then he switched to higher reps and more pump work and his muscles looked bigger but not as dense. Apparently he settled on a heavy workout and a pump workout for each body part per week. According to Vince that was when he looked his best and had the best of both worlds. Granted the story could be bullshit but the logic and message he was conveying resonated.
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I’ve sometimes wondered about that with myself…heavy training vs fullness with CTF.
From my own experience, it depends on how many exercises from your entire workout are stagnating or plateauing. 1/2 is my rule-of-thumb. Of course, sleep and general fatigue are better ways of gauging the overall picture IMO.
But, it looks like you’re jamming now, so keep at it. Then, address individual exercises or bodyparts if and when they stagnate.