For the mass, Meadows is cool. He does great bodybuilder stuff with order of exercises, variety of moves and so ranges and cool techniques. But when it comes to planning “Intensity” or how hard to push each session he seems to start out at Balls to the Wall, and from there goes harder each week.
If that’s too much for you, you could do the same routine, just start just a little easier, lighter or less intense than Meadows recommends. Then gradually built up and push harder over the training cycle in the same way, only you started at “level 7” instead of “level 10.”
Here’s a piece of a C. Thibadeau article where he described using this approach.
"### Rate of Perceived Effort
The key for a natural lifter who’s a volume person is to maintain the proper level of perceived effort. Here’s what you should expect from each level.
Rate of Perceived Effort in Lifting Activities
| 10 | Maximal Effort | You couldn’t do anything more. |
|---|---|---|
| 9.5 | Almost Limit Effort | You couldn’t have done more reps, but maybe could’ve done a bit more weight. |
| 9 | Extremely Hard | You could do 1 more rep. |
| 8.5 | Very Hard | You could do 1 more rep. |
| 8 | Hard | You could do 2 more reps. |
| 7.5 | Fairly Hard | You could do 2 more reps for sure, maybe 3. |
| 7 | Somewhat Demanding | You could do 3 more reps. |
| 5-6 | Comfortable | You could do 4-6 more reps. |
| 1-4 | Very Easy | It feels like a warm-up. |
Now, few lifters can actually do a level 9.5 or 10 in a regular workout, even if they think that they do. Most people fake themselves out when training to failure. In reality, most are at a 9 when they hit “failure” during a regular training session. Those who can get to a true 9.5 and 10 regularly in training are those who respond the best to low volume/high intensity training and who burn themselves out when they do high volume work. Why? Because when they “pull back” they still do an 8.5 or 9.
Just how hard should you push your sets when you’re natural and decide to use a “volume” approach? Go mostly with a 7-8 RPE most of the time; sometimes going up to an 8.5.
I normally use a wave-like approach, like this:
- Week 1: RPE 7 (3 reps in the tank for sure)
- Week 2: RPE 7.5 (2 reps in the tank, maybe 3)
- Week 3: RPE 8 (2 reps in the tank)
- Week 4: RPE 8.5-9 (1 rep in the tank, maybe 2)
Then we could do a deload at an RPE of 6 and start a new cycle. Or start right off with a new cycle, since it starts at an RPE of around 7. This will minimize the stress response to your work sets, counterbalancing for the higher volume of work."
Here’s a Mike Isreatel Power Point presentation where he elaborates on the same ideas.
