Three Things That Don’t Matter That Much… Three Things That Do
By Christian Thibaudeau
I confess, I’m a training addict. In fact there is nothing I love more than read, talk and learn about training. Call it a passion, an obsession, madness or just plain sad, it is what it is!
Everybody who is addicted to the iron is my friend. Even if they have diverging opinions, overwhelming persona or a stubborn attitude. We are all sharing something and at some level it makes us brothers.
I keep reading about how powerlifters, odd-lift strength guys, bodybuilders and Olympic lifters were all training in the same gyms and shared a camaraderie that you rarely see anymore. “Powerlifters are just strong fat guys,” say the bodybuilders, “Bodybuilders are all show, no go and a big ego,” retort the powerlifters. And don’t ask me about Olympic lifters, we hardly see them anymore.
Sad.
Everybody can learn something if he keeps his mind open, and you never know where it will come from. I know that I learned a lot of stuff from Olympic lifters and powerlifters that helps me build more muscle. And I know that I took some stuff away from bodybuilders to help correct weak areas that were holding my strength gains back.
So it really feels like something sour inside my mouth when all I see is the fighting between several “teams” of gym rats. Total body vs. split training, high volume vs. low volume, crossfit vs., well, the rest of the iron game! You want a debate? You got it.
And the funny thing is that the coaches behind these training methodologies are rarely if ever at the center of these debates. You will never see me go head to head in a mud slinging contest with Chad or Alwyn for example. No, the fighting generally comes from the “blind followers” of these coaches who can’t stand to see their fragile beliefs being challenged.
It’s too bad because most of these arguments are over stuff that doesn’t really matter that much, in the grand scheme of things, they really don’t, even if they get you all emotional.
So in hope of injecting some sanity in this sea of disarray, here are my own list of stuff that matter (which most good coaches will generally agree upon) and stuff that doesn’t matter that much.
The training split - not that important
I’ve said it a dozen times in the past: the training split you are using is just about the least important of all the training parameters you can plan; as long as it is not totally idiotic it will work!
I find it funny when people who are asked “what is your training like?” always seem to answer “Oh, I train chest and tris on Monday, legs on Tuesday and back and bis on Wednesday,” etc. This is not what your training is like folks, it is only how you are structure your training in time. Your split is kinda like the drawers you put your stuff in: it is not the drawers that are important but the stuff inside!
Total body, upper and lower, push-pull-legs, antagonist pairings, etc. It can all work provided that:
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A training session doesn’t interfere or negatively affect with the next one (for example, doing a killer triceps and shoulders session the day before a chest session is dumb)
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The daily stress of the workout is matched with the weekly frequency a muscle is being trained (train it more often with less work or less often with more work)
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The session isn’t so long and voluminous that a good portion of the exercises performed are done in a wasted state
As you can see the actual decision of how to divide your workload during the week isn’t that important. Then what is?
Proper weekly stimulation and optimal performance - it matters
From my own experience most peoples need to stimulate each muscle group twice in a 6-8 days period for optimal results.
Some exceptions will get their best gains from training each muscle directly 3 times a week and other exceptions will get their best gains from training each muscle once a week.
But 90% of the population will respond best to two weekly stimulations per muscle group, and 100% of the population can get very good results with this frequency.
This means that these non-idiotic splits will work well for everybody:
Upper-lower splits (requires 4 weekly workouts)
Push-pull-legs (requires 6 workouts per 8 days)
Antagonist pairings (requires 6 workouts per 8 days)
Lower-Upper-Total body (requires 3 weekly workouts)
Push + quads, Pull + hamstrings (requires 4 weekly workouts)
Total Body Training* (requires 2-3 weekly workouts)
*Total Body Training can be adequate only if the second “condition” is respected, and that is:
The workout structure should allow for a high quality performance of all the exercises in a session
If it doesn’t, then your workload repartition is idiotic. That is my main beef with TBT for bodybuilders: it is difficult to do the proper quantity of stimulation for every muscle group without suffering from a bad performance before the end of the workout.
I’m not saying that it can’t be done. Obviously if you stick to one push, one pull and one lower body movement per session you should be fine. However this amount of volume might not be optimal for maximum growth to occur in a vast proportion of the population and might need to imbalances in others.
Number of sets per exercise - not that important
Yep, you heard it first: the act of planning X number of sets for an exercise isn’t that important to your success. I’m not saying that volume doesn’t matter, it does. What I’m saying is that a number of sets, if you don’t take into consideration the quality and the difficulty level relative to your daily capacities is meaningless.
You could do 20 sets and get zero training effect and do 1 and get a training effect.
A training session isn’t about doing a specified amount of work; it’s about causing a physiological response that will force the body to adapts and grow (or get stronger, or leaner).If you plan the exact number of sets to do in advance, it assumes that you:
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Know exactly the amount of work required each day to stimulate maximal growth
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Are able to predict the physiological state, work capacity and fatigue level of the body well in advance and write down the exact volume required. Nevermind that there is no way of knowing the daily stress level you (or your client) might face in everyday life.
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Are able to predict the exact quality of each individual set, its contribution to stimulating a growth response and the amount of fatigue it will cause.
For example, on any given day 3 sets of 10 reps on the bench press with 300lbs can be easy or hard, it can stimulate growth or not, it can be tiring or leave a ton of gas in the tank; it all depends on your fatigue level and work capacity on that day.
Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t write down your program (although I have never followed an actual program in my whole life), but to be able to:
Adjust your training on a daily basis to give it what it needs for growth… that is important.
When you step into the gym you cannot know exactly what your body will need to optimize growth. You may have clues, and as the workout starts it will be more and more clear if you can do a lot of work and if you need to.
You should look at a workout as a mountain to climb; each one is of different height and the goal is to reach the top of that mountain every time (peak performance on that day). If you try to go higher than the top, you will fall down and the results will suffer. If you stop before you reach the top, you won’t get optimal results either.
Don’t panic if on some days you have to back off. From experience, out of 10 workouts you will improve in 5-6, stagnate for 2-3 and regress slightly in 1-2 of them, and that is if you do things right, just because of the fluctuation of your life’s stress. If you can’t autoregulate then the ration becomes more disastrous.
Autoregulation is not easy. It comes from experience and listening to your body. But here are some tips that can help you greatly optimize performance:
My training partner Nick Demers has been using autoregulation and High Threshold Hypertrophy techniques for the past 9 months. In that period he has put on 20lbs of lean body mass (he is leaner than before) while working construction 10 hours a day
- If you don’t “feel” an exercise on a certain day, drop it. If an exercise is feeling amazing on that day then why not drop the other exercises for that muscle group and do more of the exercise that puts you in the zone?
Don’t use this as an example to drop the hard exercises you don’t like to do, but if something works do more of it, if it doesn’t, don’t do it!
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Regardless of the number of reps you plan on doing, start at 50% of your maximum and gradually increase the poundage you are using while still trying to push the bar as fast or hard as you can. Only do the selected number of reps on each set (even the sets with 50%) and stop when you reach peak performance for that number (the top of the mountain for that exercise on that day).
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Always attempt to produce as much force as humanly possible regardless of the weight on the bar or your fatigue level. Force = mass times acceleration. If a weight is light you can compensate the lack of mass by an increase in acceleration. This way every single rep produces a maximal training effect and activates the nervous system (raising peak performance levels),
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If you not feeling strong on a movement, you can consider reducing the weight and performing more sets with a weight you can dominate. When I was competing in Olympic lifting and had a bad performance with the heavy weights, our coach had me drop the weight and nail 3-4 sets of 3 very explosive reps. Remember you can compensate a lack of weight by an increase in acceleration. These “back off” sets might in reality produce more force than a limit set and increase subsequent performance through an activation of the nervous system.
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Never do something that will not contribute to making the training effect more pronounced. My old coach used to tell me that you need to be able to justify every single thing you do in the gym. If you can’t justify doing something, drop it and do more of the good stuff.
Listen, some exercises or training techniques contribute very little to stimulating growth. But they use a lot of juice (nervous and metabolic energy) which will hinder your performance and results. If an exercise can give you 5% more stimulation but causes 20% more fatigue, then your gains will actually diminish.
- Start low and build up. By that I mean, plan to do the minimum and add stuff depending on how your body is reacting. There is nothing worse that having a list of 5 exercises to do, feel burned out after 3 and either stop the session and feel guilty or do the other 2 and dig yourself into a hole. Nobody wants to feel like an underachiever. Actually failing to accomplish something you planned out has been shown to lead to lower testosterone levels! However the fact is that on some days, do everything you had planned on doing will cause more harm than good.
So my tip is to decide only the bare minimum you need to be doing on a day to stimulate growth. And at the conclusion of each exercise assess if your body is capable of doing more stuff, and if that more stuff will help you get better gains. This way you wont feel guilty when you stop after 2-3 exercises and will feel like an overachiever when you do more!
Rest intervals - not that important
One thing I always say to new clients is, “If I see you with a chronometer or watching the clock between sets I’ll personally shoot you down!”
Not that I don’t believe in the importance in training density, quite the contrary (I have a very fast pace in my own sessions). But just like it is unrealistic to plan an exact number of sets to do on any given day, it is very difficult to do the same with rest intervals.
First of all some need more rest than others (big guys doing legs especially) and on some days you might need more rest than on others.
When someone asks me, “How do you judge the rest intervals to take?” I always say, “I base myself on the sun, rotation of the earth and oxygen density.” Which is, of course, a polite way of telling them to shut up and ask a more relevant question.
Seriously though, my philosophy regarding rest intervals is to rest as little as possible without performance suffering.
Obviously during a fat loss program you will need to get the pace a bit quicker, but otherwise let performance be your guide.
Again, remember this:
To stimulate maximal growth, you much reach the top performance level you can on that day - that is very important!
There is obviously much more to discuss on this topic as the world of strength is full of argument on subjects that don’t matter. Precious time is being spent arguing insignificant details instead of experimenting in the gym.
Read what I presented, learn to apply it, experiment in the gym, and when you are ready for more come back to see me I’ll have some new stuff for you.
Awesome post!!