Most of them seem to favor other lifts for these phases. Like FS,OHP or RDLs. I donāt know are these BB excersises, but the point is the same.
I think it needs to said that, that many of them donāt do a ton of volume per session (say 5x8), but rather 1-3 sets, but many of them do it several times/week, when the weekly volume can be pretty high.
I have one more question: how strong the research base is there? I havenāt gone throught much research, but I know some people say that the scientific base for strength and muscle is narrower and more contradictory than people think. DR. Hulmi did wrote that there canāt yet to be drawn clear conclusions about the optimal mechanizms of muscle growth.
You are right that most people do too much work for themselves. People have jobs, kids etc. and try to be bulgarians.
That being said. I just canāt ignore the empirical data. If we imply that hard volume work (usually spread over the week) has no value. All PLs I know are wrong, Dan Green is wrong, Sheiko and all the eastern block guys are wrong. All the IPF medalists Mike T has coached are wrong. Russel Orhii and Stefi Cohen are doing stupid, shitty training too. Now, not all of them are doing excessive volumes, but certainly more than 5x3 light sets with some BB stuff. You see why people might be dubious?
And they might be wrong. This area of science is not my expertise. But if you compare two succesfull lifters who train differently, its very hard to say (as a regular lifter), who one is right.
Stefi Cohen put up a great YouTube video a little while back about hypertrophy. In it she says that studies are limited and really tell us more about what we donāt know (scientifically) than what we do. I think that was a great bit of insight.
This is the thing Iāve heard from other sources too.
I get the impression that you are looking at what a few people do and assuming that all powerlifters train like that.
Strong enough to know that you need to push close to failure for a significant hypertrophic stimulus and that too much volume will quickly become counterproductive.
Thatās not what I said.
A lot of lifters are successful in spite of what they do, not because of it. Also some people can tolerate and even benefit from very high volumes. That doesnāt mean that everybody should train like that. There are also lifters who do one work set once a week.
Also notice that I already answered this earlier.
This is not what I said. I just brought up that many/some lifters use high volume phases with success. Not claiming anything else.
I might should have been more clear here. But I usually calculate weekly volume when talking about it.
Youāre still completely missing the point here. Just because some guys train a certain way and accomplished whatever does not mean it is the optimal training method for everyone. Some people will make gains no matter what they do as long as they are still training. And drugs will also make any training method more effective, so something that would result in little or no gains for 99% of people might seem to be working. Still doesnāt mean itās optimal.
What do Kevin Oak and Andrey Malanichev have in common? Both only do one work set, both have all time world records for total and squat (Malanichevās was since beaten, but whatever). Does that mean that we should only do one work set? This is the optimal way to train for everyone, we have these guys to prove it.
No Iām not. Youāre thinking Iām saying things Iām not. I have not claim its optimal. I actually donāt like that word used in training. Its simplifying at best.
Funny thing. I remember a talk where some high volume guys werr trashing low volume training with excactly same arguments: it might work with genetic freaks and PEDs, and even if it works, its suboptimal. I did not participate, but was sceptical, like I am now.
There is no need to get upset. We all agree that competitive lifters are progressing well with low and high volume training. After that it gets complicated.
Yeah, because all those Russian guys that Sheiko coached with his high volume methods are clean. No Russian would ever take steroids. And certainly not Alexei Sivokon, who Sheiko says was his ābest studentā, did some absolutely ridiculous high volume training with 8 sessions a week, and is banned for life from the IPF.
Nothing against Sivokon or Sheiko, Iām just pointing out how that is a severely flawed argument.
So the idea is that the sort of training that will work best for the majority of people is what we should be aiming for, and that is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, maybe even a little closer to the low volume end.
I definitely agree. Most people need to think how much they can realistically do. People like to add set there and here, or extra workout, even if they donāt need it.
Having used super high and super low volumes, Iāve settled in in āmediumā. I use medium volume with medium freguency (1-2 times/week) with basic intensity (mostly 70-85%). It might not be so sexy than yelling āSheiko!ā, or āone set to failure!ā, but it works.
I always circle back to 531 + first set last for the main lifts, then around 3 assistance exercises for 2 amraps each (one is 6+ reps, one is 10+), then 3ish rounds of supersets for fun because I like a nice pump. So thatās about 11 work sets per workout.
Looks like this nowadays:
-
Bench FSL / dumbbell inclines - pec machine - cable flies / triceps supersets
-
Weighted pull-ups FSL / Krocs - row machine - lat pull downs / lat focused supersets
-
Squats FSL / Romanian deadlifts - leg extensions - leg curls / calves&abs supersets
-
Push presses FSL / dumbbell overhead - smith machine behind the neck - cable lateral raises / biceps supersets
How many sets of FSL?
3.33
I wonder how I can do thatš
Iām sure you can do the maths. 6 work sets on assistance exercices. 3 work sets on the supersets. 11 sets total. 1 top set following the 531 model. How many FSL sets does that leave?
Escaping Ferrugia? What is that All about?Lol.
FSL just means first set last as the weight. It could be 5x5, 5x10, or even 1x20. I think this is what eli2399 was asking.
Youād have to ask @baumbodies He wrote it first.
I never said anything about āescaping Ferruggiaā. I said Iāve been on his forum for a long time and wasnāt into it anymore.