Meditations, Musings & Muscular Contractions

Training Logs
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A log for the purpose of getting my thoughts out, recording what’s working when it’s working & having something to look back on to help me moving forward. I used to log on another forum that got wiped from the web, & after a period of time just using the notepad on my phone, I look back on when I’d log my training more properly & think it was worthwhile, having a log to reflect on.

A little info about myself. Late 20s, 6’1, 194 pounds, working an office job. Training since 2012 but spent a lot of time spinning my wheels, plus some health problems, (crohns disease), & spending a bit of time in hospital in 2021. I’ve tried various things & I’ve come to realize I’m a low volume guy. I’m interested in hypertrophy. Strength is just a means to an end.

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Back in the gym after nearly a week off due to a flu. Motivation is high because of the time off but my strength is still down a little. I train everything over two days. One day is chest, shoulders & arms, the other day is back & legs.

Starting with yesterday’s workout - Pec deck with 105kg for 13 reps, (don’t be impressed - some machines just let us move impressive sounding numbers). Followed with single arm pec deck going across the body, 2 second concentric & eccentric, (I’ll call these 4 second reps), for two sets of 8, 10. While I was still on the machine, two sets of reverse pec deck with 55kg for 10, then 75kg for 10. From that, into machine OHP, acclimation set with 50kg for 7 reps, then top set with 65kg for 6, then 50kg, 4 second reps, for 6 reps.

Onto EZ bar skullcrushers, 38kg with 4 second reps for 6, then a top set with 48kg for 9, then back to 38kg for 7 reps with 4 second reps. Cable lateral raises with 7.5kg for 8, then 5kg for 12, then 8 reps with 4 second reps. First time doing these in months but I might switch to these from the lateral raise machine with the elbow pads, for a little while. Onto V Bar pushdowns, 35kg for 11, 45kg for 7, (I’ve done these for 12 before I got the flu so this was particularly affected), then 35kg for 8 with 4 second reps.

Finally curls. Machine preacher curls, 40kg for 10, then top set with 60kg for 12, PR, then down to 40kg with 4 second reps for 10 reps. Machine preacher hammer curls, 55kg for 8, then 35kg for 9 with 4 second reps.

Today’s workout. Slightly wide grip lat pulldowns, 100kg for 8, then 110kg for a top set of 8 reps, then 90kg with 4 second reps for 7. On seated leg curls, every set with 4 second reps, 105kg for 7, 95kg for 7 & 80kg for 10.

Chest supported rows, 75kg for 8 as an acclimation set, then top set 95kg for 9 - matching my all-time best, then 60kg with 4 second reps for 10. Then onto hack squats, 160kg for 8, then top set with 190kg for 6, then backoff set to 160kg again for 8. This took a hit since getting the flu. Finished with one set on weighted crunch machine with the stack, which is 65kg, with 4 second reps for 13, which is actually a PR.

Training rant: This is what I’d go back in time to tell myself if I only had a few minutes to talk - Base how much work you do in the gym on your performance. Maybe the youtuber you think is cool & looks great does 12 sets of chest work, twice a week, so you intuitively vibe with that workload & are considering moving to it. You currently do 6 sets of chest work, & after having a good session hitting 3X8 with a new weight a few weeks ago on your main chest exercise, you’re CONSISTENTLY getting 8, 6, 6, or 8, 7, 6, or 7, 6, 6 on the following sessions - I can almost certainly tell you that no matter what you mentally feel like a ‘reasonable’ amount of volume is supposed to look like for you, the performance is objectively telling you the stimulus needs to lessen. Of course, if your diet sucks, you’ve got deficiencies, your sleep sucks or you’re under a lot of life stress, that’ll affect you, so you need to be honest with yourself, get other stuff in order as best you can, & then make the assessment.

Before the time machine sends me back into present day, I’m explaining the flipside to this to my past self. If your gym performance has you get 8, 8, 8 with X weight, & this is the best you’ve done, but then your next 10 workouts are all virtually identical, 8, 8, 8 with X weight - that should tell you that you need more stimulus. Your strength is relatively peaked but you’re consistently failing you hit anything greater, that’s a perfect example of the stimulus needing to go up.

Putting this into practice - In this example you’re newish to lifting to the point where you can increase reps every workout if your program is on point. Anyway, you hit 10 reps on your top set of a particular exercise. The next session, you get 11, (or more) - that’s perfect, don’t change a thing. Alternatively, you get 10 again - consider increasing the stimulus slightly. Alternatively again, you get 9 or 8, or even fewer reps - consider lowering the stimulus slightly.

Anyway, that’s what I’d say, If I had more time, I’d talk about this at the more advanced level. I’d say that when you’re relatively advanced, you can do everything right & still hit the same number of reps with the same weight a bunch of sessions in a row, & then finally you add a rep. This requires you pay very close attention. I’m of the opinion that if your training volume is about in the sweet spot & you’re more advanced, you will sometimes have workouts where you get that weight you got for 10 reps as a PR, for only 9 reps. If you get it for 6, something is seriously wrong there. But if you’re training right, & you’re past the point of progressing every session, your training WILL have you at 95% for some sessions. That’s perfectly ok. If over half a dozen workouts, your top set is X weight for 10, then 10, then 10, then 10, then 10, then 10, you should be a little worried you’re not training hard enough & you’re simply well recovered, hitting weights you can hit & producing ZERO new stimulus. Of course, it’s still possible that you’re around the right training volume & you just need 6 nearly perfect training sessions to turn a top set of 10 into a top set of 11, but if I had to guess which ADVANCED lifter who can only make very slow gains was making more progress, I’d instead put my money on the guy who is hitting that 10 rep PR weight for 10 reps some sessions, & only 9 reps some other sessions. That tiny little performance dip just tells us we’re doing something we’re just recovering from. If you’re hitting your old PR weight & reps every time, you’re really not sure if you’re pushing it. After all, you know who else hit around their PR weights each training session but never touch new ground? Guys who are just maintaining. As boring as natural bodybuilding is to some people, to me, very slow progress is far more rewarding than basically throwing in the towel & aiming to maintain. I can do that in a few years. Hell, maybe I’ll get to that point & I’ll still keep trying to eek out new gains, futile as it may be.

Anyway that’s the most important training advice I could possibly give which I DON’T hear from other people. Had to figure it out for myself, but it’s extremely valuable.

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Some time ago, I read an article that commented on an interview with Arnold about his Golden Six program. There he said that you increase the weight by 10 reps when you do 13-14 reps with the current weight. Apparently there is logic, because it is much more difficult to progress with a weight for 3x10 compared to, for example, 3x5. And if you increase the weight every time you do 11 reps, you’ll hit the wall much faster.

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There he said that you increase the weight by 10 reps when you do 13-14 reps with the current weight.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by this particular part. But I’ve definitely got something to say about progress with lower reps vs progress with higher reps. With higher reps you’re working with a lower % of your max. This means that 5lb added to a set with 60% of your max is actually a greater jump than 5lb added to a set with almost 90% of your max. In a twin study, they might grow just as well from higher reps as lower reps, but think that lower reps work better because one twin put 40lb on their 5 rep max but the other twin put just 30lb on their 12 rep max. 30lb is less than 40lb, but if you get those reps & weight into a 1RM calculator, the higher rep lifter might even have a higher theoretical max, (I stress ‘theoretical’ because strength is also a specific skill).

To use the simplest example - if the weight that is 50% of your max increases by 50lb (& its still 50% because you’ve got stronger), that’s more progress than increasing 100% of your max by 60 pounds. But this isn’t necessarily factored in when comparing low & higher reps, so high reps can get a bad wrap.

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I mean for example
10, 10, 10
11, 11, 10
11,11,11
12,12,11
12,12,12
13,12,12
13,13,12
13,13,13
14,13,13
14,14,13
And only here or after the previous workout you lift the weight and start again with 10,10,10.
That’s how I understood the advice.

I’m not saying it’s good, it’s not good. I’m just passing along his advice on how he progressed on the Golden Six.

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I believe this is called ‘Double Progression’ - you work on adding reps to the sets over several workouts, get to the ‘top’ of the range where you think increasing the reps even more wouldn’t be as productive as going heavier, then you add a bit of weight & start where you were at the beginning but with heavier loads. I’d say this is the most famous form of progression that there is - maybe a tie for first place with keeping the reps the same & trying to add 5lb, (which is extremely productive for as long as it lasts, which usually isn’t long unfortunately!)

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Basically I’m aware, I was just commenting on how Arnold explains his system.
Otherwise, this is the most sensible approach where you stay within the set range, eg 8-12. But if you stop adding weight, you can shorten the rest between sets, slow down the eccentric part, take a rest pause, and more. There are many methods that I assume you know.

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For sure!

Back in the gym again, (I train two days on, two days off), For my chest/delts/arms day. First, a rant. It’s funny how people will determine that training a certain amount of muscles, or a certain number of exercises, in a single session to be too much without knowing what the context is. Like, ‘Ohh, I wouldn’t train back & legs on the same day’, or, ‘8 exercises in one session, that’s a bit overkill.’ This session of mine here is 8 exercises & so long as you’ve got the constitution to leave no reps in the tank on 1-2 sets of every exercise, you shouldn’t struggle to handle this workout if you’re healthy. If the exercises were squats/deadlifts/bench press/barbell rows/OHP/SLDL/pullups/powercleans, yeah that might be a bit too much to handle. Now when I say, ‘handle’, I’m talking about performing workouts consistently where you’re able to maintain focus, intensity of effort, relevant loads on the bar, & some enjoyment out of the workout, consistently. Of course you can do a workout with all those 8 big compound lifts in it, but doing it with all of those boxes ticked is another story. An 8 exercise workout with a fly motion, a reverse fly, a press, a lateral raise & two bicep & tricep exercise, however, that can tick all those boxes in my mind.

Take my other workout where I train back & legs… If you’re a high volume guy who’s back day looks like pulldowns for 7 sets with different grips, rows for 7 sets with different grips, pullovers, two types of shrugs & hyper-extensions, & your leg day looks like a squat, a hip hinge, leg press, hack squat, two calf raises, two leg curls, yeah a back & leg day is going to be miserable for most. But my back & leg day involving lat pulldowns, seated leg curls, seated rows, hack squats & ab work, that’s not utterly brutal. I do take some pride in being good at grinding, good at taking sets to failure, but I’m not interested in doing a routine that I can point to as something onerous & difficult to complete, unless that’s totally necessary, which through experimentation I’ve found for me, it’s not.

Anyway, logging the workout. Pec deck, went up to a new weight, 110kg, which I managed for a top set of 12 reps, very happy with this. Weight doesn’t matter on these machines where 100kg on one machine is like 60kg on another, but what’s integral is progression & that’s currently happening. Went to single arm cross-body chest press after, 75kg for 8, 10 for another PR. Machine OHP - 50kg for 7, 65kg for a top set of 7, then 50kg with 4 second reps for 7 reps.

EZ Bar skullcrushers, 38kg for 6 with 4 second reps, then top set with 48kg for 9, then 38kg with 4 second reps for 8 reps. Onto cable lateral raises, 5kg for 11, 7.5kg for 8 then 5kg with super slow reps for 10 reps, more than last time on that at least. Went with single arm rope pushdown after, 10kg for 12, 15kg for a top set of 12, then 10kg for 12 with 4 second reps.

Finished with machine preacher curls, 40kg for 10, then heavier than ever, 65kg for a top set of 7 reps, then 40kg for 4 second reps for 11 reps, a PR. Hammer grip machine preacher curls, 55kg for 12 then 35kg for 10 with 4 second reps.

Pull day. Medium/wide grip overhand lat pulldowns, 100kg for 8, 112.5kg for 8 & 90kg for 6 with super slow reps. Onto seated leg curls, 105kg for 8, 95kg for 8 & 80kg for 11, all with 4 second reps.

Chest supported machine rows, 75kg for 8, 95kg for 9 & 1/2, & 60kg for 10 reps with 4 second reps. Hack squats with 160kg for 8, 190kg for 7 & 160kg for 7. Tried a set of leg raises & decline situps to experiment with ab work since I can do the crunch machine for 12+ reps with 4 second reps at this point.

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Just completed chest/delts/arms workout. Pec deck, 110kg, for a top set of 13 reps, adding a rep to this one. Single-arm cross-body pec deck after, 80kg for 8, 10, matching last workout’s reps but with 5kg more weight. A couple of nice guys let me work in with them, so the rest period exceeded my typical timed 2 minutes, which is partially to be attributed for the cross-body strength increase, but my regular pec deck PR was as pure as Heisenberg’s meth. Machine OHP - 50kg for 7, 65kg for a top set of 8, adding one rep here, then 50kg with 4 second reps for 7 reps.

EZ Bar skullcrushers, 38kg for 6 with 4 second reps, then top set with 48kg for 9 again, then 38kg with 4 second reps for 9 reps - added a rep here but I’ve already hit this number before, before I got sick & deloaded a couple weeks ago, may change this exercise soon. Onto cable lateral raises, 5kg for 11, 7.5kg for 9, adding a whole rep on this, then 5kg with super slow reps for 11 reps, adding a rep here too. Went to V-bar pushdowns after & experimented a little. I leaned over a lot but also brought the handle to my lower quads every rep, & 4 second reps on all sets. 25kg for 12, 32.5kg for 8, then 27.5kg for 8. When I did 42.5kg with regular form, but on my knees so I get a nice ROM at the lengthened position, it was starting to throw me around slightly so I wanted to find a form that lets me use less weight, this was somewhat effective.

Finally, machine preacher curls, 40kg for 10, (basically a warmup), then 65kg, for only the second time, managing a top set of 8 reps, PR. Finally, 45kg, heaviest I’ve ever gone for 4 second reps, & I hit for 9 reps here. Hammer-grip machine preacher curls, went heavier than ever before, 60kg, for 9 reps, then 40kg, heavier than I’ve ever gone for 4 second reps, for 9 reps.

RANT: In the gym, to different extents, pretty much all of us rotate, or have rotated, exercises to some degree. We experiment, we find exercises that feel good & are fit for purpose & we use them to make gains. Some muscle groups we stick to specific lifts more, & others we tend to rotate exercises a little more. My own personal experience on this, & it might just be me, would be that tricep exercises seem to particularly lend themselves to rotation. I think there’s a couple reasons behind it. When you go from a lift to another which requires less weight, (e.g. bar pushdowns to rope pushdowns), there’s something very calming in that relative lack of full body tension simply to keep your body rigid while you use your triceps to move relatively heavy loads. Then after a while with a lighter variant, you become very conscious of how difficult a certain part of the ROM is, usually the lockout if it’s a lighter variant, & how much easier other portions of the lift are, & you want something that feels relatively ‘even’ in tension from the start of the lift to the end. That intuitively gets you back to heavier pushdowns or skullcrushers. Then, there’s your wrists, & their health, & your ability to work with a straight bar versus a V-bar or a rope, (I love a V-bar, I don’t use a straight one anymore), & how wrist discomfort might change as you get stronger, further influencing change. So you spend years going back & forth between a slightly lighter tricep lift that doesn’t make you flex your abs super hard to stay rigid & which is quite hard to lock out, maybe even unilateral, & slightly heavier tricep lifts that have your core working hard & which are probably usually hardest at around the midpoint. THEN, there’s switching from a cable to a freeweight exercise & the downside of waiting for a bench, or for a bench press station if you want to close grip bench, versus the upside of arguably, not definitively but maybe, getting more of a total stimulus per set & just hammering your triceps hard & heavy. THEN, there’s the practical ramifications of a tricep exercise when you get stronger. If you weigh 200lb, & you’re pushdowning 110lb, but you’re on your knees, so your calf weight doesn’t count, & the weight is in front of you a little bit to make the lockout harder by design, & you’re pushing down with a bit more than 110lb of force, (since using exactly 110lb would just have the weight be stationary), & now you’re getting jerked around a bit, & it’s not gonna get easier as you get stronger. Meanwhile through sensation you’re thinking that on a set to set basis, the harder, heavier tricep lifts give MORE stimulus per set than the lighter cable stuff but meanwhile you’ve got these practical ramifications to grapple with.

Anyway, wanting to challenge a muscle at different parts of the ROM, thinking about incidental work from surrounding muscles, joint pain & how this might go from not even existing to being something to worry about as you get stronger, waiting for equipment & setting things up, practical ramifications of even performing the exercise as the weight goes up, it guides our decisions in how we train any muscle, really. But my own experience is that triceps really really get thrown around the place by these variables.

Quick log of my workout. Overhand slightly wide grip pulldowns were awesome. 100kg for 8, 115kg for 8, 90kg for 9 with 4 second reps. Seated leg curls 105kg for 9, 95kg for 7 & 80kg for 10, all 4 second reps.

Machine rows 75kg for 8, 95kg for 10, PR, 60kg for 11 with 4 second reps. Hack squats 160kg for 8, 190kg for 8 & 160kg for 10. Decline situps with a 5kg plate at forehead height for 5 reps, 4 second tempo.

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Another couple of workouts done yesterday & today. Yesterday was chest/delts/arms. Pec deck, 115kg, for a top set of 10 reps. New weight, but nothing special performance wise, considering I got 110kg for 13 4 days ago. Single-arm cross-body pec deck after, 80kg for 8, 10, this time with regular rest periods so that’s a great plus. Reverse pec deck with 60kg for 10 then top set with 80kg for 11 reps, an all-time PR. Machine OHP - 50kg for 7, 65kg for a top set of 7, then 50kg with 4 second reps for 8 reps.

EZ Bar skullcrushers, 38kg for 6 with 4 second reps, then top set with 48kg for 9 again, then 38kg with 4 second reps for 8 reps again. I definitely need to sub this out with something else, soon. Onto cable lateral raises, 5kg for 11, 7.5kg for 10, adding a whole rep on this for the second session in a row, then 5kg with super slow reps for 13 reps, adding two reps on last session. V-bar pushdowns, leaing over a lot, but this time also standing slightly further away from the cable station. 27.5kg for 10, 32.5kg for 10, then 27.5kg for 11, all done with 4 second reps. I’m really looking forward to next time on these.

Finally, machine preacher curls, 45kg for 9, increasing the first set weight by 5kg, then 65kg for the third time, this time managing 9 reps, another all-time PR. Down to 45kg for 9 4 second reps to finish. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 9, then 40kg for 9 reps, 4 second style.

Back & legs not great. I helped my parents a little moving house today so I’d just chalk it down to peripheral fatigue & not make any adjustments to my training. Overhand slightly wide grip pulldowns, 100kg for 8, 115kg for barely 8, guess you’d call it 7.9 reps, then 90kg for 6 with 4 second reps, down a few reps. Seated leg curls 105kg for 8 & a half reps, then 95kg for 6 & 80kg for 8.

Machine rows 75kg for 8, 95kg for 10, PR, 60kg for 9 with 4 second reps. Hack squats 160kg for 8, 190kg for 9, adding a rep, & 160kg for 11, adding a rep. At least this went well. Decline situps with a 5kg plate at forehead height for 7 reps, 4 second tempo, adding two reps here.

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Chest/delts/arms. Pec deck, 115kg, for a top set of 11 reps, adding a rep to this from last session. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 80kg for 8, 11, adding a rep to the last set. Great success here. Reverse pec deck with 60kg for 10 then top set with 80kg for 9, down a couple reps on last time. Machine OHP - 50kg for 7, 65kg for a top set of 5, down two reps on last session, then 50kg with 4 second reps for 5 reps, down three reps on last session, big performance drop here.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers 14kg for 10, 16kg for 8, 14kg for 8, all 4 second reps. Onto cable lateral raises, 5kg for 11, 7.5kg for 10, same as last session, then 5kg with super slow reps for 14 reps, adding a rep here. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 27.5kg for 10, 32.5kg for 10, then 27.5kg for 11, with the attachment one down from the top rung so increasing the difficulty of bringing the attachment BACK from the station due to the increased angle.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 9, then 65kg, somehow managing an all-time PR of 10 reps. Down to 45kg for 10 4 second reps to finish. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 9, then 40kg for 10 reps done with 4 second reps, new PR on this set.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns, 100kg for 8, 115kg for 8 & 90kg for 4 second reps, managing 10 entire reps today, an all-time PR. On leg curls, 105kg for only 6, so I only did one more set with 90kg for 6 then moved on since I was under-recovered here.

Chest supported rows, 75kg for 8, then top set with 95kg for an all-time PR of 10 & a half reps, then 60kg for 10 done with super slow reps. I placed the seat one rung lower than I’ve done before & this made a great difference in the quality of the muscular contraction in my upper back. When it’s upper back, the name of the game is pulling the weight to a relatively high spot on your torso, but also keeping your elbows in. Hack squats, 160kg for 8, 190kg for 10 reps, PR, then 160kg for 12. Finished with decline situps, for a new PR, 8 reps with a 5kg plate.

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Chest/delts/arms. Pec deck, 115kg, for a top set of 12 reps, adding a rep to this from last session. I’m gonna do 120kg next time. Unfortunately, the machine caps out at 130kg, so I may need to switch to single arm for every set, should I manage to reach this level, which while close, is also far away, as any intermediate lifter can tell you. Single-arm cross-body pec deck afterwards, going up 5kg to 85kg for 7, 8, (always 4 second reps on this one, so a 7 rep set still takes 28 seconds). Reverse pec deck with 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg, heavier than I’ve ever gone in my life, for 7 reps.

Machine OHP - typical one I use was taken, so I went to the older Nautilus one. 50kg for 7, then top set with 57kg for 9, then final set with 36kg with 4 second reps for 8 reps. Dumbbell incline skullcrushers after, 14kg for 10, 16kg for 9, adding a rep, but then 14kg for 7 afterwards due to fatigue, lol.

Cable lateral raises sucked today, 5kg for 11, 7.5kg for 8, same as last session, then 5kg with super slow reps for 9 reps, (which is a lot less than 14 last session). V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 27.5kg for 10, 32.5kg for 12, adding TWO REPS, then 27.5kg for 12, adding a rep, good win here at least.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 9, then 65kg for 10 reps, matching last session. Down to 45kg for 11 super slow reps, managing a PR here. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 10, adding a rep here & managing an all-time PR, then 40kg for 10 reps done with 4 second reps.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns, 100kg for 8, then top set, today going heavier than ever with this grip, 117.5kg, for 7.9 reps. The last rep really wasn’t a disaster, 0.9 of a rep is a fair estimate. Then, 90kg with super slow reps for 9 reps. Onto leg curls. Now, last session, after a couple of abysmal performances well below my peak, I dropped the number of sets from 3 to only 2. Today was the session after doing just 2 sets the previous session & I was conscious of that. I worked up to 105kg for 9, matching my best, then second set, 95kg also for 9, a new PR. Final set with 85kg. I debated not doing this. After all, three all-out sets on this exercise seem to slightly exceed my recovery, & 2 sets last session has helped me do well today. I chose to proceed with the third set with 85kg for 6 reps, at probably an RPE of 8. I’m going to proceed like this for the short term.

Chest supported rows, 75kg for 8, & then heavier than ever before in my life, 100kg for a top set of 8, which went pretty clean. Backoff set with superslow reps after, 60kg for 10. Onto hack squats which went really well. 160kg for 8, then heavier than ever 195kg, nearly five 20kg plates a side, for a top set of 11 reps, then backoff set with 165kg for 12. One set of decline situps with a 5kg plate at forehead height & super slow reps, for 9 reps, PR.

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Rant post. The insidious thing about doing too much in the gym is how easy it can be to do it. In no particular order, the reasons why:

  • Posturing which masquerades as advice. When the ‘overtraining isn’t real’ crowd are telling other people how hard they should train, they consciously or subconsciously treat it as an opportunity to project that they’re tough, that they’re determined. They say overtraining isn’t something to be concerned with because they align with being the type of person who would say such a thing - this argument persuades many, thanks to the charisma of the argument rather than objective truth. Like a self-made successful guy who believes clinical depression isn’t real & it’s a choice. While being literally untrue, I must admit that them having beliefs like this can sometimes be part of the framework of their temperament that propel them to success. The same can be said for training so long that your conception of ‘BALLS TO THE WALL’ training actually lines up with training which works well for your body. This certainly isn’t the case for me, but there are without a doubt people out there who make great gains off volume I would mostly consider a bit silly.

  • Doing too much in most cases won’t lead to overtraining in the medical definition of the word, & so people fool themselves into thinking their routine is fine when it’s too much work & causing them to stagnate. Medically, overtraining is severe. Your pee is dark, you’re always tired, cold, & your strength is WAY down, not simply stagnant. The problem is there is a big space before you get to this point where you feel roughly ok but you’re still doing too much. I was doing 10 sets for chest a couple of times a week a couple of years ago & making no gains there, but I was stubborn & thought I was closer to my natural limit than I really was, so foolishly accepted the stagnation. If those extra sets crushed me then I might’ve changed sooner, but the fact was, I felt ok, no fever, no chills, sleep fine, etc. The stagnation remained, however, & had I understood that it’s easy to do too much work in the gym to make progress but not feel medically overtrained, I’d have fixed my errors sooner.

  • Misunderstanding the medical marvel of the adaptability of the human body to survive. This relates a lot to my above point. You can do quite a few sets more than the optimal amount for you to grow, (which will result in you making less, & then no gains), & you’ll be spinning your wheels BUT you won’t generally fall apart. People can point to the labours of soldiers in WW1 fighting while being 3 days sleep deprived, or the slaves who built the pyramids, & say, ‘And you’re worried about over-training on your machines in your air-conditioned gymnasium where you exercise for 5 hours a week???’ This MISSES the point completely. We don’t go to the gym to see how much we can endure, how much we can do before our bodies give out on us. We go to grow, & the work for the greatest growth exists in a very different place to the work for testing what you’re able to endure.

  • The common volume recommendations are built upon sets being performed with less intensity than they could be. Some people struggle to train all out. They instinctively leave a few reps in the tank. Obviously the more you leave in the tank, the more total work you need to do to have the same, or similar enough, stimulative training effect as less total sets done closer to failure. Semi-related to this, these volume recommendations are also influenced by people with very little affinity with the exercise they’re performing. The amazing contractions I get on most of my exercises… I recall doing a few movements over the years where the feel was total garbage compared to my most cherished lifts, & when you’re dealing with some of these lifts, it’s perfectly feasible to need more work to get to the point of growth compared to the ‘money’ lifts where stimulation comes quick. Mainstream volume recommendations now are 10-20 sets a week per body part per week. It’s a pretty good landmark, honestly. But one should remember that people with a weak mind muscle connection & a distaste to all-out training do inform this recommendation somewhat.

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Chest/delts/arms once again. Pec deck, 120kg, heavier than I’ve ever gone, for a top set of 10 reps, which feels pretty good. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 85kg for 7, 9, adding a rep to the final set. Reverse pec deck with 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for 8 reps, beating 7 reps last time.

Machine OHP, 50kg for 7, 65kg for 7, then 50kg with superslow reps for 5 - this was slightly differenrt - I determined mid-set that a PR wasn’t a possibility, so I kept one rep in the tank, (well slightly under one on the single top set & slightly more than one on the backoff set). I may need to drop the volume/intensity on this particular lift as well. Despite the volume being low, the body says what the body says. The body should be treated as the dictator of exercise routine adjustments. Too many times I’ve grown complacent & not listened to it.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers - 14kg for 8, 16kg for 10, adding a rep on my previous best, & 14kg on the final set for 9 reps. This was just really good today. Cable lateral raises, 5kg for 10, 7.5kg for 10, then 5kg with super slow reps for 14. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 27.5kg for 10, 35kg for 8, then then 27.5kg for 12.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 9, then 65kg for 11 reps, an all-time PR. Down to 45kg for 9 super slow reps, little less than my all-time PR of 11 reps. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 9, then 40kg for 11 reps done with 4 second reps, somehow managing a PR on this one.

Back & Legs. Widish grip lat pulldowns, 100kg for 8, then 117.5kg for only 6 reps, & 90kg with super slow reps for only 5, lord this crushed me today. Then again, my last couple sessions were on a slightly different lat pulldown setup which I think has me like 2% stronger so this shouldn’t be a grand surprise. Leg curls were garbage lmao, 105kg for just 7, then 95kg for just 6. This is after doing three sets the session before, (a session which went well), & me thinking I could handle it since the RPE on the last set was like 7.5 instead of all-out. Evidently, I need to drop lower on the volume. Two sets now going forward.

Seated chest supported rows, 75kg for 8, the 100kg for 8 & a half reps, adding a little on top of last performance, very good. 60kg for 10 super slow reps afterwards. Onto hack squats, 160kg for 8, then officially worked up to 5 plates a side, 200kg, for 8 reps. Backoff set with 170kg for 12 reps. One set of decline situps with 5kg plate at top-of-my-head level for 10 super slow reps, time to graduate to a 10kg plate.

RANT. Imagine intentionally doing a set of an exercise in a way which is less stimulative than it could be, so that you can perform a greater number of sets without doing too much work to grow optimally. Powerlifters do it all the time. 8 sets of 3, 6 sets of 3, 7 sets of 2, 6 sets of 4, all done with weights which they could feasibly perform for twice as many reps on a single set as they do for many sets. More reps in the tank is safer from an injury standpoint, for sure, especially on a squat or deadlift. Plus, squats & deadlifts are lifts where you can use maximal force to lift a slightly submaximal weight faster, (many other lifts have a deceleration component which make leaving many reps in the tank totally unfeasible for muscle growth since you can’t use 100% force on loads much less than 100% without tremendous joint strain, & you can’t use 100% loads either because that’s also stressful for a different reason).

Bodybuilding isn’t powerlifting. We don’t practice lifts to practice lifts, it’s not numbers for the sake of numbers. However, imagine being able to do a very low number of sets, with a relatively low frequency, to ignite the growth stimulus. It’s fantastic, but there’s one problem. Even just talking bodybuilding - & this is just me expressing an opinion in the moment - you WANT to perform more than a low number of sets with a low frequency on some lifts, for the purpose of practicing the skillset of training that lift, or that flexibility, to induce hypertrophy. Now on something like a leg curl or leg extension, or a shrug, something where you simply get in the machine with the height settings correctly calibrated, & GRIND, this doesn’t matter. But on a squat, or a hack squat, or a preacher curl, or a shoulder press, or a Romanian deadlift, or a pullup, there’s something to be said about a skill/stretch component that justifies doing more than a super minimal amount of work even if that ‘work’ can reach the growth threshold. Notice I said ‘skill/stretch’ component. A preacher curl isn’t very technical, but it greatly emphasises the stretch position of the bicep. If you can attain a formidable level of muscularity in the bicep from this movement, but it is something you perform infrequently & for a low number of sets, I might fear for the integrity of your bicep tendon. Much of bodybuilding is essentially weighted stretching, & if we stretch very infrequently, with hefty loads needed for training well developed muscles, there is a risk that comes with that. Put simply, I’m less worried about the guy who does 4 sets of preacher curls a week with a decent weight than the guy who does 1 set a week with also impressive weight, because the first guy is doing 4 times as much stretching work as the second guy, & so long as he’s not under-recovered, will be more resistant to injury.

Alright, so we should now establish what the point is for lessening stimulation for the sake of doing more sets. At this point I’m really just making stuff up which intuitively sounds reasonable. Again, for those super basic, ‘get in the machine & grind’ lifts, this isn’t a concern. It’s also not a concern if you’re doing like 6 sets of an exercise, all to failure, twice a week, & growing fine. 12 sets a week over two sessions is absolutely enough practice to the point that you as a bodybuilder shouldn’t generally need to concern yourself with lessening the effort per set to do even more sets & get more practice. I would say if it’s a lift with a flexibility component or a bit technical, keep it to no less than 3 sets a couple of times a week, (so about 6 sets a week). Going from 1 to 2 sets is an 100% increase in practice, (with relevant weights), & 2 sets to 3 sets is a 50% increase. 3 to 4, 4 to 5, & so on, scales down exponentially for the increase in practice.

As a practical example - you love squats as a hypertrophy exercise. You can induce growth from 1 set of breathing squats with light enough weight to hit a certain rep count, 2 sets of squats done regular style to RPE 10 or 3 sets with one set at RPE 10 & two at RPE 6-7, (or more sets than 3 with progressively lower intensity of effort). I’m basically saying maybe you want to be doing 3 sets in this scenario. Meanwhile you can induce growth from 1 set of seated leg curls with the right load - you’re probably not losing out on much by not getting more practice on this lift, 1 set is fine so long as it’s stimulative.

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Chest/delts/arms. Last night was a late one, many drinks were had, & today was a mixed bag. Pec deck, 120kg, top set of 11 reps, good to see progress is still happening here. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 85kg for 7, 9. Reverse pec deck, 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for 8. Machine OHP, 65kg for 6, then 50kg with superslow reps for 5 - still under-recovered & below numbers I’ve already hit, this sucks.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers - 14kg for 8, 16kg for 11, acquiring a new PR, & 14kg on the final set for 9. Cable lateral raises, 5kg for 10, 7.5kg for just 8, then 5kg with super slow reps for 11. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 27.5kg for 10, 35kg for 9, adding a rep here, then 27.5kg for 13, adding a rep here too. Great day for tricep work.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 9, then 65kg for just 8 reps. Down to 45kg for 9 super slow reps, nothing special today. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 9, then 40kg for 9 superslow reps.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns with 100kg for 8, then 115kg for 7 & 90kg superslow reps for 6, still slightly underrecovered it seems. Leg curls, same deal. 105kg for just 6, & 90kg for just 7. Seated chest supported rows, 75kg for 8, 100kg for nearly 9 reps, just wanna be slightly cleaner before I count it, & 60kg superslow for 12.

Hack squats went really well, 4 plates, 160kg a side for 8, then 5 plates, 200kg for 9, PR, & 160kg for 13 afterwards, PR. Decline crunches with a 10kg plate for the first time, for 6 superslow reps.

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Chest/delts/arms. Pec deck, 120kg, top set of 11.9 reps, couldn’t fully shorten the muscle on that last rep. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 85kg for 7, 10, new PR. Reverse pec deck, 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for 9, also a new PR here too. Machine OHP, 65kg for 6, then 50kg with superslow reps for 5, again, not good.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers - 14kg for 8, 16kg for 12, new PR & 14kg on the final set for 8, losing a rep due to fatigue lol. Cable lateral raises, today I didn’t lean, just stood straight up, 5kg for 10, 7.5kg for just 6, then 5kg with super slow reps for 10, so this non-leaning version seems to be mechanically harder. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 30kg for 8, 35kg for 10, adding a rep here, then 30kg for 10, tricep stuff is going well.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 9, then 65kg for 12 reps, sickening PR. Down to 45kg for 8, pretty lacklustre. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 9, then 40kg for 9 superslow reps.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns with 100kg for 8, then 115kg for 7.8, (I’d call it 0.8 of a rep on the last one), & 90kg superslow reps for 6. Leg curls were amazing - after just doing two sets last session, I hit 105kg for 10 reps, all-time PR, then 90kg for 9 afterwards. Seated chest supported rows, 75kg for 8, 100kg for nearly 9 reps - but no closer than last time unfortunately, & 60kg superslow for 12.

Hack squats 160kg for 8, then 5 plates, 200kg for 11, an all-time PR, & 175kg for 13 afterwards, PR. Decline crunches with a 10kg plate for the first time, for 8 superslow reps.

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Last two days were spent travelling, weekend away, so wasn’t sure how this would go. Chest/delts/arms. Pec deck, 120kg, top set of 12 reps, securing that last rep in the bag. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 85kg for 7, then 90kg for 8. Reverse pec deck, 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for 9. Machine OHP on the nautilus machine today, 50kg for 7, then 57kg for 10, then 64kg on the top set for 8 reps, PR.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers - 14kg for 8, 16kg for 11 & 14kg on the final set for 9. Cable lateral raises, today, 5kg for 8, 7.5kg for 6, then 5kg for 8, weak on these today. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 30kg for 8, 35kg for 11, adding another rep here, then 30kg for 11.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 10, then 70kg, heavier than ever before, for a top set of 7 reps. Down to 45kg for 11 superslow reps. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for nearly 11, then 40kg for 9 superslow reps.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns, 100kg for 8, 115kg for nearly 8, (call it 7.9), & 90kg for 7 superslow reps. Seated leg curls with 110kg for the first time for 6.9 reps - I’ll call it 6.9 reps not 7 as the last one just needed to be a little more convincing. 90kg after for 9, all superslow as all reps are on this exercise.

Seated chest supported rows, 75kg for 8, 100kg for 8,9, & 65kg for 9 superslow reps. Hack squats PR today, 4 plates a side for 8, 5 plates for 13, & 4 & 1/2 plates, 180kg, for 13. Decline situps with 10kg plate for 9 superslow reps, PR.

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20

Another training session in the bag. Pec deck, 120kg, top set of just 11 & a half, but trying to get more of a stretch than before as I was cutting the ROM at the bottom just a little bit. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 85kg for 7, then 90kg for 9, adding a rep here & securing a PR. Reverse pec deck, 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for just 8. I think of all my muscles, my rear delts are not far from my natural limit so any progress here is small. Machine OHP on the nautilus machine once again, 50kg for 7, then 64kg for 9, adding a rep, then 43kg, I think, for 8 super slow reps.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers - 14kg for 8, 18kg for the first time, for 8 & 14kg on the final set for 8. Cable lateral raises, 5kg for 8, 7.5kg for 7, adding a rep here, then 5kg for 9. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 30kg for 8, 35kg for 12, adding another rep here, then 30kg for just 10, guess I was a bit exhausted from the prior set.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 10, then 70kg for 7 again. Down to 45kg for 10 super slow reps. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, 60kg for 11, then 40kg for 9 super slow reps.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns, 100kg for 8, 115kg for 6.9 reps, & 90kg for 8 superslow reps. This is going nowhere, I’m gonna think on this. The weak performances suggest I’m doing too much. Seated leg curls with 110kg for 7 reps, then 90kg after for 10, awesome.

Seated chest supported rows, 80kg for 8, (going up 5kg here, shouldn’t screw up the top set as it’s still 20% less weight), then 100kg for 9 kinda, & 65kg for 10 super slow reps, actually a PR here. Hack squats for another PR today, 4 plates a side for 8, then 205kg for 13, & 185kg, for 13. Decline situps with 10kg plate for 10 superslow reps, another PR here.

RANT: I’ve been enjoying listening to a few old recordings of Mike Mentzer on youtube. I’m actually NOT a HIT advocate - in short because it’s an idea of training built on philosophy rather than science. You can have an analogy & use various comparisons for one set being the rational way to train, & it sounds like it makes sense. But, when somebody does two sets & makes more gains, there’s no rationalisation of that through the lense of HIT, except that they weren’t training sufficiently hard enough on the one set, which may or may not be true, but they don’t really know that. HIT cannot explain people doing a single set to failure who increased their volume & made as good or better gains, & that’s something it needs to be able to explain because HIT doesn’t just present itself as a ‘style’ but rather the rational & correct way to train. Also, if you’re doing your one set & not gaining, Mike’s solution is increasing the off days - that’s the only tool in his toolbox, basically, aside from a few different variations of intensity techniques. Not gaining on your routine hitting each muscle once every 9 days? Increase it to once every 10, or 11 days!

With that paragraph out of the way, time for me to now talk positively. I find tremendous value in listening to the gurus of yesteryear - not just any of them, but particular people who happened to get a lot of things right, even if their philosophy wasn’t totally watertight. Mike’s muscle recovery explanation process of stimulation, recovery & then supercompensation, makes complete sense, & I don’t know of any science to suggest that training again before supercompensation occurs, (thus disrupting it) could be a good thing for muscle growth. Listening to someone like him, who gets things about 80% right, is very useful. On the other side are people who get things right about 40% of the time, who are simply not worth your time. Alternatively, there are people nowadays who are smart & practical & manage to be right 95% of the time - also very useful but because of how close they are to being right all the time, your critical part of your brain can sort of turn itself off & you just accept everything, which comes with its own downsides. With someone like Mike, he’s very engaging & it’s very easy to listen to him while also not becoming victim to the pitfalls of his less correct ideas or remarks, (like EZ bar curls not working the biceps).

I’ll always have a soft spot for him though, just because I think in a total collective sense, his influence causes people to make more gains. If most people are saying to do 30 sets a week, & one person says 5 sets a week, while probably a little bit less than ideal for most non-noobs, it represents a collective good in adjusting the ‘mean’ away from a suboptimal place. Hopefully that makes sense. But I’ve benefitted more from a training style that is similar to his used in the 1970s than I ever did doing something that Arnold Schwarzenegger said to do. Arnold has probably done damage through how big his voice is & him talking about training for 5 hours a day, making the average person believe this is what pro bodybuilders actually do, (instead of the reality of doing like 15-20 sets a body part, once a week, with workouts lasting like one hour excluding warmup).

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Another session done. Pec deck, 120kg, top set of 12, JUST, lmao. Single-arm cross-body pec deck, 85kg for 8, then 90kg for 10, adding a rep on both these sets & getting that PR. Reverse pec deck, 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for 8. Nautilus Machine OHP, (it was busy so I warmed up on the star trak one & did the acclimation set 50kg for 7 on that one), then 64kg for 10, adding a rep here, then 43kg for 9 super slow reps.

Dumbbell incline skullcrushers - 14kg for 8, 18kg for 8, (I lowered them to go for 9 but didn’t have the strength to get them moving), & 14kg on the final set for 8. Cable lateral raises on a different station, (more difficult), 5kg for 8, 7.5kg for 6, then 5kg for 8 super slow reps. V-bar pushdowns, leaning over, 30kg for 8, 37.5kg for the first time for 8, then 30kg for 11.

Machine preacher curls, 45kg for 10, then 70kg for 8 reps, new PR. Down to 45kg for 10 super slow reps. Hammer grip machine preacher curls after, telling myself I need to reset on this exercise’s top set because I’m not going down low enough, (there’s hardly any bicep tendon strain on the loaded stretch when I use a hammer grip), 60kg for just 8, then 40kg for 8 super slow reps.

Back & legs. Widish grip pulldowns, 100kg for 8, 110kg for 7, 90kg for 8. Damn this exercise is not working out right now. Seated leg curls 110kg for 7 & a bit, 90kg for 10 after. Seated chest supported row, 80kg for 8, 100kg for 9, 65kg for 10 super slow.

Hack squat 170kg for 8, 210kg for 12, heavier than ever, & 180kg for 14. Weighted decline crunch to finish, 15kg for 6 super slow reps. One set of calf raises with 88kg for 13 reps (did them for the first time last back & legs session with one pin less, knew it would be quick progress for the first few workouts doing this. I think a bare minimum of calf strength & muscularity will slightly assist on other leg movements which is why I’m doing them.

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Pec deck, 120kg, top set of 11 & 3/4 reps
Single-arm Cross-body Pec Deck: 90kg for 7, then 95kg for 9
Reverse Pec Deck, 60kg for 10 then top set with 85kg for 8.
Nautilus Machine OHP: 57kg for 7, then 71kg for 7, then 43kg for 9 (super slow)

Added 5kg to the cross-body pec deck sets & only lost a single rep, I’d call that a win. On reverse pec deck I had a little juice left in the tank after 9 reps & managed to move it a few inches which I’ve not done before. On nautilus OHP, 71kg for 7 is heavier than I’ve ever gone on this machine & that feels good.

Dumbbell Incline Skullcrushers:14kg for 8, 18kg for 9, & 14kg for 8
Cable Lateral Raises: 5kg for 8, 7.5kg for 7, then 5kg for 9 (super slow)
V-bar Pushdowns: 30kg for 8, 37.5kg for 8, then 30kg for 11
Machine Preacher Curls, 45kg for 10, 70kg for 8 reps, 50kg for 8 (super slow)
Hammer-grip Machine Preacher Curls: 60kg for 8, 45kg for 8 (super slow)

Highlight here is adding a rep to the top set of skullcrushers with 18kg dumbbells, most excellent. Also went up 5kg on the super slow sets of curls & hammer curls both, hitting 8 reps.

Back & legs.
Widish Grip Pulldowns: 100kg for 8, 110kg for 7, 90kg for 8
Seated Leg Curls 110kg for 7 & a half, 90kg for 9
Seated Chest Supported Row: 80kg for 8, 100kg for 9, 65kg for 10 (super slow)

So lat pulldowns, where I’m perpetually under-recovered, my psyche is whispering harshly into my ear that two sets is too few sets, so I’m gonna drop the RPE on the last set & assess how that affects things. I’m also gonna actually NOT do the last set super slow, (since that seems synonymous with being more stimulative which is actually not what I want based on my current recovery), & I’m also going to keep 2-3 reps in the tank on that one, so only one all-out set instead of two. Leg curls & rows were just typical, no new ground broken, it is what it is.

Hack squat: 170kg for 8, 215kg for 13, new PR, & 180kg for 7 (different foot position)
Weighted Decline Crunch: 15kg for 7 (super slow)
Calf raises: 97kg for 13 reps (super slow)

I filmed the hack squat & unfortunately the ROM isn’t there. I’m gonna rebuild this from the ground up, gonna move my feet like 6 entire inches closer to the base of the pad, it’s gonna feel completely different. Right now it feels as much as it could possibly feel like a ‘compound exercise’ in the sense of my glutes & quads working to similar degrees, but it’s costing me ROM & my ego has been sated by the joy of using 5 plates several times & I’m ready to step back from it now. Very happy to add a rep to crunches, & very happy also to add a whole entire weight stack pin level on standing calf raises. I’d be doing the entire stack in 12 workouts time if this keeps up, (lol, it won’t, but it’s a funny thought).