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good afternoon guys. So I just came across this study and wanted to ask something maybe unconventional.
I work out only at home with two sets of dumbbells, and I’ve been doing this for 6months now. Plus I’m slim and a hard gainer. Can you please recommend a complete home routine that will help me gain maximally. My chest is just indented in the middle area and I would really love to see changes.
Focus on compound movements with the dumbbells. Chest press, rows, overhead press, squat, etc. Start with a couple sets per exercise, 6-30 reps to near failure. Add sets and/or weight when you hit plateaus and aren’t improving any more.
Hi really useful page but I had a question about training frequency.
Let’s assume or subject is doing 21 sets to failure a week of pushups (or some variation). Is there any research on programming 3 workouts per week each of 7 sets vs 1 set every morning/afternoon/evening every day.
I saw one paper where they did 3 workouts a week and in one condition had at least one rest day between workouts while the other condition put the 3 workouts on consecutive days. IIRC There was no statistically significant difference.
There really won’t be much difference between the two approaches as long as weekly sets are the same.
Hi James, I’m going to try and implement volume cycling using a 5 day mostly full body program. Do you recommend starting the meso at 10 sets for a muscle group since that’s MEV or can you go below that? I’m hoping this formatting isn’t horrible, but this is what I have programmed. I’ve been training about 12 years but this is the first time I’ve experimented with volume cycling or volume this high, so I’m just looking for a bit of a sanity check. Volume Plan Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 4-7 Chest: 8 → 13 →… Read more »
I think what you’ve got is fine. You can even start below 10 sets per group but that’s more based on what your personal preference/experience might be…if you’ve been unable to make gains in the past on <10, then 10 is a good starting point.
If you are not on gear, how can you possibly do Arms on Wednesday if you did Chest, Back, and Shoulders on Monday? Wouldn’t your triceps and biceps still be sore from your Monday workout?
And then wouldnt your legs still be sore on Thursday after doing a leg workout on Tuesday?
They would not be sore if you’ve adapted to the frequency. Soreness will only happen if you either do way too much volume in a session, or you do exercises you haven’t done in a while. Plus, there’s no evidence that training while still having some soreness will impede progress.
Numerous people hit each muscle group 2-4 times per week…I do it myself all the time.
So what do you do if you are just starting back on the gym like me and get crazy sore for like a week after only doing 3 exercises at 2 sets each for each muscle?
Just train through the soreness. You’ll get better quickly.
In the rat study anabolic signaling and mTOR kept increasing even with 20 sets despite muscle protein synthesis regressing /peaking at 10. Why?
There are numerous factors that can impact protein synthesis beyond signaling and mTOR, including catabolic signals, hormones, amino acid availability, etc.
Reading about this as someone who is just joining a gym makes me enthusiastic but a little worried. Would the 4 day spit 2 upper 2 lower be a good option for me following the listed directions, because i enjoy the idea of hitting the muscle groups more then once a week.
Yes that could work. Really there’s a lot of flexibility in program design
Hello, this article helped me clarify some things about muscle-group volume, but I still have concerns about overall volume. For example, if I’m training my torso and doing 6 sets per muscle group, but my total volume ends up being 30 sets, would this be too much volume for me?
Additionally, would the appropriate volume vary depending on whether I’m a beginner, intermediate, or advanced trainee?
Any type of higher volume, you’ll want to slowly build up to. Start low volume first and gradually add sets over time. That’s true whether you’re a beginner or advanced.
I’m just in doubt when to rest , so if I do upper , legs , arms , legs and then do upper again I’m afraid my arms will be sore with just one day of rest for the biceps and triceps.
Can you help me take this doubt of my mind
Your arms will be fine. I’ve trained arms 2 days in a row many times (compound movements one day, isolation the next)
I wonder if using dropsets of 3 would elicit similar hypertrophy instead of using 6 sets with 2 minute+ rest per session based on previous research
Only if load volume is equivalent or if you’re just doing smaller muscle group isolation exercises (biceps/triceps)
So that means doing drop sets for compound movements for example lat pulldowns or chest presses might be inferior even if volume is equated?
They’d be fine if volume is equated, but you’ll have to do a lot of drop sets to equate volume because drop sets are essentially no-rest sets
But dint a study show that drop sets show similar hypertrophy to sets with long rest when volumes are equated?
Yes but again note that I said you’ll have to do a lot of drop sets to equate volume to straight sets. For example, 3 straight sets will be more load volume than 1 set+ 2 drop sets. You’d likely have to do 1 set + 5-6 drops or 2 sets + 2-3 drops to equate volume to 3 straight sets. This is because the load drops off so much for each drop set since there’s no rest.
Would be so interesting to see a debate on this, because the effective reps model totally contradicts this. See Borge Fagerli’s myo rep concept.
There’s not much scientific support for “effective reps.”
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/effective-reps/
See also https://www.strongerbyscience.com/data-driven-strength-podcast/
Hey James, wonderful article. What are your thoughts on the new meta-analysis on weekly set volume for hypertrophy? Are the results plausible from your point of view and does it change your recommendations?
Thank you for your efforts,
Daniel
Thanks for the positive feedback!
I will likely be reviewing the new meta analysis in next month’s issue of REPS.